· What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? Looking through the 2.0 award winners was very educational. As I looked through each category, I found myself second guessing some choices. It's always easier to be a judge after the fact, but some choices were very questionable in my opinion. There were of course a number of gems that I will look at in greater detail in the coming days and months. I think some of these gems will become part of my repertoire of regularly used sites.
· How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? I listened again to the lifelong learning presentation (7 and half things...). Although this program was not on my personal list of goals I see how it enhances my learning in other areas and offers benefits for me, colleagues, and library users at work. It also reminded me to get renew pursuit of goals that have been pushed to the sidelines for a while.
· Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? One thing that surprised me was the level of freedom we had in choosing topics and exploring sites. My expectations were that the exercises would be heavily weighted toward library topics and issues. This was not the case and, generally, that was good. On the other hand there is quite a lot of new technology that was not covered but might be useful for library work. Missing out on an opportunity to review some of them was disappointing.
· What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? I think the program should be structured in modules that build upon each other. Although I see the benefit of a survey or discovery course, the educational model that builds on information previously received has an automatic assessment built into the program. Thus participants know their level of progress at the end of each module. I would also say that just because something looks easy or intuitive does not mean it is either.
---A recurring question was "I am doing this correctly?" A personal or group orientation about expectations would answer that nagging question.---
· And last but not least…If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate? This was very time consuming but the opportunity to do it at work was never there. I literally completed the entire program from start to finish at home. If that would be the pattern for future programs and the opportunity was voluntary I might have to refuse.
· How would you describe your learning experience in a few words or a few sentences, so we can share our successes and promote this program?
I learned about, used, and manipulated some new tools and some familiar tools. I think this will help me on the job.
