The 23rd Thing

I did this course for the CE credits I need to keep up with my public school library certificate and I'm so glad I did it. I think I learned so much more from a course like this instead of going to a conference. Anything you can do hands-on is more beneficial than just hearing information.

My favorite "things" were learning about Flickr, del.icio.us, and wikis. These are all definitely things I will us time and again.

Thank you for offering this program!

Audiobooks

I am personally not one for listening to books - maybe I'm just not a good listener - but I am impressed with the extensive list of books on LibriVox. I especially like the fact that you can volunteer to read a book. I searched around for several Christian fiction authors and didn't find my favorites but I did come across several familiar names. I didn't realize that the Wizard of Oz author wrote so many stories! One thing that I didn't see that would make it easier to search for titles would be a genre category. Maybe I just missed it, but I often forget authors and titles and sometimes just seeing a list of books in a certain topics would be helpful.

Podcasts

I now understand podcast better and see that anyone can do one and anyone can listen to one!

I went to podcast.com and searched for James Dobson. I am always missing his Focus on the Family talks on the radio and so I realized this would be a good way to catch one. I found it very easy to register and search for topics. I listened to Dr. Dobson's discussion with a group of women on mothers in the workplace and it was very good considering I am a mom and I am decided whether or not to go back to work. It is great that resources such as these are so readily available.

You Tube

I've been to You Tube several times over the last few years - as has everyone else that owns a computer! I wouldn't say I am a frequent visitor, usually I visit through a forwarded email from a friend who is recommending something.

I went to the site and had a brain freeze about what to type in the search box. I scrolled through a few "video's being viewed right now" and saw one on the footage from the airplane crash/water landing last week. That was so fascinating, I figured I would watch it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvjtx9Qstgo&feature=bz301
One of the best features, especially if you are watching a news story, is the related links on the side of the page. This allows you to get the same or similar story from multiple viewpoints. I also viewed some of the videos from the presidential inauguration today since I missed it on TV. There are tons of those posted!

You Tube would be great in a library setting as just something to do while patrons are taking a break from studying or working. I suppose you could also do some research through some of these videos - mostly just the news ones.

I'm sure that as our kids get older we will want to post some favorite video moments on You Tube for friends and family to view.

Web 2.0 Awards

I never realized how many sites I visit regularly are actually web 2.0 sites! I visit Craig's List regularly and I'm happy to see it is an award winner for classifieds. I chose to visit the award winner for the food category, Im Cooked - http://www.imcooked.com/index.php. It's motto is "Cook It, Film It, Share It." It is basically a site for people to film themselves cooking and share it with the public. Some are very serious with serious recipes and others are just hilarious. For a good laugh, I recommend watching the one about eating coffee cake. The site seems very popular and videos were being added as I was visiting. It seems very user friendly, which is probably why it is an award winner. This site would be great to use in a library setting b/c it is basically a video library of cooking demonstrations. A library could reference this site in literature about cooking or there could be a video creating night at the library using recipes found in the libraries cookbooks.

Zoho Writer

I think these web-based applications are really great. I don't really see why an office would want to continue using the Microsoft word to write reports, etc., other than just the initial task of switching over. It seems to have all the features of the traditional word processors plus additional ones like organizing by tags.

I created a test document and tried inserting a picture. I found it very easy! I would consider using this program in the future when I need to collaborate with others on a project.

Playing in the Sandbox

Now I really understand how wikis work! http://ctls-23-things-sandbox.pbwiki.com/
I added to the favorite books and movies lists. Since I will be returning to work as an elementary librarian I am thinking about how to apply wikis to that environment. A wiki would be great for getting teachers to sign up for library visits, letting parents and students give book suggestions, great for older students to post questions and sign up for research topics, etc. This would be a great resource in the school setting b/c it has the power to take away the paper trail that is often so frustrating!

Wiki's

I have been hearing the term wiki for awhile now and of course I'm familiar with Wikipedia, but I never really understood what it meant. (BTW, I think the CommomCraft videos are so helpful at explaining things!) I totally related to the video instructor saying how complicated planning things with a group can be by email. For years our church group has been doing sign up list for meal delivery, etc. by responding to emails and it invariably turns into a complicated mess. Recently we have started to use a web page that lets us all sign up for things w/o overlapping and filling inboxes - I just never realized these web pages are wikis!

I went to the Best Practices Wiki and think it is a great idea. http://libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Main_Page I especially thought the link to the page of Continuing Ed opportunities is a great idea. It is wonderful to find so much information in one place. One other thing I noticed it that the wikis seem to be free of advertisements! It that is the case, that is nice and more user-friendly.

Library 2.0

I think the world is definitely ready for library 2.0! The world just needs to know about it! It is great that libraries are changing to update and fit in with out technology, customer driven world. Hopefully the world is paying attention. This is a wonderful way to libraries to compete with the Internet and play a major part in it. I am a librarian and honestly when I am helping my husband with his MBA research I do use library websites first! I just google web out of habit because in the past it was more difficult to go through a library website. So, it is great that once aspect of library 2.0 is making the info more accessible.

I visited http://liblogs.albany.edu/library20/, Library 2.0 - An Academic's Perspective and although after reading I realized it is not an active blog anymore, I found it to be very informative. I liked that he said that just because a "change" may not be working out as expected that doesn't mean the whole 2.0 idea is a failure. Changes take time and they may morph into something else entirely. Library user may help guide a change their feedback is invaluable.

Technorati

To me Technorati is information overload! I didn't like the layout of the site and I found it difficult to search for learning 2.0. I only saw one place to enter the keyword and I didn't get any results for learning 2.0. Did I miss the blog post and tags keyword entry blanks? Clearly this is useful to those who search for blogs often and I'm sure it is easier to navigate once you spend more time.

I tried to search for a popular blog that I check daily, but it didn't come up and I was suprised by that.

Del.icio.us

This has been my favorite of all the website organizing exercises. I think it is very useful if you are going to be doing research. My husband is working on his MBA and I usually help him with the research for his papers. I will definitely be using this for tagging research websites. In the past I have just scrolled through my bookmarks to find the saved sites - pretty time consuming.

I tried to sign up for del.icio.us, but I had trouble getting the button to show up on my browser. I guess I didn't really understand the directions or my system is not updated. I'll keep working on it.

Online gaming

I decided to try solitare and "free rice." It has been several years since I have played solitare and I have to admit I was a little rusty, but it all came back to me pretty quickly! I had to spend a little more time than I wanted downloading Java so it would work, but now I should be good to go whenever I feel like playing and zoning out for a while.

I chose the interactive game, Free Rice, for the second game. It was great to exercise my brain a little and donate to a needy cause as well. I used my brain power to donate 500 grains of rice to the hungry. I should play a little every day!