Thing 15

I picked personal homepages for getting fun ideas....and there were ideas, some of which i had difficulty getting to happen.But i was able to include some things like the weather and the crossword puzzle. I don't look at my home page to get my day going, i still like using a paper day planner and i don't think that is going to change.I haven't bought a kindle either as i like the feel of a book in my hands. I really wasn't interested in spending a lot of time on this, just a personal preference. I completed the evaluation already and think that the only thing left is to read some more blogs by fellow classmates. I really appreciate the time, effort, assistance that has gone into putting this together and i think this has been invaluable resource/learning for me; i will recommend it to my coworkers. Thanks.

Thing 8

ok, the information about how wide spread the uses of twitter is was amazing to me. I tend not to use Twitter at all right now, would rather speak in person, on the phone. My meditation center does have a twitter site which i visited when we built a new center and read people's reaction to the architecture, the space and their experience was good to read. Right now i haven't signed up for a twitter account, not sure that i am going to but should i decide to do so the instructions are there. I didn't realize that government issues, road speeds, snow alerts were all so popular but can see the usefulness of getting practical information in a very short time.That said, there seems to be many ways to access information in a short period of time and the preference comes down to an individual style or comfort w/technology.I do like to contribute to twitts about like the meditation center or knitting subjects; i didn't know that the fastest information when the tornado hit MN was on twitter...boy what an eye opener that was! So i can see that this Thing will take a little bit more exploration in the future for education on the opportunities and how they fit my lifestyle. I did want to learn more about twitter and that certainly has been accomplished in my 45 min explorations so far.

Thing 5

I chose Thing 5 because i haven't learned much about pod casts and wanted information.I can see that there is a lot to choose from so I need to be selective. I didn't want to post a video to my blog but it would have been one of the cats from YouTube which were great.When i get home, on my own laptop, i will stream some tv episodes; i did try out Fringe, which is one of my favorite shows. I looked over the options on NPR and MPR, and I might sign up later. The medical podcasts aren't especially attractive right now, i am more interested in reading books for psych and the latest txs. It took me about 45 min to do the overview and decide on things that i want to return to at later time. It's great to have this historical and eductional overview that also addressed where we might be headed in the future as i find it challenging to keep up w/the changes.

Thing 11

I chose Thing 11 sort of on a whim because i do not own an iphone and have not read/looked into what is possible on it.....just sort of seemed that my life didn't require the kind of features that it offered. So i wanted some general information to understand what a large portion of people are using. The demonstration on making music on the phone really astounished me. it did reinforce my thinking that at this point i don't need an iphone, but i do know about the possibilities if my life changes.

Thing 16

Wow! With Thing 16 i feel like i hit the jack pot of useful information and have been introduced to a ton of concepts that i haven't heard about before. I sent many articles home so that i would have time to delve into them in detail. The initial impression is that concentrating on the symptoms and dates and evidence is helpful in tracking for medical professionals. When i had a thrombopheblitis, i kept a self made chart of my INR results and the matching daily doses of Coumadin. the MD would happily request to take my small notebook and copy it for his medical record. Being a nurse, when i first got the blood clost, i visited the medical library and became familiar w/a graphic representation of the cascade of blood clotting and how much we don't know about the numerous blood factors involved.I realized how complicated this process of clotting was and that my specialist really had a detailed, up to date knowledge of this cascade and i didn't need to learn it. But it did help in my understanding of my treatment and retesting as new factors were discovered. I think there comes an 'edge' where a patient doesn't have the same training and experience as the specialists and needs to recognize this. But on the other hand, i think we can creatively increase the participatory part the patient plays. Tracking sx and txs is especially helpful and efficient in the MD visit. I will need to read some more to shape an opinion of patient-entered data as a foundation for research and medical conclusions.....for me there are some concerns having been trained on an IP research unit, i know the kind of mistakes that can be made, how we were trained to avoid them. Since health has been my life career i chose this topic in hopes of learning or 'catching up to' the new concepts being used/developed and i haven't been disappointed. There is a lot to pursue at my leisure, but now i have the connections to do that. thanks.

Thing 3

I picked Thing 3 because I didn't know what an RSS was, but as I read the description, I realized that I would like to try receiving updates on subjects and how much of a time saver this could be. I liked the suggestion to sign up for NPR, as I listen to both stations of MPR. I signed up for a couple of fun feeds and will go back to check out the medical ones.I don't want my enthusiasm to run away w/me and end up with many emails!!If I was still in school there would be even more use for the medical feeds.I really didn't want to add my fellow classmates w/o knowing what they are open to so i passed that option by.Adding in going back to the medical feeds, will put this at about 45 min.

Thing 7

I choose Thing 7 because i am interested in forms to use to organize projects at home, such as listing my ceu workshops for my licenses and my brother recommended Google Docs, but i didn't find a spread sheet that i wanted to work with. I visited Zoho and like their spreadsheet so now i can get a summary from my online banking and write out a budget and supply that information to my brokers to evaluate my plan to reach retirement. I had to do this assignment in two days because on friday, the computer was not letting me access the posting. Today is different. So goes the computer. I will continue to explore the many offerings on Zoho to see if there are other ways to simplify record keeping, save time; that appeals to me a lot at home. I spent so far about 45 min on this but intend to go back to Zoho when at home. I think it is wonderful to have these tools online and not charge for them!

Ning account

I did receive an invitation for a Ning account and did some exploring, felt somewhat overwhelmed by all the options. Didn't sign up for anything because at this point in my life i don't really use sites to desiminate (sp?) this kind of information but i now know about this and can come back to it.Thanks.

Thing 9

I choose Thing 9 because i wanted to know what i didn't know, being a newbie to all the internet offers. I have used the CaringBridge site and had several invitations to facebook, but i really don't spend much time on facebook. I did want to learn how people meet up and reviewed the knitting and book grps; I didn't join at this time but i will use this site to check out developments and may join in the future.This was an assignment that was easy to spend a lot of time just browsing the sites and all the information they contained,i looked at the two nursing sites but they don't fit where i am in my career. So i estimate 45 min, not to find the sites but to look over all the options on the site. I haven't received an invitation from the librians for setting up a Ning account, even tho i did email them that i would like to do this....:) so maybe in the future. For now, I feel like I need to keep moving through the other Things.

Thing12 Project Management Tools

Blog post by Andrew Filey:
I liked the concept of reducing routine tasks and having the whole team be able to review the real time status of the tasks. I really loved the gaining of efficiency in communication that takes so much on just a one to one basis.Seems that people can act independently but stay in connection w/others and changes can be made sooner if going down the wrong road.
Management Tools
Central Desktop Plans
I liked that there were no installation fees. I especially liked the automated emails when things were added/modified, what a convenience! I think this would be helpful w/the work flow. For a beginner, it is just a little organized along lines that i would need to learn.
GoPlan
This one seems more intuitively based and direct, less searching for what you want so would be better for beginners or small projects, since the cost for small projects if free! This seems like a very quick way to update items I liked the ease of scheduling on the calendar, very direct. The more complex programs do cost but the cost seems low to me.
Challenges Facing Right Now
When we have committees of people to work on revising documents or work flows i think these tools would be helpful, save time and allow everyone to contribute.
Our department is small and rather new, so projects don't usually include a large number of people, so the free applications might work the best.
I chose this topic because i was completely unaware of what management tools were available and this has been an eye opener for me.
This one took two sessions, so maybe 45min to one hour to absorb the concepts (which are new) and investigate. But i learned a lot and this is a resource to return to, much like a reference book.

Why the name Froggie Heaven????

I love to garden. My lot is mostly shade w/a little sun for vegetables. But also there are myriad frog statues, frog bird baths, frog wind ornaments and frog chimes. In some cultures the frog brings good luck. I like to see how many inanimate frogs visitors can find on a trip around the property. I usually pick up two or three new items per year; i esp like the ones w/humor or whimsy. Also i love the Muppets, watched their show every week and Kermit is a favorite. so for now "it isn't easy being green".

Connections

thanks librians for the easy prompts on how to manage the lessons and including some blogs to read. That was very helpful...I like the summarizing and keeping some comments to the point and will incorporate in future blogs. Work and life have taken front stage right now, so i am behind in my explorations of this but feel inspired to get back to it.

What is Web 2?

I have just started thing 2 and reading through have been exposed to many things that i didn't know exist, so left feeling a little overwhelmed.So one of my goals of being aware of whats on the web to make use of is already being addressed. i had no idea of the way health care was using information so easily w/MDs and that one could subscribe to organize web information. It will take me awhile to go through the opportunities. I really liked the list of web 2 examples and put that on my favorites to explore; briefly visited three sites that i want to return to. So that is another goal, to sample the opportunities and decide on several that i like and can use. For my personal life, i will use the google blog searches, esp for knitting.

Avatar creation

created an avatar today, took a little time to understand but the directions were very clear. For now she is on the right place on the page but in the future i will move her around and check out more backgrounds from the astounding number posted. i like how the avatar looks but thought she would be actively knitting like in the example.also have to see if green eyes are an option.i like taking one thing at a time to do; makes it seem do-able.

responses to questions from the lesson

ok, i forgot to address the questions......this experience of setting it up was easy, the directions were very clear and i didn't experience the frustration of getting to a point and then not being able to complete it. Right now the choices are a little overwhelming but i will break that up into small assignments.
It's possible that i could blog in personal life about my interests.
No problems getting started.
I didn't actually time myself but would estimate about 20minutes. i showed it off to my coworkers.
i will explore the extra challenge of an avatar for the blog but on another day.

beginnings

This is my first blog ever; I am excited to explore all the features and become comfortable with them. Then I can use the blog at my meditation center.Experimentation is the name of the game for me.I know other knitters that have their own blogs and for me it is so interesting to read about the projects they are working on. I will mention just a few of my present projects: knitting a kimono sweater (the first time for a sweater), reorganizing furniture and files in the house, planning this year's garden, adding new meditation practices and baking some new dishes (the slow cooker for one).Watching the olympics, esp the skating, is taking a lot of my time now. As I close, I remember a line from one of my most favorite films..."follow the yellow brick road"