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 :) .......... :)

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.

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.

Video Bar

I was so proud of myself for being able to download this video about the frogs - the others were attached, that I did not realize that there was questionable content in the other videos. My sincere apologies if I have offended anyone. I have removed the video so for anyone who may have viewed it - oooopppss!!!!!

Thing 19

I have used Craig's List. What I have learned about Craig's list is that if you are looking for something you have to look continuously and be quick on the draw because good items move fast. Regarding all the sites on Web 2.0, I did not know of most of them. I have tagged this site in del.icio.us. Can't wait to come back and explore some more. One thing I do not like for some sites is having to register your life away and creating so many passwords. I feel like I am giving a piece of my soul to a stranger everytime I do this. That is one thing overall about the internet I do not like - loss of anonymity.

Thing 18

I chose not to download multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source as we are having a computer freeze up issue - it happens at random - and did not want to add anything else. I looked at Google Docs. I did not know that Google had so many functions to offer. I thought it was great. It almost does all the work itself where you do not have to. It makes it easy to share whatever medium you are working on, grab documents from the internet etc. I am glad to know about this tool that can be accessed from anywhere.

Thing 17

Rollyo is going to be a very useful tool. I can categorize my sites of interest, health care, spiritual, or whatever, and search only the sites I choose to look through. Getting up to 25 of your preferred links in one spot and searching only those will help cut down on a lot of dead ends and accidentally getting into a bad site. For some reason I had trouble trying to get the tag up. Will need to keep working on that. I can also see where if you were working collaboratively, everyone could be looking at the same site selection which would help keep things focused. Will web wonders every cease :).

Thing 16 - To Wiki or not to Wiki, that is the question

First, I would like to say that I now know what Wikipedia is and means. I found this link useful: http://plcmccore.blogspot.com/2006/04/wiki-wiki-wiki.html. I agreed with the pros and cons of utilizing Wiki, that the subjectivity of the folks sharing could skew what is trying to be accomplished. I do see it's usefulness though, particular for school nurses. It would definitely be useful in collaboration, problem solving and idea exploration and generally keeping us connected in a productive way. I would suggest to groups that do use it that perhaps an assigned facilitator and moderator would be beneficial the way it is in team settings. May help keep everyone on track. I would not see this necessary for all Wiki situations but perhaps some might find a little added structure beneficial. Just an idea.

Thing 15 - Library 2.0

I have to admit I was getting a little lost in all the toggling back and forth. While I understand the concept - utilizing an on-line library search to connect to whatever it is you are searching for, I have to admit I am still quite green at doing this. Reading the Five Perspectives was informative but I still do not quite know how to use the tool to make it meaningful and easy for me. I figure I have missed something along the way in the 23 things or others are just more computer literate than I. I will trudge on and revisit other activities to enhance what I think I am learning. Stay tuned for an updated post.

http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/6.htm - Article - "A temporary place in time," by Dr. Wendy Schultz. Again, as I mentioned in a prior blog, the possibilities seem endless. A "Wi-Fi" library - whoa! The thing that is so mind boggling to me ((but not so mindboggling to people being brought up in the tech world), is that all this is reality now and not some distant future space-age dream. I am challenged immensely to explore and utilize it.

http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/5.htm - Article - "To better bibliographic services," by John Riemer. Introduced me to NCSU libraries http://www2.lib.ncsu.edu/catalog/?Nty=1&N=0&Ntt=medical+breakthrough&Ntk=Keyword. The site is phenomenal. Will definitely be coming back to this one.

Thing 14

Technorati / techneurotic - one thing is certain - there seems to be a deluge of people who live to blog. There was so much information there. Still learning how to digest it all. There are lots of people who apparently know a whole lot more about this computer thing than me - that is why I am in the Library2play game, isn't it? I can't wait to get all the way through the course so I can go back and lollygag around the various sites and tools I am learning about. Putting it all together will be quite an accomplishment for me. I can see how I can use it for professional as well as personal use and it is very, very exciting. It will be nice to be able to pull up info/links at a quick click to enhance my own knowledge and impart knowledge to students.

Thing 13

Tags and del.icio.us.com. What a wonderful tool. I have often been frustrated because I find sites at home related to my professional interests - nursing - and/or work and can never seem to connect the two without writing things down that then get lost or misplaced many times before I get the opportunity to explore further. I experimented with the tag system this morning and it literally was as easy as 1-2-3. How exciting.

Things 12

Moving in and out of the blog sites/web sites has been a good exercise. Sometimes you can get lost in a blog when there are other links within the blog that lead you elsewhere and then that site has links, et cetera, et cetera. I was amused by how much time was spent on "blog etiquette." All very good points and reminders but when one goes back to the basics, for example, I consider myself Christian and of Christian principal, one realizes that if we really practiced what we preached (so to speak) there would be little need for all these rules and reminders as this would all be ingrained. Moving beyond that little point, I am really enjoying the limitlessness (if that is a word) of the possibilities. I can see that I will be spending a lot of time coming back to the 23 things to fine tune all the learning going on. I have not been blogging other than here as I would like to choose a couple sites of interest and still figuring the whole process out.

Thing 11

What I liked about Librarything.com is knowing there is a forum for discussing your thoughts on books you read. I like to be organized but not quite sure if all the time and effort needed to catalog your home library is a worthwhile venture at this point in time. I simply go to my shelf(ves) and look. Definitely a web site to explore when one has time on their hands. I can see the value of this for avid book readers, especially students and younger children who will be more computer literate by nature.

Thing 10

At first this seemed as simple as 1-2-3.....and it probably is once you know what you are doing. I tried to download an image from cartoons but for some unknown reason, the image would not pop up. I saved this image to my pictures folder and grabbed it from there. I could not get the text centered. I may need some help with this one. Will need to play around with it some more.

Thing 9

Having some trouble with Bloglines. I have registered - more than 2 hours ago - but for some reason the email confirmation has not come through despite various attempts - rebooting, having confirmation resent, et cetera. Not sure what is up with that. Must come back later and see. In the meantime, I was reading The Cool Cat Teacher site and what she had to say about developing your Circle of the Wise. I have starting doing this with books but had not considered utilizing the internet. This is eye-opening. Having your circle at your fingertips - literally. I need to work this up and I know it will take some time. One of my favorites is Feel the Fear and do it anyway, by Susan Jeffers. Another is Mel Levine - A Mind at a Time. While I am not a teacher in the certification sense, as a nurse you learn that teaching is 90% of what you do in many cases. Mel Levine's perspective, research and knowledge on what makes us individuals and how we can all tap on our strengths is refreshing.

Thing 9

Stuck on Thing 9. Have signed up for bloglines but almost 2 hours has past and no email confirmation sent. Have rebooted and requested verification. Will have to check back later. Have been playing around in google reader also

Thing 8

Really Simple Syndication. I have to write that out so I can visualize in my brain what RSS is. "Things" are becoming more and more fantastic as I progress through the program. I did not know what RSS was, meant, usefullness. I never did notice that little orange dealie either. I can only suppose that means that I have not been out there enough. It will sure be usefull - and I can see the benefits in work and home. So much to think about!

Thing 7 - Cool Google Tools

Who knew there was so much - calendars, web albums, google earth and so much more. You could spend forever exploring each of these areas and still only touch the surface. I thought I could create a calendar and move it into the blog but I got lost I must admit. Something I will need to spend some time with. My husband is anxious for us to learn how to do the web album. Honestly, we are one of the last of the Mohicans when it comes to digital cameras - which we only just got one and still have to learn how to upload and download, et cetera, etcetera. As I move through all the "Things" I am beginning to feel confident that I will be able to master some of these - what most people probably call - basic technology skills and maybe sound like I half way know what the techies are talking about.

Thing 6

Working on thing 6 and you can see this is trial and error. I did not want the underline but cannot get rid of it. I somehow managed to input this picture from webfetti. Learning some interesting things going through this course.

I had to delete out some things to get rid of the underline but it seems to be working. Not sure how I would use this for trading cards or mashups. Still working on that. I'll add to this post later. That will be another item of learning.

So here it is - technology is overwhelming yet truly amazing.

Thing 5

I was able to save a photo to the desk top - now to figure out how to get it into the blog. Hmmm. Well there you go. This is absolutely amazing.

Blogging - Oh My

I found thing 3 somewhat a challenge, setting all this up, but great learning. I tried doing this on wordpress but got stuck so ended up on eblogger and was successful. Good thing too - found out today is the deadline. Where do the days go :)

Library what?

This is an interesting program. I need 5 brains to absorb just the basics. Whew!! I have to say that the easiest part of the 7&1/2 habits of lifelong learning is setting goals - that to me is a no brainer. What is difficult is actually excuting the goals - overcoming obstacles and staying on the path. The basics of life (my life) are time consuming - work, child rearing, managing a home - it is a challenge just making time for "play" (which is another point of the 7&1/2 habits) let alone taking time for additional life long learning but one proceeds a day and a step at a time and the important things to get done. The rest of it is an "oh well." Looking forward to figuring out how to do the darn avatar - that is a challenge!