I'm DONE! Thing 23

I join the ranks of final blogs and not a moment too soon! It's been a great experience. Frustrating at first, but once I got past Flickr, I gained a little speed, and now will experience the "what shall I do tonight?" feeling. I plan to adapt my blog and use it as a support for my library curriculum, and some of the widgets will help my organization (like Stikkit). The 23Things showed me a wide variety of Things that are useful and now it's time to pick and choose what to spend more time with. I am very excited to already be using Library Thing, shelfari, Del.icio.us, ELM +RSS, and Research Project Calculator.
If I could ask for more training, it would be on RSS feeds and how to "fine-tune" the multitudes of information out there.
While the whole virtual world seems vast, the 23 Things helped to simply and highlight some of the most important aspects. Thanks again for sending out the information about this.

Thing 22

Web 2.0 tools: I signed up for Tame the Web, and in the process saw a movie recently posted by some friends in the St. Kate's MLIS program called, "Dewey or Dewey Not?" I had to leave a comment. This is a great site, so of course, I also posted to my del.icio.us. I also linked the Webinar site from Minitex, as it is a goal of mine to become more proficient with Minnesota resources. The end is near...I'll finish tomorrow night.

Thing 21

Ning and Webjunction: I liked these social networks a little better than Facebook because they seemed more focused on a group or activities. I signed up for Ning, and got the Ning badge on my blog. After I went back a few hours later, I could not sign in-- I don't know why. I'll try to keep checking, or maybe use a different computer. I am trying to respond to some comments on 23things.ning, and I don't know why my earlier registration isn't working! This is great, though. I'll keep trying.
I also signed on with WebJunction. This seems like a good resource for my own professional development.

Thing 20

I was not really looking forward to Facebook.... my teens all have one and we have experienced the "dark side" of social networking. In an attempt to "be a good sport" about social networking, I did the Thing, and was surprised at how easy it is to connect to other people. I immediately had a list of friends for HS (OK just one from 1980) and college (many more).
I see this as being more social and less informational, therefore appealing to college or public libraries as a method of outreach. Our school district blocks myspace and facebook, and for now that is probably good. I will check back on my groups- I signed up for 3 groups and so far I'm keeping it professional. I did not contact friends-- but I hope to soon.
I was impressed with the Hennepin Co. Myspace and I think that lots of teens like this type of interactive library, and an easy way to talk about life, books and everything in-between.

Thing 19

I like podcasts, and especially it's cousin, Vodcast. The best vodcasts I've used in my library are from the Department of Education called, "Reading Rockets." These are author interviews lasting from 3 minutes to 12 minutes. They are great!
iTunes is my prefered podcast aggregator. I am now listening to St. Cloud's school library media podcasts. These are helpful! Hats off to the crew that produces these. Thanks!

Thing 18

I searched on YouTube for awhile. There's no way to get that time back. A person can get sucked in... and never come out. I don't think YouTube is well organized-- at least to use it in teaching. Although I did see some good humor. I've seen the UHF video of Conan the Librarian, but in no place was there any credit given to the orginal creator, Weird Al Yankovic. Copyright infringement seems common. In my searches for some educational type of videos, I saw some skin, so it's dangerous treading for school use.
I think this will start to change, though. Curriculums will eventually develop around online videos, and instructors will use it frequently-- I'm sure they do already. I did a couple things with Thing 18. I downloaded a CommonCraft video for my iPod (OK, that's 19) I also linked the video to my blog, and also linked to Google Video Sharing.
I have come to realize that Google IS BIG. I could dedicate another year of time to understanding how Google and it's various tools all work cohesively together.

Thing 17

I used Thing 17 in teaching 8th graders today!! We accessed an RSS feed linked from our school website to the EBSCO database. We were looking for Consumer Reports articles, and this was an easy way to help students get "into" the database. Students DID experience both ways to get to the data-- the RSS feed only worked on the Mac computers in our library. I don't know why.
I have not taken a webinar in a while, the last one applied only to public or colleges. I would be interested in more webinars dealing with K-8 education.
I appreciated learning more about the ELM tools and I look forward to using these more often.

Thing 16

The Assignment Calculator is fine for University Students. The Project Calculator is awesome for everyone else, and I have used it several times since last year, working with students and staff. I did not realize that there is additional teacher info as a choice. This is a great addition, and I will promote this to my staff immediately.
I think this calculator is most helpful if students are taught how to use it. I also think it's helpful for parents or tutors to help students with their research.
"Five" seems to be the right number for the tasks and this calculator makes all projects seem a little easier when there's a structured system of steps. The only thing missing is a simple one-two page printout of the steps with a brief description.

Thing 15

Libraries and Gaming. I understand this is a hot topic and I appreciate the chance to see some good choices for role playing games. Again, for a middle school, I don't think either one is appropriate, and the Pirate Puzzle seemed to take more time initially to set up a pirate than to score some booty. I expected more of an educational type of Puzzle game, but there was a feature called "Drinking Game" so that didn't sound too appropriate at all.
When I go to a public library to use a computer, and see some other person is playing one of these "games", I become frustrated at the wait.
The Pirate Puzzle and Second Life are fun and interesting if a) you have your own computer or b) you are not meeting deadlines and have time to play games.
Maybe a college library is the right fit for this type of gaming.

Thing 14

This is a GOOD THING (Thanks, Martha Stewart). I will use the Library Thing to help create lists of books. This can be helpful for sharing with teachers and parents. (I'm a middle school media specialist). I also liked how this links libraries and bookstores together...how wonderful!
I set up a Library Thing account, but on my blog I chose to use the Shelfari that I saw some others using. I like the look, and it cuts down on book choices. For example, if students were to look at my blog and get an idea for some books, it's not so overwhelming to see soooo many choices. The key is to change the choices about twice a month. I am becoming very proud of my blog and I see it becoming more useful every day.

Thing 13

Online Productivity. I looked at Stikkit and watched the movies. This is very cool. This bring out my "inner secretary" by allowing not only a roladex-type way to organize "peeps", their phone numbers and email, it also organizes notes from phone calls or anything else I might add to connect people to projects.
This would be helpful to me in keeping track of vendors, phone calls, repairs, equipment and all the odd tasks that need noting. I used Post-its, the real ones, but they do not interact, other than to clutter my desk and stick together. I can't believe that I'm complaining about one of the greatest 3M inventions ever, but this Stikkit will easily surpass the wonderful sticky notes in my life!

Thing 12

I subscribed to Diggit and replied to an article in the NY Times about 3 bloggers who recently dropped dead due to unknown causes, but likely related to the amount of time spent in front of a computer figuring stuff like this out.
My dad clips articles from the newspaper and mails them to me, so this is the online, collaborative version of my dad! I get it. This is helpful in libraries since these sites can sort and catalog (somewhat) newsarticles for patron use. In school, we can collect and sort by topic for student use.
It's still an overwhelming tool and I plan to spend more time learning. I chose Diggit because it looks cleaner and simpler. It also has podcasts.

Thing 11

I LOVE Del.icio.us!!! It is so easy to create my own bookmark site and add it to my blog. This is GREAT! I will use this almost daily for the rest of my life! I'm sure that I'll come back to learn many other features surrounding this tool, but for now, press on the deadline is coming!

Thing 10

I really liked the wiki thing. We have teachers learning to use this in my building. Wikis are here to stay in education. They are a quick way for staff members to publish information, and even create dialog with students. Libraries will also use wikis, but for now, our chief job (in the school setting) is to teach students how wikis differ from other established reference information.

Thing 9

The new collaboration tools are very interesting. I liked the Google docs and Zoho. Those tools can be used in many areas of business, teaching and library.
Twitter was interesting, but I can't imagine myself documenting my daily life in such micromoments.

Thing 8

I liked the Mapwing.com for presenting information online. It's one of the many online story creators. I did not know about these. I think kids would really like to do this type of project for school. Seems challenging but a very interesting way to gather and present information (An Information Access skill)
http://www.mapwing.com/explore/view_tour.php?t=llS8PlD0ACvAPC
This is an excellent example of a Coral Reef project.

Thing 6, 7

I am still having trouble posting a photo to my blog, and to my profile. I'll keep trying.
Web 2.0 tools are great for communication in library/lab/classroom situations. Anytime people can connect for information is good. I liked the TextMessage movie, because that's exactly how teens and young adults would use the communication tool. They WOULD use it. I personally have learned to Text because my kids have taught me. It works very well to communicate with them. Now, I can't live without it.

Thing 4, 5, 6

Flickr is very fun, but I did not get photos loaded--- I'd prefer not to download the uploader, so I used Shutterfly, which I am using anyway to get prints online. I had ordered my Christmas cards using that online photo storage. Since it's a Target company (if you print photos they go to Target for pick-up). Target does not pay me to endorse them---- yet.
More fun with flickr reminds me of looking at specific items on eBay, where one goes in.... and comes out 3 hours later forgetting what time of day it is.
I am still working with an online image generator... many kids here use them (for fun only--not education) and I can ask for help from those experts.