This is the End.

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
My favorite discovery was hulu.com and fancast.com.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
The most I can see how it has affected my perspective of the big picture is a few more angles of how the future development of this technology we call the Internet will affect our culture.

Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I watch more television on the Internet now.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
Maybe breaking it down into different sizes and levels. Staff that has more computer experience find certain tasks a tad boring. Those that are new to the vastness of the web can find some of the tasks a bit challenging (especially those sites that are new, and have a clunky/not very intuitive interface). Then again it's good to get everyone on the same page. I can think of several different ways that the program, but they all gain some things, but you lose on others.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?
Depending on the content I would be very interested. Even with the most basic of task like creating an E-mail changes slightly from year to year. We are just playing a continual game of catch-up.

Gaming the System

Video games began appearing in our culture about 40 years ago. When you really think about it, there is nothing new about video games. The storytelling or hand to eye coordination in many games originally started when humans first began forming into groups. Music is added to games when is a simple addition just like we have brought ancient games of strategy into an electronic version.

Just as computers and the Internet are the start of a new age similar to the Industrial Revolution (and being in the middle of it we aren't sure where it will take us), games are evolving also. What all of the end results will be can only be guessed at. The changes we can see right now is interactive worlds online, interactive movies, and educational programs.

Libraries in the future will probably be able to use games to educate the public. Staff might be able to use games as training tools (like rewards working through a visual future version of Web5.0). In the end we will still be using games to do things like relax.

Google the Earth

I have played with Google Earth before. The ability to have the elevation of an area in physical 3D makes it fun to use and gives you an idea of how steep that hike/walk will be. Google Maps just lacks that detail. I tried using the 3D building feature in Walt Disney World and it caused the program to slow down to a crawl.

Google Earth is a fun program.