Jeff C. Weblog

I explored Google Docs. It has great potential because a number of people can work together on a single project without having to go through the work of sending email and having to upload files. One nice feature is that it automatically sends out notices when documents have been edited. This has lots of applications in Extension. For example, Extension staff from different parts of the state or country can easily work together on a fact sheet or article, even when they are away from their office and only have access to a hotel computer. Another great advantage is that it is a way to securely back up you work and keep things organized.

I also looked at Picnik. It is great and it has a neat feel to it. It is nice because it can be linked to other sites where your photos are stored, such as Flikr. For people working together in Extension, there are many uses here. One possible use is that one person could take photos and post them online, while another person from a different part of the state could edit the photos and put captions under them, etc.

Probably the neatest site that I visited was Slide Share. I checked out the Slide Share link from the U of MN forestry guy. It was great how he had all of his slideshow presentations in the site for people to view. One of the nice things about this is that slideshows could not be downloaded, and thus stolen or modified by others. So, this site provides some level of security that we wouldn’t have if the slides were posted as a powerpoint of pdf on an individual’s website. Another very neat thing about this website is that it tracks the number of views for particular slideshows, and allows readers to place comments under them. I assume that the owner of the site would have to approve the comments. The comments are nice because they allow feedback! Because this site tracks the number of times a slideshow is viewed, Extension people have a record of their effectiveness of outreach for given topics. This is extremely important, because we constantly have to document “our� value for promotion and tenure. I think that I will definitely use this idea for sharing my presentations.

Overall, it appears that there are tons of options out there for being progressive at Extension in the 21st century. We need to adopt these technologies as our audience becomes more computer savvy.