Class Review

During a previous summer class my professor suggested that everyone in the library program should take the social software class before they graduate; boy was she right! Being as I am not a technology person, and have been slightly hesitant towards social software/networking sites I almost dropped this course. I am so happy I decided to stay. I feel like this class has opened me up to a whole new world. Even the most simple sites, such as blogger and twitter, I was afraid to try. Now, I couldn't be happier to have this experience under my belt. Also, learning to create wikis, podcast, screencast and vodcast has definitely improved my skills. It's amazing how these tools are out there, but people are so hesitant to use them. I have thoroughly enjoyed this class and recommend it highly to other SCILS students. There were a few minor drawbacks:

• information overload: I think signing up for 3 email accounts in the beginning of class is unnecessary. After the first two weeks I stopped checking the yahoo and AOL accounts. I think students should sign up for just a GMail account, since GMail is linked to other sites such as blogger.
• information overload, part 2: I had a hard time keeping up with updates. Between twitter, facebook, myspace and the class wiki, I felt like I missed several updates or comments from classmates. I found the best method for communicating was twitter.

I feel I have taken away so much valuable information from this course and there isn't much I would change. I will say that this course has totally converted me into a twitter user! Before this class I could not and would not understand the appeal of twitter; I found it to be the downfall of society. Now that class is almost over, I love twitter. It's an absolutely wonderful method to share information with classmates and the professor, especially when you need your questions answered. I don't know that I would use twitter to update my everyday activities, but I think it's a great tool for coursework.