Thing #23 - Not ready for The End

Hmmmm - I think, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . . " It's been enjoyable and yet, at times, I wanted to pull my hair out when I didn't quite understand something or I wanted to accomplish something a certain way and just couldn't do it. This took a lot of time but it was time well-spent and I plan to spend a lot more time as I go back and explore even more and start utilizing some of the things I've learned.

These are the things that I most enjoyed learning:

• Blogging - I'd heard of it but didn't really know what it was. It turns out that I've even read some peoples Blogs a long time ago, I just didn't know they had a name
  
• Meebo - That's something I intend to download and use since so many of my friends & family are on different instant messaging
  
• RSS feeds - I knew a little about them but not enough to know how to use them
  
• Web-based Applications  - Learning about Google Docs is a god-send.  I plan to use this a LOT
  
• Library Thing - I'll use this to keep track of the books I've read
  

Gosh, I think I could go on and on.  I learned so much and have so much yet to learn.  I would do this again in a minute.  I'm glad I found it soon enough to be able to finish it for credits.  I can use it towards my library certification and I didn't have to take time from work!

I have no suggestions for improvement as I thought it went smoothly and worked well.  Thanks to the staff that made this possible!  I hope there is a "next time" as I look forward to it.

Thing #22 - Podcasts

It is late, for me, and I'm tired. I wanted to put a feed of one of the Podcasts that I found but I couldn't figure out how to do it. I will probably try tomorrow afternoon when I have a little more time (BEFORE I go to the dentist, Ugh!). I found a couple of Podcasts that I really liked one being a Podcast video on parenting and the other a school that has 7th & 8th graders putting podcast book reviews on. I think that is such a great idea. I listened to one of them and just loved what the kids were doing and the enjoyment that I could tell they were getting out of it.

I did figure out that I MUCH prefer video podcasts since I'm a visual learner and just listening to them does me no good. They go in one ear - right through the 'ole brain as if it were totally transparent - and out the other ear. I also found a video cast that is about new technology and all the little gadgets they come out with. I liked that one also and plan to check into a couple others of the same nature. I subscribed to only three podcasts right now but am flabbergasted at the number of them available. It's too much to sort through. I didn't find a library one that I really liked much so I'll have to go searching again for one of those.

One more Thing about Thing #21

I was just re-reading what I'm supposed to do for Thing #21 and one thing was to list how it could be used at the library or what could or would be gained by adding it. Just to reiterate how quickly the "young minds" utilize this information I wanted to say that I just briefly mentioned this to one of my 13-year-olds who asked me what I was doing. His immediate response was: "It would be perfect for the library because there are so many "how-to" YouTubes. Ones that explain all kinds of ways to make things and how things work, and experiments you can learn from." Anyway, I was fascinated by how quickly he thought of that. I hadn't immediately. I was just thinking how it would attract younger kids because they like YouTube but I hadn't thought of how useful it could be for them. I'm not sure why I didn't think of it because I've so enjoyed the Common Craft Show and learned so much, so quickly, just because it was a quick and easy video. Very simple and very easy to understand! Library's can certainly use YouTube.

Now I'm really on to Thing #22.

Thing #21 - U2 can YouTube

My kids have shown me a lot about YouTube . . . they are always showing me different videos that they think are funny. I added one to my blog but I didn't have too much luck doing it. I actually wanted to put it in the center of my blog - in between my "things" posts but I didn't know how to do that or if I even could. As is, it's pretty much off to the side but at least you can tell that I was in YouTube and that I tried to post it to my blog. It's a cute one (if you like cats).

I think YouTube is great. There are so many funny videos (along with a ton of stupid ones) and it's a fun way for people to share their funny little videos. I'm sure, though, that there are people who get ruthlessly humiliated by some of these! That part of it can be bad but I've never seen it happen at the middle school yet or have I heard of it happening. Generally, if someone puts something on YouTube everyone is excited to see it simply because it's someone they know.

I would think these could be used for the library but I'm thinking you could just upload your own without going through YouTube so I'm not sure about that yet. I found some interesting library "tubes" and especially liked the blonde in the library. Everyone that works in a library would get a kick out of that one.

I'm going to move on to Thing #22.

Thing #20 - Web 2.0 award sites

This, too, was very overwhelmng to me. There are just too many different places to go and things to do on the web. I poked through a few but spent the most time on LuLu which I thoroughly enjoyed. They have all kinds of different little treats there plus the ability to publish your own book. Even a yearbook!! There are templates, choices of backgrounds, etc. for photo albums and so much more. I'll definitely be back there and to other sites like it. I'm grateful for something to easily "discover" but my head swims with all the possibilities. I also like one of the free wiki sites (wikispaces) but it was too complicated for me to take the time to figure out right now. I'm sure that is where I will go when I'm ready to do a book review wiki. Also, I read someone elses comment and they mentioned a site called "Pandora" - being the curious person that I am I just might have to check it out!

Thing #19 - Google Docs - 2nd Post

Oh My Gosh! I had NO idea, whatsoever, that this was available. I can see so many uses for this. For one thing my husband and I can share documents when he is out of town, also, if I create something on Google Docs on my home computer and then want to access it from my husband's lap top, it will be a piece of cake. Another use for me is to create something, at home, that I want to use at school. How easy it will be to access it whenever I need it and edit it, at school, if necessary and not have to make the change at home! In the past I've either e-mailed it to myself or had to use a jumpdrive but this way will be so much easier.

I'm so excited about all the things I've learned! I'm overwhelmed but yet have plans to use so much of these new things. In fact, I am excited to get finished with this entire project so I can concentrate on going back to some of them. I'm sure they will become second nature to me after a short time (I'm just praying there aren't too many more changes in the near future - I can't keep up with too, too much!).

The Blogging is so easy for me now and I know I've only touched the tip of the iceberg. I found Google Calendars which can be used in the same way that I can use Google Docs. My husband and I can both access it and get to it from anywhere. We've been able to do that on ICal but this just seems easier and there is no need to sync anything. I'm not sure if I can figure out how to share my created documents but if I can easily figure it out then I will post one or two of them here. Well, actually, I can probably do that pretty easy but don't know if someone would need my Google password to see them. I'll try . . . (these are pretty rough) I had never used "Forms" before and I think that would come in incredibly handy for library use, school use and other things I can think of. Anyway, here are the addresses:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcgrfbb6_0hj69bcfv&hl=en
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcgrfbb6_1f9dbjzwq&hl=en
http://docs.google.com/Presentation?docid=dcgrfbb6_2fb45f6f9&hl=en
http://docs.google.com/?hl=en&pli=1#opened-by-me
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=p3lKh6owI3yMZdCAmv5olHA&hl=en
http://docs.google.com/Presentation?docid=dcgrfbb6_336g6hvfz&hl=en

On to Thing #20 . . .

Google Docs - Thing #19 - 1st Post

This first post is just a test. I made a document in Google Docs but now I just want to see if I can type a link here and then be able to view it without logging into Google. I'm just trying to figure out how all of this works as I'm fascinated that Google Docs is even available (and all the others mentioned to). Wow! Again.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dcgrfbb6_0hj69bcfv&hl=en