23rd Thing / Final Thoughts

COMPLETED!!!!
I finished thing 1 through thing 22, now there's just one more thing left to do.
Blogging, Rollyo, podcasts, You Tube and Meez;
Zoho, Sandbox, tagging, RSS and Wikis;
These things and more; were not truly a chore. The learning was fun, albeit compressed, I proud of my accomplishments, nonetheless.

For me, the greatest challenge was finding/making time to work on the things.
I must confess that many of the exercises were completed at home. What I enjoyed the most - I'd have to say the tasks that offered creative opportunities/input: Meez, Avatars, You Tube, Flickr. I've always considered myself a lifelong learner, that's what makes librarianship such an appealing profession. I doubt that I will ever be able to drop the vacuum or postpone laundry or cooking to spend hours blogging and the like. I still prefer interacting with people face to face or over the phone. The biggest surprise was the fact that with the exception of adding Rollyo to my blog, I accomplished the tasks independently. I guess my technical skills were better than I gave myself credit for.

Improvements? For my personal situation, more time to work on the things and/or fewer daily, weekly demands/deadlines while working on the things. For staff in general, it might have been a good team building exercise to have had only thing per month coupled with monthly staff meetings (before OR after each thing) to share and problem solve.

Future participation - Absolutely!

Description of learning experience - See above. Learned alot, gained confidence and didn't loose ability to create Seussian verse.

Tanya

22nd Thing / Overdrive & Net Library

This was a really useful exercise because it has real day to day applications since HCL offers Net Library and customers do ask for assistance. Setting up the account and creating a list of favorites was simple. I was surprised by the sheer volume of Cliffs Notes available on Net Library. Here's my favorites list. I've yet to receive an MP3 player since I overlooked turning in my learning agreement (my bad) and need to submit it along with my tracking log. Then I can try downloading.


1. Title: The Colors of Learning : Integrating the Visual Arts Into the Early Childhood Curriculum (eBook)
Early Childhood Education Series (Teachers College Press)
by Althouse, Rosemary.; Johnson, Margaret H.; Mitchell, Sharon T.
Publication: New York, Washington, DC Teachers College Press, 2003.
View this eBook | Show Details | Remove from Favorites

2. Title: The Quotable Musician : From Bach to Tupac (eBook)
by Anderson, Sheila E.
Publication: New York Allworth, 2003.
View this eBook | Show Details | Remove from Favorites

3. Title: Science Adventures With Children's Literature : A Thematic Approach (eBook)
by Fredericks, Anthony D.
Publication: Englewood, Colo. Libraries Unlimited, 1998.
View this eBook | Show Details | Remove from Favorites

4. Title: Themes With a Difference : 228 New Activities for Young Children (eBook)
by Green, Moira D.
Publication: Albany, N.Y. Thomson Delmar Learning, 1998.
View this eBook | Show Details | Remove from Favorites

5. Title: Science for All Children : A Guide to Improving Elementary Science Education in Your School District (eBook)
Publication: Washington, D.C. National Academies Press, 1997.
View this eBook | Show Details | Remove from Favorites

6. Title: Multicultural Explorations : Joyous Journeys With Books (eBook)
by Heltshe, Mary Ann.; Kirchner, Audrey Burie
Publication: Englewood, Colo. Teacher Ideas Press, 1991.
View this eBook | Show Details | Remove from Favorites

7. Title: Social Studies Through Children's Literature : An Integrated Approach (eBook)
by Fredericks, Anthony D.
Publication: Englewood, Colo. Libraries Unlimited, 1991.
View this eBook | Show Details | Remove from Favorites

21st Thing / Podcasts

What I discovered is that the quality of each podcasts varies tremendously based on the voice and/or image of the podcaster. Some are a pleasure to listen to and others; not so much. I was able to locate storynory on podcast.net. It contains a array of children's audio stories. I listened to Halloween on the Pond narrated by a woman with a British accent. A little on the long side. I'm not so sure parents would go this route. It's far more complicated than popping an audio book in a child's cd player at bedtime. Probably the most helpful podcasts I've encountered working on the 23 things were the tutorials.

20th Thing / You Tube

I find a great deal of You Tube to be self indulgent. A little America's Funniest Home Videos, a little the truth is stranger than fiction, a little land of make believe. In terms of library applications, how about ads promoting programs and classes? In my search for something to include, I found I spent the most time looking at music videos and then narrowed my search to find videos of a concert I attended on 11/10/07. I was pleased with the results. It was great to reminisce. I can't believe I successfully uploaded the video all by myself. Enjoy :)

19th Thing / Web 2.0 Awards List

Who knew there were so many choices! Like potato chips, who could stop at only one choice? I sampled Guess the Google under games. This is far more difficult than it seems. The goal is to type in the one word that best identifies a group of google images within the prescribed time limit. No real library application other entertainment. The best part was the challenge of trying to find the right words in time. Worst part ... it's hard!
I also tried the Go Green site. How sobering! I actually dug out last month's BGE bill to complete a personal profile of my family's carbon footprint. Library application --- research, homework, self improvement. The site was easy to navigate and had lots of info. It got a little discouraging to click a few times and see a dollar figure that could be donated to offset one's carbon footprint. I had hoped for more in the way of lifestyle changes, etc. All in all, an interesting exercise. Scrolling down the list of nominees, I couldn't help but notice how many were part of 23 Things.

Tanya 18th Thing

Hi,
Testing Zoho Writer as part of 23 Things. Easy enough to navigate.
Have participated in Google Spreadsheets for children's materials
tasks. Again, pretty simple to use. It felt good to have actually
had experience with the tool prior to working on the assignment.

Tanya

18th Thing / Online Productivity

http://writer.zoho.com/index.do#

Figuring out how to post to my Blog was the most time consuming part of the exercise.