Thing 23: Final Thoughts

I am done! This took more hours than I thought. But it was worth it. I learned so much.
The “Things” I enjoyed the most were Wikies, YouTube, and Facebook.
I can't think of anything that you could do to make this program better. It was a great learning experience. I would definitely participate in a program like this again.

Thing 22: What Did I Learn Today?

The first thing I am going to do is take the time and review some of the 23 Things on a Stick. I felt a time crunch, so I don't feel like I really learned everything that I could of.
As I go through them, I am going to start a notebook to keep track of all the "Things" I signed up for and needed passwords. That was pretty confusing at times.
When I feel comfortable with all this new information, I want to really explore ways I can use it at school with other staff members and my students.

Thing 21: Beyond MySpace: Other Social Networks

I am a member of MySpace and Facebook. I joined Library 2.0 Interest Group
(Internet & Technology – Websites) through my Facebook account. I, also, joined Ning. I added the Ning badge and one of the Ning widgets.
MySpace and Facebook are more family and friend networking. I think I’ll start using Ning more for a social network with other professionals.

Find more videos like this on 23 Things on a Stick

Thing 20: Libraries and Social Networks

I already have a Facebook account. So, I signed up in MySpace to try something new. Right now, I am just using them for networking and understanding how they work. (I have family members using both accounts.) After looking through them, I think I like Facebook better. It just seems more private. So, I invited more friends to my Facebook account and I joined the Library 2.0 Interest Group.

Thing 19: Podcasts

Podcast.com and Podcast.net were the easiest directories to use. I liked how they were organized. Yahoo Podcasts was just a search engine – not very helpful!
At this point, I don’t think I am quit ready to attempt my own podcast. But, I did find an interesting one that I linked to my Blog.

Teaching for the Future @ podcast.com

Teaching for the Future @ podcast.com

Thing 18: YouTube & Other Online Video

I had fun exploring YouTube and Google Video. There isn’t much difference between the two. Many of the videos were very creative and very funny. I wanted to stay with my fantasy theme, so I did a “fantasy” search. I found some awesome videos – sand fantasy by Dato and Ilana Yahav. You can see an example below.
It was fun exploring, but I would be very cautious having these sites available. Like you wrote, all things are there to see - the good, the bad, and the ugly.
There are many ways to use videos on a library Web site. It could be a teaching tool, a way to introduce what is available at the library – not just books, recorded book talks, etc.

Thing 17: ELM Productivity Tools

The first thing I did was add ELM to my toolbar.

Gale/Cengage Learning: I thought I would do one better and set up my own search that would help me out professionally and be applied to my everyday work. So, I set up a search alert for a subject in some educational articles. There are a lot out there.

EBSCO: I almost gave up on this one. The "short video" link took forever to connect. Then it went so fast I could not understand it. I finally explored on my own. I think I got it. I had fun starting a web page but wasn't sure what to do with it after I saved it.

ProQuest and NetLibrary were interesting, also. But, I got more excited with Kids InfoBits. I could definitley use this in my classroom for fun little research projects.

Thing 16: Student 2.0 Tools

This is a great idea! The Assignment Calculator helps university students create a timeline to get their project finished in time. I like the little tips they include and the recommended resources for extra help. It will even send e-mail reminders. I wish I had this available when I went to school.
The Research Project Calculator is another great tool. It not only helps high school students, it helps teachers. I personally couldn't use it in the primary grades. But, I am going to talk to the teachers in the middle to high school grades to see if they know that RPC is available.

Thing 15: Online Games and Libraries

I like playing games on the computer. So, I was very disappointed when I could not get into Puzzle Pirates. It keeps saying that there is a temorary network outage or server is down for maintanence.
I checked out Second Life. It reminded me a little of SIMS. You can create your own person in that game also. As for the role of Second Life and other games in libraries, I quess it gets the kids through the door.