Week… where are we now??

OK, I have to admit, I’ve totally lost track of what week it is and what I’m supposed to be doing.

This is because my research is actually going so well that I have little time left in my life for anything else at the moment. (But that’s a whole other story which I’ll share if I get another 5 minutes spare).

However, I have joined Twitter (which I hate to admit is a lot better than I thought it would be), I’ve had a look at Prezi (which I love and hope to use for my first major presentation at the end of March) and I’ve signed up to LinkedIn (who keep sending me e-mails about some groups I must have joined but can’t remember, it was all done in such a rush).
I think I’ve also looked at SlideShare, Google Documents and Lanyrd; but they didn’t do anything to impress me.

You know, the biggest down-side to all these fab tools is the time they take out of your working day. I suppose if your research is actually “research based” (reading journals and documents etc) then they stand a chance of helping you loads. But because my research is practical most of my time is spent running experiments in the lab, or analysing data at my computer. For me a lot of these “tools” are just distractions. But if I only use two or three of them long term it will be worth it I guess.

Off to football now,
xx

Soooo far behind

I can’t believe its week 5! I have only just finished week 3’s things. I’ve still got to go back and look at Twitter, Lanyrd and LinkedIn and now I’ve got to find time to look at SlideShare, Prezi, Google Documents and Creative Commons.
Aaarrrggghhh!!!!
I’ve got so much lab-work on at the moment I don’t know when I’m going to fit any of it in!
On the bright side though, I handed in my poster for the research festival yesterday. I’m very happy with how it turned out in the end.
I’ll try to upload it so you can all be proud of me too (lol).

Laters x x

Research Festival poster 2011

Cite-u-like

Set up account number 2307 (or so it feels) of this 25 things course.
This seems like a good site, but the first two articles I tried to post to my library were “in the wrong format” and so wouldn’t just post straight from the link. This was quite annoying, especially as I already have over 100 papers saved to end-note. I’m not sure if the two formats are compatible but I am going to give it a go cos I must admit, I love the bookmarklets (like Diigo). They do make life quite simple. Although at some point I’m really going to have to put a couple of hours on one side to catch up and consolidate all we’ve done so far!

Mendeley

Yay! I signed up. I haven’t had time to properly find my way round Mendeley yet, but I keep finding 5 minutes here and there to try and catch up.
The sign-up process was very simple and my verification came through in seconds.

The only problem with all these fab web-based tools is finding time to learn them all and build up networks etc within them.
Now if someone could just take all these ideas and merge them altogether… they’d be on a real winner 😉

Vicky x

PS – I’ve still got to get on cite-u-like, but week 2 is nearly complete!!

Week 3… here we go…

Oh dear!

Week 3 has begun and I already feel like I’m falling behind. I got as far as “read some of the other blogs” and on doing so realised I’d failed to complete all last week’s “things”!
Bother!!

I’m hoping I’ve only got Mendeley to do to complete week 2 and then I promise I’ll get on with week 3.

I’m determined to finish week 3 during week 3. And on that note I’d best leave my blog and go get on with it.

Vicky x

PS On the bright side, reading some blogs (leaving some comments) and realising I was behind on last week’s “things” does at least mean that I’ve started on this week 🙂

Communication

Hi there people!

That is… asuming there are people reading this, and not just me. That’s kind of the point of this blog post. There are supposed to be quite a few people doing this course , yet I do feel quite isolated. I’m trying to keep up with everyone else’s blogs, not always too successfully, though I am trying. I’ve commented on bits and pieces as I’ve gone along, but I haven’t had a comment on my blog since the first week.
And I’m rapidly becoming an avid blogger.
I really wish people would leave a comment or two or answer a question. I’ve asked quite a few but so far I’ve had no answers.
Thanks to Joolz for subscribing to my blog. Hope I’m not filling your mail-box with my regular updates.

Hoping to hear from someone soon.
Later
x

Diigo (again)

WOW!!

I just found the diigolet “thing” cos I can’t install the toolbar on my Uni PC. Its amazing. I can now hi-light and add sticky notes to any web-page I visit. So when I go to it again I’ll be able to see exactly which bit of that page was useful.

I hate to admit it but this may be one of the most brilliant ideas I’ve ever come across.

Thanks “25 Things for Researchers”, you’re amazing!!

x

New Theme

OK, so changing my theme does not make me a techno-wizz but it did make me feel I’d done something useful.
Alright, alright, I’m going back to look at technorati and diigo now. I still find them quite daunting, so very new and so scary, but I’ll try to make time to watch/read the tutorials and stuff.

I’ll come back and let you know if I find anything helpful.

Until next time
x

Diigo

OK, so I’ve only had half an hour free to look at this, but I’m struggling.

Is anyone else finding it hard work?
I’m not sure I get it! I can’t download the toolbar, I can’t “send to blog” (and believe me… I’ve tried) so what’s the point?

Maybe if I spend a bit more time with it I’ll get there. Please tell me how you’re doing with it.
I’m feeling very confused, alone and out of my depth!
(But then that’s just like my research so its not a new feeling… but that’s a WHOLE different story!!)

Tagging

So, I need to add tags to my blog posts!

I kind of did already, and I’m not sure I can add any more. I’ll certainly go back and look though.

It all seems a little random to me though, or as the instructions said, anarchy, not order. I can basically add any tag I want, even if its not actually relevant. This is odd to me, I’m familiar with tagging from facebook really. Where you tag people in photos or posts etc. Now I can tag them in my blog for no more reason than I want to.

OK, rant-type blog post over.

See you all again soon (I hope)
x