Sunday, July 13, 2008

Thing 23

I want to make sure I cover all the points requested so I am going to go Thing by Thing. Bare with me, I'll keep it as short and sweet as possible.
Thing 1 to 4 - getting started was challenging as just about all Things learned are new for me. I liked the focus on life-long learning. It is a dedication of mine. Creating the Avatar was fun. I want to go back and play with it some more. I did not realize it would show up on my home page.
Thing 5, grabbing a foto and downloading it started to unlock some mysteries - I always wondered "how'd they do that.!
Thing 6 - mashups - woa! I think I could find use of this at some point as I become more saavy. The trading cards were fun.
Thing 7 - Google tools - I had no idea there were so many tools out there.
Thing 8 - RSS - I can see that as I become more comfortable with surfing the web, I can make use of RSS. I need to play with it more but at least when I see the orange dealy, I know what the heck it is.
Thing 9 - Bloglines -Had trouble with this one. Never did get an email back. I did however really enjoyed the "circle of the wise" concept. I had been exposed to this concept before but not quite put in that way.
Thing 10 - Need to revisit this one.
Thing 11 - Librarything.com. Really enjoyed learning about this site. So much to learn....:)
Thing 12 - Moving in and out of web sites and blog sites requires more skill than a person thinks. A person needs to be careful. Much to learn here. Bookeatersclub suggested a spreadsheet of everything learned on 23 things and I think that is a great idea.
Thing 13 - Learning about tags and delicious was one of my favorite things learned for right now. I have already put that to use.
Thing 14 - Technorati - It is amazing how many people blog.
Thing 15 - Library 2.0. Very useful and much to learn.
Thing 16 - Wikis - Important to understand what I did not understand before and that is - what a Wiki is, i.e. Wikpedia.
Thing 17 -Rollyo - Another favorite learning experience. Put that right to use.
Thing 18, 20 and 21 - All of these that including downloading podcasting, video clips, etc - quite frankly where a challenge. Being as web illiterate as I am - I need some 1-on-1 help with these.
Thing 19 - Web 2.0. I did not know I was already utilizing some of these sites.
Thing 22 - NING - Definitely something to look into for a professional related forum or even one based on a hobby.
Overall - I really enjoyed the whole program. At least I have identified my weak areas that require more learning and now know where to start. That in itself is great progress. Something I would suggest to improve the format is to have at least 1 on-site training day once you have gone through the program. Sometimes it helps tremendousely to be walked through some things in the tradition way. The format I would propose for the on-site training is to have breakout sessions that address specific areas that were troublesome.
I would definitely participate in other discovery programs of this type. To some up my experience with the 23 Things - Fantastic, awesome - a must learn experience for all of us utilizing the computer for personal and professional gain and enjoyment.
Now I am off to comment on other bloggers. Ta Ta for now :) .......... :)

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Thing "NING" 22

I can see that NING's can be a very useful tool to share information, network and learn new things. I would be interested in joining a health care related ning where nurses in particular interact. If there is a focus, the NING would be great. If not, I can see where it may become a gossip column rather than a tool for networking and resource sharing. At this point in time, I would like to focus more on some of the other "things" learned along the way such as using internet tools. I feel in my career situation, that would be more useful since I am not a teacher with a classroom full of kids. I think if I were a student, NINGing would be fantastic.

Thing 21

I am really, really stuck on this podcasting thing. I am not quite sure if my computer is not able to handle it or I do not know how to do it or a combination of both. I have not been very big at listening to pod casts, especially news ones because I do not like all the advertisements but now that I am learning that lots of people do podcasts besides the media, I will definitely be exploring this more as time goes on. I liked what "One crazy teacher to another" did in his blog. I am hesitant to download these free programs without consulting a more knowledgeable person to see if this computer is equipped to handle it. It seems Thing 20 and 21 have me lost. I will be looking for some assistance on this one too.

Thing 20 - Video Download....again

Apparently my home computer does not have the right program to run this. Good experience learning about Teacher Tube and Zamzar.com. When school is back in session I will have to revisit this and see if I am successful with the latest and greatest computer at work.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Thing 20

Having some trouble with this. Attempting to download the file as instructed using Zamzar.com but it is taking a very looooonnnnngggggg time. Computer might not have capability. Will add later if successful. Otherwise, might not be able to do this function from home computer. This clip is about Childhood Obesity Prevention. I typed in "health" on Teachertube and this came up.