Thing 23 - Summary

WhooHoo! I'm finished! It took much longer to complete all these activities than I thought. I probably never would have finished had we not been granted this extension. My favorite thing was creating my own blog. After seeing Julie & Julia at the theater, I realize how powerful blogs can be. I wish we participants responded to one another's blogs. When I read them, I thought about things I agreed with, or those things that others discovered and I didn't. I should have responded, but I guess my sights were on finishing instead of interacting. I also enjoyed the fun week, creating avatars among other things. I'm glad I learned how to download podcasts on my I Pod and discovered Overdrive. I know I will use Bloglines with my favorite RSS feeds. LibraryThing was also a favorite. I have been wanting to do something with my digital pics for a while, so maybe I will spend some more time learning to use Flickr.

I think I became a little more adventurous and gained more confidence in myself as far as technology goes after completing this course. Previously, I viewed problems as a crisis, and now I look at them more as a challenge.

I'm glad I completed this course. I at least became familiar with many terms and sites that I had heard but no idea what they were. I'm sure this will help me keep up with my students, and my own kids, who seem so much more tech savvy than I am. They can't believe I have my own blog. There were many things that I probably won't use. Rollyo was my least favorite thing.

I'm not sure I would want to complete another discovery program. It would depend on the content and the length of time for completition. I do hope we can keep our blogs active and respond to one another throughtout the year with ideas and some tech discoveries we find on our own. It would also be great if we could access sites at school so we could use them with students. I like the protection we have now, but some things would be great to use with kids.

Thing 22 - Audiobooks

Just call me old fashioned, but I never really considered using audiobooks, not even when I'm in a car, on a trip. To me, nothing beats having the book in my hand. I stated this before in one of my other blogs. I appreciate the fact that a lot of people love them, but to me, reading is sitting in my favorite chair, relaxing, and doing what I love most. I just can't imagine me listening to a book while I'm cleaning or driving, or anything else. I do love my I Pod to listen to my favorite music, but not for a book. Of the audiobook services, I liked Overdrive best. I even found some titles I would like to check out! I did purchase one e book last year for my library, but Follett says a special program has to be on the computer to run it. I'm going to look into that when I get back to school. I think using e books in the classroom would be very useful. I love our public library site and use it just about every day, but just saw the link to Overdrive. Just another great service for those interested in audiobooks. I'm not sure how much kids would like them. The Playaways I purchased last year were a big hit in the beginning, but as the year progressed, they were checking them out less and less. When I asked, one of my students said they took too long - I can read faster.

Thing 21 - Podcasts

Since my boys got me an I Pod for my birthday, I do know a little about downloading songs and videos, however I never downloaded a podcast. Well, after much frustration, I did subscribe to the podcasts for WVU and was finally successful in getting one on my I Pod. I already had an RSS feed to this site in Bloglines. The I Tunes site has so many podcasts - just about anything you would want. I also checked Merlin and listened to a few podcasts. To me, the most natural thing to use podcasts in the library would be for booktalks. Once again, kids would love this technology and would be a great motivational tool. Teachers could use podcasts to give tutorials or direction for lessons and projects, just like we have been receiving for 23 Things. The library would have to have the hardware to do this, and my library does not have a great lab, which is putting it mildly.
Also, went to Podcast Alley and looked at some of the subject headings, hundreds under library! The homepage also featured a podcast on the Twilight series.

Thing 19 - Web 2.0 Awards

Oops! I guess I was so excited about exploring YouTube, I forgot about 2.0 awards. I looked at several award winners. I was curious about Craigslist after all the publicity it received in the news. Also, related to job hunting, I looked at Standout Jobs and Career Builder. Not that I'm thinking about switching careers! I looked at LuLu, but I really like our public library's site for reviewing books. I also checked out some topics in Twitter, including health care reform, and some of my favorite sports teams. The thing I liked about this site is that the best sites are there which would save a lot of time. I'm also assuming they have been evaluated to be reliable, user friendly, etc.

Thing 20 - YouTube

Of course, I've checked out videos on YouTube before, but I never thought of them as a learning tool. I checked out some library sites. Some of them were pretty good, some not so much. But kids love this stuff, so designing a project and making a video for YouTube would be something they would love to do. Instant motivation! Too bad we can't use this at school.
Naturally, I checked out some Orioles sites and watched some of my favorite WVU football and basketball videos. Just love that Pat White!

Thing 18 - Zoho and Google Docs

I loved these. I registered with both. I looked at Zoho first. It was pretty easy to use but I had to make a few adjustments. I created a document just for fun to go with my Orioles blog theme. Tried inserting a table and a picture.

I really liked Google Docs, especially the template feature. Kids would love this. Documents would look very professionally done. Teacher possiblities included the syllabus, certificates, and lesson plan templates. I also liked some of the holiday things.

An advantage to using online productivity tools is that it would eliminate sending emails of things to myself that I created while at home/school. One disadvantage I can see is what happens when you need a document and the server is down?

I created a document in Zoho, but could not post in on my blog. At this point, I don't know what the problem is. I've spent two days trying to do it - the arrows keep spinning, but it won't open the window. I'll try again later.

Thing 17 - PB Works

This was very confusing and couldn't get on the links provided. Decided to move on to thing 18 and discovered the change jennifer made. After that, it was very easy to follow.

Thing 16 - Wikis

I checked out some of the sites on wikis and learned some ways that libraries were using them. I looked at the Merlin link also. I know the format is different, but wikis seem to me to be the same as a blog. I liked the idea of using them to promote events - in a community or a library, for example. I thought a good use of a wiki in a school library would be to have kids review books they have read and maybe rate them. Of course, the problem with wikis is they can be edited.

Thing 15 - Web 2.0 Perspectives

I read two articles. The first was Icebergs. I tend to agree with some of the author's points. The past few years, I have been ordering much less nonfiction that kids would use for research. Examples would be science fair ideas, history projects, etc. Students would much rather use the web, although sometimes they are surprised when I show them a book with exactly what they are looking for. That being said, I don't think anything will ever replace a book for those who love to read. In the words of one of my 6th grade students when she opened a new book for the first time, " Did you heard that? Nothing is better that opening a new book!" My kids and even my husband think I should consider Kindle, but I just love holding that book in my hand.

I also read Temporary Place. In the words of the author, "What are libraries? Libraries are not just collections of documents and books, they are conversations, they are convocations of people, ideas, and artifacts in dynamic exchange. Libraries are not merely in communities, they are communities: they preserve and promote community memories; they provide mentors not only for the exploration of stored memory, but also for the creation of new artifacts of memory. What was the library of the past? A symbol of a society that cared about its attainments, that treasured ideas, that looked ahead multiple generations. Librarians were stewards, trainers, intimate with the knowledge base and the minds who produced it. Librarians today are not just inventory management biobots: they are people with a unique understanding of the documents they compile and catalog, and the relationships among those documents." I totally agree!

Thing 14 - Technorati

I really liked the appearance of this site, and after watching the tutorial, it looked very easy to use. Found out Boing Boing was the number one blog site, and I guess I just don't get it. I did not find it interesting at all - at least in the time I spent looking at it. I looked at the "Book" tag, and read a blog about one of my favorite new YA books, Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. The Learning 2.0 posts were different in number depending on the tags used. Even though I liked the appearance of Technorati, I would probably use Delicious.

Thing 13 - Delicious

I think Delicious is one of the 23 things that I can and will use. My list of bookmarks, especially on my home computer, is long and sometimes I can't find what I'm looking for. Or, it never fails, but when I'm at one computer, I need something bookmarked on the other computer. I created an account, and have explored a little, but it is going to take a while for me to be comfortable enough to use it. I'm trying to come up with useful tags that will narrow my searches. I'm also interested in the social part of this site - looking at what others found not only professionally, but in my interst areas when not at work would be a great time saver. I looked at the public library's account, and found some great things. This is good for me because I can get impatient and if I can't find something right away, I just give up and say I'll look later.