Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Week 9, Thing 23 - Is this the end?

23 Things has certainly opened new doors for me in terms of computer use. I basically used my computer to check e-mail, shop on line, google, just for ordinary things. After experiencing and learning with 23 things, I feel I will be using it for many more things. I also believe that we are all "new learners" when it comes to this new age of technology. Although there are some things that I probably will not use often (if at all), but just knowing what exist out there and seeing how we as humans are finding new ways of communicating with each other is fascinating and exciting.

My only concern is how do we make this new technology accessible to everyone. The library can only have so many computers available for the public's use. I was able to finish 23 things because I have a PC at home. There is a vast number of Americans who live at or below the poverty level who do not have access to a computer. Some schools in this country aren't equipped with a computer lab or the equipment is very outdated. If we want people to communicate and share ideas with one another, we have to find a way for everyone to have the opportunity to do so.


Twenty-three things is certainly a learning tool and it has the capability of being an educational tool as well. My only hope is that one day soon there will be more of us becoming "new learners" who probably would never have had the opportunity to do so before. Just imagine what an impact that would have on their view of the world.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Week 9, Thing 22 - Could this be the one?

I think I have found the "thing" I have been looking for. Setting up my eAudio account through Howard County Library and the Maryland Digital eLibrary Consortium is probably my favorite "thing" of all. Netlibrary's tutorial was user-friendly and easier to understand for me than Overdrive and Guttenberg. Other participants may not have had any problems using the latter two, but Netlibrary was the best for me. I thought it had the best features once you established your account and searched for items. It was simple to understand; they made it seem easy enough and HClibrary's "electronic resources" was another simple and easy tool to use.

Setting up my account was a "breeze" and although I could not find one particular book I am looking for (I will have to check the title and I did not have the author's name), I was able to put a hold on a book I've been meaning to read. Having this service through the library is going to solve a lot of my problems when it comes to having time to sit and read. Its not always easy for me to carve out two or three hours a day to reading a book. This way I can multi-task while listening to a book (Yes!). Can you tell that I'm a bit excited about this very useful feature.

Looking forward to listening to many great books! Cannot thank HC Library enough for providing this sevice to the public.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Week 9, Thing 21 - Podcastic

Not sure if I will ever be a "podcast" person. I like listening to a radio, even better, the XM radio I have in my car. I listen to music and news programs on the radio throughout the day more so than watching TV. I will have to spend more time maneuvering my way around and discovering more about "Podcast". I did find a music show that I like a lot. Its called the "neo soul cafe". I enjoy listening to this new form of soul music performed and written by new and young artist. I admire them for trying to keep soul music new and fresh and to be able to express themselves through this form of music. They sing songs about love, relationships, etc. just like the old groups from Motown (Temptations, Four Tops, Supremes, etc.).

I also looked at the Denver Library list of podcasts and saw that they have podcast for young children. To be able to select a book from the library and then have someone read it to your child to me is another wonderful way to encourage a child to read. Librarians seem to have enough to keep them busy; maybe volunteers could be recruited to read some of the books for the podcasts.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Week 9, Thing 20 - Can U Tube!

This is the first time I had the chance of viewing "You Tube". I had heard many negative and funny things that have appeared on this website. I had the impression that this was a site that was of interest to mainly the youth in our society; a way for them to express themselves freely without their parents permission. I was a little reluctant at first but then decided to give it a try. I decided to search for "Flamenco dancers". To my surprise, many items appeared to choose from. I viewed 10 or more videos of performers from Barcelona, Madrid, South America, NYC, etc. Beautiful dances performed by men and women, solo as well as group performances. The dancers were accompanied by singers, guitars, violins, drums, people pounding on wooden boxes, etc. It was educational as well as entertaining. I now see You Tube in a different light - not so much negative, but as a learning tool as well. Of course, their are some videos on subjects that can be viewed as harmful to some. I'm not sure if aything can be done about this other than policing what your child is seeing on the internet.



I also viewed some videos about african safaris, and found some beautiful, and incredible videos of animals roaming freely in Kenya and the wilderbeest migrating and crossing the Mara River. Some were visually stunning and some the video quality was a bit to be desired. All and all, my impression of You Tube has changed for the better and I can see it being used as a learning tool. The library could perhaps download podcasts that would be beneficial to students on subjects they feel are safe and educational for the community.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Week 8, Thing 19


I choose a hosted wikki called "wetpaint". Its a fun site that is very similar to a "blog" in asmuch as setting up, and choosing how you want your wikki to look (templates, etc.). You have to pick a topic for your wikki and decide whether you want your wikki to be available to everyone or if you want it to be private. I choose it to be available to the public for now. The topic of my wikki is japanese crafts. My hope is to reconnect with some of the people I met in Japan who took japanese culture classes with me. This is a picture of a samarai that I made in my Kimekomi class in Tokyo.


I could see this tool being used among co-workers or perhaps a librarian helping a student with research, or a patron who has a particular author or interest in a certain subject, etc.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Week 8, Thing 18

This exercise was fun and painless. I created an account with Zoho. Not sure if I would use it on a regular basis. I clicked on the templates and saw how businesses, students, etc. can select a
form based on their needs. I can see how sites like Zoho and Google Docs would be helpful to many especially in the business community.

While looking at Zoho's templates, I clicked on "resume letters". I plan to show my son samples of letters from that site. This site would be helpful to many businesses because not a lot of time or money would be wasted on installing special applications. Its also a great "shortcut" for businesses when it comes to online productivity!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Week 7, Thing 17 - Which Wiki!

Since we were not able to go to the "Maryland Sandbox wiki", I posted a comment on the sandbox wiki that Beth Tribe created. Sorry we were not able to do "favorite blogs". I will try later and also ask other's if they were able to do the exercises for 17. So far, I like the wetpaint wiki and will play around with that website some more.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Week 7, Thing 16

I think the concept of having a vehicle that enables anyone to add content to can be beneficial to the overall community. There are many individuals that will probably never have the opportunity to publish a book or an article and "wiki's" may be a way for them to do so. I especially liked the "wikis" that were not too technical, i.e., Princeton University's "Book Lovers" wiki and Merlin's wiki. The Princeton wiki looked organized but it was not too technical for anyone to go to the site and add their comments, etc. This site would be a good resource for an avid book reader to read others reviews of a book and to post their own.



I found a wiki called "wetpaint" at Merlin and really liked it. It helps you create your own "wiki website". I typed in Japanese dolls in the search box and found one site that was rated "100%" and clicked on it. I found info on "dolls" and also other subjects about Japanese culture and Japan. I kept clicking and kept going to different wikis all relating to Japan. It was fun. Not sure if I will post to a wiki but you'll never know!

Although I found "wikis" to be fun and beneficial, I also find it to be another tool that will be difficult to control whats written and who will have access to the website. I'm afraid it will be difficult to control or "police" either of the two.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Week 6, Thing 15

Interesting to read how libraries will have to rethink themselves to meet the demands of today's and future patrons. I wonder how the curriculum for library science has changed today compared to say 10 years ago. I'm sure a lot more technical courses are required.

The idea of not having to physically go to a library to do research seems strange to me. While doing Thing 13 or 14, I clicked on Amercian University's Library website. They have an "IM" set-up so a student can obtain info without going to the library even when its closed. Students have access to a librarian 24 hours a day to ask for help. Also while doing the last couple of exercises and having the oppportunity of looking at other library's websites, it seems each library has some type of service they provide that makes them different from each other . This is probably due to whatever their immediate community demands or needs the most.

I imagine libraries will have to think "outside the box" as well.

Week 6, Thing 14

I typed in "Learning 2.0" at Technorati's website. I followed the exercise and looked under blog posts, tags, and blog directory. I think the "tags" act as "sub-levels" for the subject matter that was entered in the "search" box. Some of the tags that I clicked on took me to the same info, whereas other tags took me to all together different info. I found it all very interesting and will try searching and learning more about Technorati when I have more time.

Week 6, Thing 13

There is only one word to describe this exercise - "Delicious". It was fun. I enjoyed looking at the different bookmarks on the "PLCMC's page and also reading the comments. The tags were interesting. I clicked on the comments made by "intellagirl" and then clicked on some of her bookmarks. She had some interesting ones. I didn't get a chance to look at many but I really liked what she bookmarked and I liked her tags. The one bookmark that I really liked was "Wiki how". It was a step-by-step demonstration on how to make a 3-D paper snowflake with photos, etc. It was easy to understand the instructions plus the pictures really helped.



This is going to be a great tool for researching, and just to find out about many things in general. The idea of de.licio.us being a social bookmarking site will give you access to unlimited information. It will surely help to simplify your search for a certain topic or thing. I plan to go back and have some more fun!

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Week 5, Thing 12

I think I understand the concept of Rollyo. I have several websites that I continue to go to such as online shopping (several), receipes, airline resevations, news, etc. I was happy to see that rollyo had several categories to choose from to create your search roll. I tested it by selecting online shopping for one of my categories and searched for Japanese furniture. It gave me several websites. I was able to go to one that I really liked and had never seen before.

This is a helpful tool although I'm wondering how this is different from "favorites" other than being able to share info and to look at other's "searchrolls" (Deborah Messing's online shopping search roll - how cool is that!). I wonder if Terrence Howard has an Rollyo account! I plan to go back to "rollyo" to play around some more to see whatelse I can learn. There is so much out there being developed; I'm glad we are not doing 23,000,000 Things. I plan to show my husband Bruce how to set up an "rollyo" account too.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Week 5, Thing 11

Another great discovery exercise. I plan to do more "library thing" later. This will be a good way to communicate with friends, who are not nearby, to recommend books to each other. I have a cousin who lives in Rhode Island who reads quite a bit. She belongs to a book club in her area. She gave me her copy of "Diana Chronicles" to read. I've enjoyed every book she has recommended to me. Looking forward to going back to "play" around more with Library Thing. I especially like "tagging" because I cannot trust my memory any more to remember where I or who recommended a book to me.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Week 4, Thing 8

I'm out of order. I forgot to post a blog for Thing 8 - I remember learning about RSS feeds earlier this year. I like the bloglines newsreader account. Will play around with it to really learn how to use it and how it functions.


Week 5, Thing 10 - My Alter Ego

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Friday, September 28, 2007

Week 4, Thing 9

Well it certainly has been interesting setting-up and learning how to create my own Bloglines newsreader account. I can't get over how many different ways of receiving information has been created. People are becoming connected who probably would have never had an opportunity to meet or share information with each other before. Its fascinating and at the same time a bit overwhelming, but I'm going to keep investigating and adding feeds that interest me as I go along. I'm not a tech savvy individual by any means, but I want to learn as much as I can. One thing that is really inspiring me is the fact that this is the way future generations will be gathering and sharing information with each other. Does this mean using phones to talk could become obsolete? Text messaging is very popular especially with today's youth. They spend a great deal of time communicating on "myspace", "facebook", etc., etc.

I searched for new RSS feeds using the "Discovery" feature that appeared on the left hand side, bottom of the page of "bloglines". It listed the most popular feeds and I just went down the list to see what interest me. I came across a few that were different, i.e., "news for nerds", "today top header for the motley fool" and "cooking for engineers". Just goes to show you that there is something out there for everybody. I added "Merlin" as one of my feeds because I liked the idea of hearing from other libraries in Maryland and their staff. It was cool to see Beth Tribe's picture on their site.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Week 3, Thing 7


I enjoyed learning about Flickr. I had fun exploring and looking at "Mashup and 3rd Party" sites. I tried a couple of those "3rd party" sites and really liked the one called "Retriever". I gave it a try to see what would happen. Retriever will find pictures submitted by others that will match yours. I picked a picture I took at Big Sur, CA of a beach, the ocean and mountains. It found pictures similar to mine from all over the world in about 30 seconds. Not only were there pictures of beaches and ocean, but also of snow covered mountains from Romania. You can also select a picture and see more photos that were taken from that particular person. People seem to be very enthusiastic about sharing their pictures and experiences. The snow covered mountains were magnificent. Flickr is definitely a fun tool.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Week 2, Thing 4

Hooray! I'm a blogger. I hope Jaye will be proud of me (most of all, I hope she received my registration for my blog). Looking forward to reading as may blogs as possible from the library. Now on to Thing 5. This "thing" thing does remind me of Dr. Seuss!

Week 2, Thing 3

This was an adventure for me. I like discovering how to do things in a different way. I did need some help with setting up my blog. I did most of the set-up at home on my laptop and waited to come to work for a little help. My co-workers have been very supportive and helpful. Its good to have them there and to get their feedback on what they did and experienced.

Week 1, Thing 2

Enjoyed the tutorial program on the 7-1/2 habits of learning. Out of the 7-1/2 habits I think I am a dead ringer for "1/2" habit. I would love to think that I possess a little of all the "7" habits, but I guess you can't have everything! I especially liked #7 - Teach/Mentor others. Now that I am older and my children older and well on their way to creating a life for themselves, I hope I can share my life experiences and "wisdom" with others. I have volunteered with the Howard County Public Schools for the past two years. I never looked at volunteering as a learning experience for myself as well as giving back to others. I truly enjoy working with the young kids (last year I worked with kindergarteners). The tutorial gave me an opportuity to look at myself and helped me to realize that I should not be afraid or not have enough confidence in myself to learn new things.

Week 1, Thing 1

Jaye's enthusiasm ( and the MP3 player) has heighten my curiosity about 23 Things. I'm looking forward to learning about all the different ways we can communicate today. I've only gotten as far as sending e-mail and sending pictures from my digital camera to family members and friends. We'll see what happens!

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

I'm now a Blogger

I've been called many things, but I've never been called a "blogger". It almost sounds like the british word "bugga" not the same meaing of course). Something like "he's a real blogger that one is". My husband and son watch british soccer league games on TV and some of the british commentators say some pretty funny things to describe what's going on during the game.

I'm suppose to post my comments on the tutorial of the 71/2 habits of lifelong learning. I was trying to see which of the 7-1/2 describes me. I think I'm a dead ringer for 1/2 habit although I would like to think that I'm a little of all 7. I think now that I'm older and my kids are pretty much "grown-up", I especially liked #7 - teach/mentor others. I do some volunteering with the Howard County Public Schools. I guess I never looked at volunteering as a learning experience for myself as well as giving back to others. I truly enjoy working with the young kids. The tutorial gave me an opportunity to look at myself and helped me to realize that I should not be afraid or not have enough confidence in myself to learn new things. I hope blogging will also be a way to teach and learn from others as well.