What have I learnt?: Reflection on Web 2.0 Trainings

Web 2.0 project was one of most interesting and probably beneficial projects that I have undertaken at the DWC. The way the trainings and presentations were conducted was very conducive to the learning environment. Student training sessions were also very interesting because they became master for at least one Web 2.0 tool. Overall,  I would recommend this course to future students as it is not just about theory but also practical application of that theory. Below I will discuss each and every tool that I have learnt about in this course.

Blogger:

Google Blogger has enabled me to express myself. It allowed me to build my own blog in order to share my articles, views, videos, websites, pictures and ideas. I think the fact that its easy to use makes it very interesting. I have decided to maintain my blog even after the course is finished because I like to share articles and knowledge with my friends.

Facebook:

I believe that Facebook is a revolution of this internet era and the way people use internet. Staying in touch with friends and family has become so easy. It is such an attractive tool that it has already exceeded 1 billion users globally. Facebook has not just enabled me to exchange messages with my friends but also provides you a platform to create profiles, upload pictures and videos, and also a chat option. I personally like to be connected on LinkedIn more than Facebook because its a professional social network.

Gmail:

Personally I was very reluctant to leave Hotmail but since the day I have joined Gmail, I'am a very satisfied user. It is the popular email service in the world. My Gmail username and password are good enough to get me access to almost all of the Google tools. The two things that I love about Gmail are that it is automatically synced with Google Calendar and secondly the Labels allow me to organize my emails in a much more efficient manner.

Google Calendar:

I have been using Google Calendar for more than an year and I have seldom missed my deadlines or forgotten about events because I check Google Calendar at least 3 to 4 times daily. It is an amazing tool for organize my schedule. I book events and appointments in Google Calendar to manage my time better. The interesting thing with Google calendar is that I can have multiple calendars for different walks of my life. For example I can have one for work, one for college, and another one for personal stuff. Also I can add interesting calendars such as Sunset and Sunrise times in Dubai or an Islamic Calendar

Google Chrome:

I was a Mozilla Firefox user for years before I got introduced to Google Chrome. I love the speed of task execution, ease of use and the added features of Google Chrome compared to other browsers. I also like to Chrome Webstore feature which is an app based store, like most of handheld devices. Now, I use Google Chrome for both, personal and work purposes. It is interesting to note that within approximately 4 years of launch, Google Chrome became the world's most commonly used browser to surf the internet.

Google Docs:

Google Docs is a free online-based data storage service offered by Google. All I need is an internet connection and Google/ Gmail account to use Google docs. This tool allows me to upload, create, edit, store and share different documents online such as word documents, presentations, excel spreadsheets etc. The two features of Google Docs that are of particular interest to me are:
Collaboration: If multiple people are working on a project, they can do that seamlessly. There is no need to email colleagues on each step of the project as the tool help you saves time by sharing documents with other users in real time. 
Storage space: An important feature of Google Docs as it provides up to 5 GB of storage free of charge.

Google Drive:

Google Drive is a relatively new service from Google which started in April 2012. It is a file storage and synchronization service by Google and also stores all the information stored on Google Docs. I personally find it very useful as this drive is like a cloud storage and I can access my Google drive from any of my devices any where in the world. 

Google Earth:

I have used Google Earth to navigate and explore the world. It is very useful as it provides satellite imagery and geographical information of the entire world. The nice thing about Google Earth is that I can get maps, terrains and 3D view of the buildings from the satellite. I have also used Google Earth to spot my house accurately in Ras Al Khaimah. The hotel advertisements that I get when I search for a location on Google Earth have also benefited me in planning my holidays and things to do.

Google Finance:

Since I'am in the Finance & Accounting field, Google Finance is very useful for me. It is a free, online financial news and data service that enables me to track and review financial data on almost all of the public companies in the world. It not only provides me with news and stock market related information but also gives qualitative information about companies. The only thing that I don't like about Google Finance is that highly focused on North American public enterprises. 

Google News:

I'am an avid news reader. Every morning I spend about 20-30 minutes reading different newspapers.  With the help of Google News, instead of checking news stories from different sources, I can actually customize my Google News page with those sources and read them all at one source. For example I like to read business news on gulfnews and New York Times,  I can do that on Google News. The best thing about Google News is that it is a platform that allows me to personalize my news page based on my personal preferences.

Google Picasa:

Google Picasa, unlike most of the other tools is not exactly an online tool but more of a software that you need to install in order to run it. I love the simplicity of this Google product which helps me manage my photo collection, edit pictures and create different kind of collages in an efficient manner. I really like the feature of creating short movies/ video clips with different digital photos and music background.

Google Reader:

I was introduced to Google Reader only during this course and found it very innovative. It is a web-based information aggregator,  which is capable of reading Atom and RSS feeds. Now that I use Google Reader, I feel that RSS is a simplistic way of keeping up to date with the topic of your interest. Once I subscribe RSS for a particular topic, I do not have to visit the website again and again for updates because the Google Reader automatically collates all those updates foe me. It is beneficial for me because it not only saves my time but also helps to manage and share feeds with my friends. The best part is that it does not storm my inbox with notifications and instead log updates in my Google Reader. 

Google Search:

Anything that I need information on, I use Google search and it provides me with exactly what I was looking for. It is most popular search engine in the world. Google Search almost run s a monopoly and replaced all the other search engines such as Yahoo, AOL etc. In short, Google Search is an integral component of my daily life and I cannot imagine my life without Google.

Google Sites:

I always thought that creating a website requires graphic designers and web engineers because it was a complicated thing. However, after getting introduced to Google Sites, I have been able to make my own website. Google Sites is a free online tool that enabled me to create my own site. I did not have to conduct any kind of HTML coding and rather just fill out form type of templates to get my website up and running on the web. In future, if I have to create a website for my business, I will definitely use Google Sites to do so. Not only that but I also urge young entrepreneurs to take a look at this tool as it might help them with their marketing.
Please visit the link below to access my Google Site.

https://sites.google.com/site/fatemashop11/

Social Bookmarking - Delicious:

Delicious is a web service for social bookmarking. I did not even know what social bookmarking is before the Web 2.0 training project. In simple words, social bookmarking is a relatively new phenomenon to effectively organize, store, manage and search for website bookmarks. For me, it is a method that has enabled me to save and store web pages at a single location for future use. I love the fact that I can share my links with others through Delicious. It is also a very helpful tool for team projects as you can simple share useful links with the help of some clicks.

Twitter:

Twitter is online social networking portal and microblogging service. I have started using Twitter recently and find it a quick and simple way to stay in touch with friends. It has enabled me to send and read short text-based blogs known as "tweets", keep up to date with celebrity news, topics of interests, famous personalities etc. A number of global leaders use Twitter to send messages to public. Our own His Highness Shaikh Muhammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum is also an avid Tweeter.