Thing #23: The End

Woo Hoo! I'm done...!...? But not really, because I don't think I'll ever be done learning about technology that's out there. Here are the questions from the 23 Things website that I'm supposed to answer in this final post:

Q: What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
A: I liked expanding my horizons, and I'm glad I discovered the Google Reader.

Q: How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
A: It's not only made me more aware of what's out there, but it made me dig deeper into technology I already knew and I explored new technology.

Q: Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
A: There really were not. I'm a pretty technologically savvy person, and as my blog posts show, I pretty much either knew of, had been using, or had tried each of the 23 things already.

Q: What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
A: Add more things!

Q: And last but not least… If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?
A: YES!

Thing #22: Audiobooks

I am not one of those people who can listen to audiobooks and retain information. I've tried, oh how I've tried. I listened to one with a very nice voice of an older British gentleman. Before I knew it, I was lulled by his voice and we were on chapter 3, but I had no idea what had happened!

My library provides My Media Mall to library card holders. I've used it in order to help customers with it. You need to download a special program in order for it to work. You find the title(s) you want, check them out, download them to your computer, then put them on your portable device. The MMM titles are now even in the catalog.

Downloadable audiobooks are really good for people who like to listen to books, but they just don't work for me.

Thing #21: Podcasts

I don't have a lot of experience with podcasts, so this was interesting. I have a friend who produces podcasts, and my library had a podcast created for the teen Battle of the Bands.

Podcasts would be so useful to libraries to explain how to use library services (like the catalog, placing holds, using the microfilm machine, etc). It would be neat to podcast programs to show what happened to those who couldn't attend or to show how a certain thing is done for a teaching program.

At Podcast Alley there were a lot of neat how-to podcasts. How to remove DRM, how to burn a DVD...and they showed you how to do it, which is a bonus for a lot of people.

Thing #20: You Tube

Oh, You Tube, I am so very aware of you already! My son and his BFF post dippy things to You Tube all the time. I'd tell you how to find them, but I'm too embarrassed! I did a search using my name and thankfully, nothing came up (I wouldn't put it past them to post me sleeping or unaware!).

You Tube allows people to have their 15 minutes of fame. However, I don't think some people are careful enough and post themselves and their friends doing questionable things.

Thing #19: Explore Web 2.0 Award Site

I checked out Care2 under the Philanthropy title. My mom's always sending me e-cards from Care2, so I thought I'd check it out.

There are several organizations you can get connected to in order to help take action - like stopping the hunting of seals in Canada (did you know that 98% of seals killed in Canada are between the ages of 2 weeks to 3 months old???!!!).

There are recipes and healthy living guides, as well as health and wellness answers.

You can also sign online petitions or start a petition of your own.

It's a neat site to play around on.

Thing #18: Online Productivity

The concept of being able to access word processing and spreadsheet documents on any computer, without having to use discs or flash drives is intriguing! I tried to create an account at Zoho, but there were technical difficulties. That's pretty fine by me anyway since I'm trying to reduce the number of log ons I have, so using Google Docs is perfect.

I like the way the Google Documents screen looks - so similar to the screen of the files on my computer. It was simple to create a new document. This is such a great idea for people who collaborate on projects because there's the Share feature.

After uploading a file, I got an error message when I wanted to Save and Close it, then find it from my list. Google Docs stopped working. I don['t know if it's the computer I'm using or if there's something wrong with the site. I'll have to test it at another computer.

In all, I think this is a great product that could have real value in both personal and business life.