Thing 9: Evernote

Previously I'd looked at Evernote in the App store but hadn't really understood what to use it for. Now I get it and I love it. I've downloaded it on to my laptop, my iPad and amazingly managed to download it on to the work pc without needing the elusive 'Administrator password'.

Thinking it was going to be a bit fiddly, I watched the online video to work out how to use it but it's actually quite simple. I made my first note in it within seconds and then added an audio clip and a photo to the note. It is a list makers dream - I've can have notebooks of lists accompanied by pictures, links and voice recordings! Further exploration found I could drag pictures from other folders and 'clip' webpages. I decided that the first web item I clipped should be my first ever blog post. The last thing I tried out yesterday was integrating it with my Twitter account - when I send a tweet if I add @myEN to the end of it, it automatically saves it as a note in Evernote. I wouldn't do this with all my tweets but I could keep an archive of all my professional tweets and let the other silly ones rot away in my Twitter account.

I'm going to use Evernote as a diary for reflective notes, an archive of all things me and a list maker extraordinaire.

Thing 5: Reflective practice

I like the Greenaway model of Do-Plan-Review. I already reflect on the user education sessions I deliver at work. I find it helps to highlight the good and bad parts of the sessions and it makes me record changes that I might incorporate the next time I deliver the session.  I'm also using CILIPs CPD audit sheet for my Chartership Revalidation log. This simple form makes me think about what I have learned from an activity and how I'm going to apply or why I'm not going to apply it in the workplace.

Reflecting on the last few weeks of cpd23, I think the tools I've used so far have taken me outside my comfort zone such as making my postings/tweets public and making comments on other sites. I still need to improve my online presence and I think it's something that will build slowly over the duration of the course. In terms of using the tools at work there's not been much progress (mainly because we are not encouraged too but with a new VLE due in 2012 there is scope for more web tools). I'm finding it easy and convenient to use GoogleReader to keep up to date with other blog posts. Opening my tweets up on Twitter hasn't resulted in anything bad in fact I've gathered two new followers - one of which I exchanged tweets with on the iPad2 and e-book app Overdrive.