Thing 5 - Reflective perspective

As the Students and term-time Staff have finished now at Blackpool Sixth for the Summer, it's a good time to look back over what i have done so far as a Cpd 23 participant. Firstly, i have taken a 'giant leap' (having never blogged before) into previously uncharted waters! I have signed up and created my own blog, done some research into other blogs, become a 'follower' of fellow participants, looked at my own personal branding, explored the world of 'social networking' including Facebook, Twitter and Pushnote, along with subscribing to RSS feeds, Phew! Hopefully being in touch with fellow Librarians and Learning Resource Centre colleagues (around the world) will enable me to gain a broader, deeper insight into what is going on outside my working environment. I should therefore be able to feed this information back into my organisation by implementing new ideas and strategies, or improving existing practices. I think that Cpd 23 is a great idea, and will definitely be a worthwhile exercise that should benefit all concerned.

Thing 4 - Social 'Not-working'

Hola again. I must admit that i am not a great lover or user of Social Networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter! I am a fairly outgoing and positive person generally, but when it comes to my 'private life' i prefer to keep it as the name suggests. I don't really see the need to publicise what, where, when and how i am doing things, and if the people that i care about really want/need to know,  then i will communicate with them directly! I tend to only use these sites when somebody has sent me a direct link to view something specific, but i am generally not a member or subscriber. I have however subscribed to the RSS feeds for the Cpd23 site, in order to participate properly in this exercise. I have also done some reading and research into Pushnote, which seems to be a useful tool for commenting, rating and assessing the contents of websites. I am all for transparency and participation when it helps improve the quality and quantity of websites.

Hi everybody. Apologies for jumping straight to 'Thing 3' before i commented on 'Thing 2' (i do normally try to do things in order)! I have registered for Cpd23 and begun following a few other blogs, mainly from my fellow work colleagues so far. I have also taken a look at The Times and Guardian blog pages and investigated other LRC/Library blogs. I searched the internet for various 'best blog' sites and found loads of interesting stuff including music, sport, movies, health, general news and politics etc. Basically there are blogs for every conceivable subject, hobby, interest and lifestyle! It's a whole new world of information available to us all, you just have to set aside some time in our busy schedules to take a look.

Hi folks. Forgot to mention in my last blog that we also have MacBook-laptops and iPads available to students in our amazing Learning Resource Centre - The Fyi! I am just catching up with the previous 'branding' exercise. I suppose my own personal branding theme should be 'Tangerine and Towers' as i am an ardent Blackpool FC supporter and Season Ticket holder, but in reality i have never really thought about being personally branded (not in a 'Cattle' sense of course). When i had my own retail business we had a corporate colour scheme and logo for our signs, bags and stationary. Similarly where i now work at Blackpool Sixth (as it is now known, after dropping the 'Form College' bit) we have recently undertaken a large rebranding exercise with newly designed signs, logo's and colour schemes across the whole College, and also more widely projected out into the local community. I need to give my own 'Dave Branding' some thought, and hopefully incorporate some of my likes and lifestyle - football, films, food, books, walking and visiting Spain. My logo therefore needs to be an amalgamation of Blackpool, The Shawshank Redemption, The Catcher in the Rye, The Lake District, Paella and Sangria! I will get back to you on that one, luego.