Week 10, #23: The End

My favorite activity was probably creating the avatars. I enjoyed the variety of avatars available, and it was fun creating a personal mask!


This program has really emphasized how quickly web capabilities change. I need to be more vigilant about keeping up with the new technologies. Bloglines, with its RSS feeds, should help with this, and I was unfamiliar with Bloglines before this program.

We are planning to offer community workshops on the 23 Things in the spring. This will make me review the things we have learned throughout the program, which is good. Perhaps I will come across new Web 2.0 technologies that I would like to explore.

Week 9, #22: Downloadable Media

OK, I absolutely love HCPL's audiobooks! My Christmas present last year was an MP3 player that was compatible with the system, and I have used it well. I'm glad to find out about the LibriVox and Wowio websites, too. I downloaded some poems from LibriVox onto my MP3 player. I like the fact that they offer various readings of the works, so we can choose which readers we prefer.

I still prefer using HCPL's audiobooks. I don't think it is easy getting started, because you must download the software, then download the book, then download it onto your MP3 player, and hopefully you have a player that will accommodate your audiobooks. My first player did not. Once you have successfully downloaded a couple of items, however, it's very simple.

I may be improving with podcasts, too. I just added the RSS feed for LibriVox to my blog, and it works! Yea!

Week 9, #21: Podcasts

I found this exercise to be very confusing and inordinately time-consuming. After much frustration, I finally was able to add a video games podcast to my blog, although I sort of stumbled through the process. My boys love playing and reading about video games, and so I was looking for a way to keep up with the vast number of games that are released. I do like the way the entries change on my blog each time a new entry is added to the podcast!

Week 9, #20: YouTube and other video sites

I found an enchanting video titled, "Dreams," about Down Syndrome children and teens. They are expressing their hopes for the future, and many of them express these hopes very well, indeed. The topic is near and dear to me, because I have a 55 year old Down Syndrome sister who is charming in her own right. This is a video that tugs at the heartstrings.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_-P4t2jR1g

I like playing around in YouTube. It's fun to see some of the videos. Some of them can be tedious, however. I can certainly see how library websites might use a video as a means of highlighting certain programs that the library offers or as a teaching video, like the videos that were made for ihcpl.

Week 8, #19 -- Web-based Applications

I played around with some of the Zoho applications, and created the document below. It's nice, and I like having the icons for action button, but I really miss the Help feature of MS Word.

Zoho practice document

This is Pretty Cool

 

This is pretty cool, and I did not realize that this was available.  However, I am having some trouble with it.  I really like some aspects of the toolbar, because having an icon for many of the actions is nice.  I miss the Help feature of MS Word, however!  I typed one document and somehow changed the title heading style, and I could not change it back. 

 

It is fun _{and I learn} from ^{playing around with it.}

 

I love the ease of changing colors!

 

---

1. And adding horizontal rules
   1. And changing spacing
      • And adding page breaks
        •  And bullets

 

But, there is not as much variety in some aspects, such as font, outline choices, bullet choices, etc.  Also, I tried to spell check my document and was told that it was unable to do it and to try back later. 

 

This would be nice for someone who does not have access to MS Word, however.

Technorati Tags     ihcpl,23Things

Week 8, #18: Social Networking

I looked around some of the social networking sites, and I registered with Facebook and with Ning. I tried unsuccessfully to locate people that I knew in library school and high school. Too bad. :(

I like Ning better than some of the other networks, because it allows me to join a group based on my interests. I found several ferret social networks; however some of them consisted of a group of one: the creator.

I don't often sit at the computer just for entertainment, and I still think that I would prefer to use the telephone to chat with someone.

Week 7, #16 & 17-- Wikis and Technology

Week 7, #16 -- Wikis
Our library actually has a wiki for internal use. We can use it to let one another know about situations, class projects, current displays, etc. that are going on in our library. This is just another avenue for communication besides e-mail. The drawback is that it is only as good as the members who remember to post to it!


Week 7, #17 -- Technology
As my son was working on a research paper for his English class, I was thinking of how much easier, in one sense, research and preparation are today. I was one of the fortunate ones, because I had an electric typewriter in college. In addition, my professors frequently allowed us to use erasable bond paper, so that we weren't forced to retype a sheet or paint it with White-Out if we made a typing error. How much easier it is today, however, to type your paper, change the font size, erase entire paragraphs, have your spelling checked, block your type, and even automatically have your footnotes placed at the bottom of a page.

Does he need a resource? With a few clicks of the computer he has access to electronic books and journal articles on his topic. No more pouring through volume after volume of paper indexes. However, citations have become more onerous.

Changing subjects: One of my favorite technology candies is downloading audio books from eBranch onto my MP3 player! I love this!!!