Thing 23 Summary

This has been a wonderful experience.

Playing catchup is never fun, but I certainly enjoyed my learning experience. I found myself going ahead and exploring the sites, but never blogging about them. I was easily distracted and had to discipline myself to document what I was doing.

I found myself much more in touch with my children. I was able to discuss things with them for which I had no basis for discussion before. I am really looking forward to trying some of the things on my own. Wikis, generators, and keeping up to date with my blogline account.

I felt a sense of accomplishment when I figured out how to get something to work. I would definitely enjoy future sessions.

Thing 22 - Audio Books

I think this is wonderful. To download these books and play them in the car when I can't read is great!!!. I also loved the children's books for the same reason.

I wish I had known about this while my father was bedridden. It would have been perfect for him.

I downloaded from the Project Gutenberg site and also looked at just the E-books. What a worthwhile cause.

Thing 21 Podcasts

Although I know my childrens computers already have Itunes installed, I wasn't so lucky so I went ahead and tried the other free sites. Podcast.net was nicely organzied with convenient tags and easy searches. The second site seemed a more sophisticated site, with more adult content.

Like the videos in YouTube, with appropriate searching you can find some very useful and/or entertaining material.

Thing 20 - You Tube

When I first logged into You Tube I was amazed at the amount of junk videos that I needed to wade through. Why someone would upload a home movie perplexed me.

However, as I targeted my search I found more and more useful videos that pertained to things I was actually interested in. I also found a number of inappropriate videos that I wouldn't want to access accidentally. I see why the site is blocked at work.

Thing 20 - You Tube

Links to PowerSchool demonstrations.

Thing 19 - Wufoo

When I went to Web 2.0 Awards nominees, I chose to explore Wufoo. This a form generator site which collects and tabulates data, which can then be reported back.

While it may have been a little difficult for someone with no background in creating forms to follow, I found it relatively intuitive. Without actually sending out the form to collect data, I couldn't really explore the reports feature very well.

I think I need to add the "short List" to my rollyo so that I can refer back to it frequently.

Thing 18 Zoho Writer

I signed up for an account with Zoho Writer. I created a document, but wasn't sure how to share with anyone. A co-worker created a document and asked for my input. I received an e-mail telling me that the document was there. I made the changes/suggestions and saved them, but I'm not sure that she ever received the e-mail telling her that I had made changes.

Once I understand how this works, I think it would be very useful, particularly when away from the office.

Thing 17

I added my blog to the list of blogs in the Sandbox Wiki. I couldn't find the world/chain link, but it seemed to work fine when I clicked on the link to my blogspot.

Thing 16 - Wikis

Wikis are a great way to become collaborative in a particular area of interest. I can see using and setting up a wiki so that short cuts and tips on using our database can be shared. News and deadlines could be posted, but other users could add information too.

In a libary, I could see this being a wonderful place to post news, add feeds to news articles of local interest, a great place for rollyos.

I'd like to explore this in greater depth.

Thing 15 - Library 2.0

In trying out all of the new things I am learning, I am discovering that the amount of time it takes to sift through the information available, decide what is most useful and relevant, and make it easily accessible to others is overwhelming. The need for experts "librarians and teachers" to do this for me is extremely evident. Also, taking the time to learn what all the cutesy names mean and do could be a full-time job in itself.

The need to have capable, experienced researchers who can assist people (me) with narrowing down the choices I can see would create an even larger demand for librarians or (infobrarians) in the near future.

Thing 14 - Technorati tagging

I discovered that I've been using tags for a while now to spark my interest in articles, I just didn't know what they were called. Technorati really does help to tame the wilderness of blogging. I am still a little nervous about sharing my blogs with the world, so I won't be registering and tagging my site. This feels a lot lke "being published" and indexed.

I could see using the directory to help narrow down areas of interest that you like to refer to often.

Thing 13 - Tagging & Del.icio.us

I could see the point of using Del.icio.us to create online bookmarks that are available to you anywhere. I can see a librarian using it even more. In the old days, I remember our librarians posting a Favorite Books of the Month poster each month to inspire readers to try new authors. This seems a perfect way for librarians to help readers narrow down sites, which can become so overwhelming. School librarians could also earmark sites for the annual "projects" assigned by the teachers and save them from year to year.

Thing 10 Image Generators

I didn't find this as fun as some other people did. I enjoyed helping some of my co-workers find a way to get their avatars to show in their blogs. Copying and pasting the code seemed to work best.

Flkr Fun, mashups and 3rd party fun

What a great title. Something called a mashup almost HAS to be fun. I love the way people can build on other peoples work to create something fun or useful to share. There are so many talented people out there.

Thing 12 -Rollyo

See my new Rolly. I'm still a little unsure whether this will help me or not. I can see possibilities for helping people get questions answered from a particular site I like. But the few searches I tried using the pre-selected ones didn't return enough information for me. Guess I'll need more practice.

Thing 10 -Stayed up WAY TOO late doing my things

In trying to catch up, I stayed up way too late doing my Things. I am really excited about the generators, can't believe how many cool things there were. I'd love to do a class with some of the secretaries on these!! I almost woke my husband up to show him!!! I think too of my own children's interests and want to show them what I'm learning. I may have to set up a "home-school" class.

Thing 11 - Library Thing

Neat place to find book reviews. Lots of interesting comments. It would be really neat to catalog my books and share with my sisters so that we didn't duplicate our purchases.

Thing 9 - Finding feeds

I was trying to find feeds that were relevant to what I do, but seemed to get lost. I actually found it easier to simply go to the website I knew and find the rss symbol and use it to add feeds.

Unfortunately, there is so much out there I don't know exists this defeats the purpose. I will try to add excel and powerschool feeds to my site.

Thing 8 New Feeds

This was a lot of fun. I wish I had seen it sooner. I am still working on how to make it public, but now that I have a spot to go for all my favorite updates, I don't have to do quite so many clicks.

I added Dictionary of the Day feeds to my blog spot. One of my favorite things to do is learn new words.

Week 2, Things 4-7 Technology

I've really been enjoying digital cameras. Between scanning old photographs and downloading new, I've had a lot of fun. Now that I know about Flicka, there's even more I can do with family and friends who live so far from me.

I also get to do some scrapbooking without all the shopping using the mashups and third party sites.

I managed to locate a picture of the mountains of WV using the tag of the name of the town, and linked the picture to my blogspot. How cool is that.

Week 1, Things 1-3 Life Long Learners

I read about the program and enjoyed watching the video. Things really are changing. After reading abut life long learners, I thought ...Interesting. I found myself thinking that it is easy for me to read about and discover my own answers. I have a harder time asking for help from others.