Thing 23: One Last Thought

Well, I must admit, it is really nice to be done with the 23 things if I think of it as an assignment for my professional development. But, what an awesome experience this has been! I want to thank Helene Blowers for developing the 23 things and all the people who were involved in the program. I loved how we could do it at any time of the day or night, and spend as much or little time as we wanted or could. I won't lie and say "oh, it was no big deal!!" This was a huge time taker for me...many times 2 whole hours would have quickly flown by, and sometimes I'd get frustrated because I had so many other things I had to do. This was exciting though, and I plan on sharing many of these tools with my staff and students at school. Again, thank you very much for making it happen. What a great experience!

Thing 22: What did I learn today?

So, just how am I going to keep up with all these new things I've learned about? Well, ideally I would like to continue daily, with at least reading some of the RSS feeds, and checking out the new MEMO SID I added today. I am planning on doing some staff development with my staff and students about some of the new things - the delicious, flickr, big huge labs, library 2.0, etc. I know the challenge will definitely be taking time every day. But I already take plenty of time each day for email, so I think it is realistic to add something every day to looking at email. Perhaps it'll only be one thing in addition to email, but that'll be more than I have been doing. If I allow myself to say it's OK to just do little by little, then I think I can do it. I really want to thank the people who put 23 things together. It has been a very educational experience. Thanks to you all!

Thing 21: Beyond Myspace/other social networks

Well, it was very interesting to see all the social networks that are out there. I only tried a few and started to take up TONS of my precious time, so I had to stop. But I did join a few. I joined playlist.com, Webjunction and the Ning 23 Things on a stick group and Teacher Librarian Ning. To be honest, I'm not sure how often I will have time to visit these social networks. I have had some fun with facebook, but once again, it was taking so much time! I can see how great it is though, to join these and have other people with like interests to communicate with each other. I suppose it might be fun to create a school group that I could use with my teachers at school - but then again, I'm not sure how much time teachers could dedicate to it. Everyone is so swamped all the time. Any other opionions on this out there?

Thing 20: Social Networking

WEll, I finally joined facebook.com. It was kind of bittersweet for me because it has been tough for me to watch my own daughters using facebook, worrying that they were giving away too much personal information and that it may come back to haunt them someday. But I can really see how it has been a great communication tool for them and they will probably continue to use it throughout their life, regardless of what mom thinks! I did add 2 friends and joined the librarianfacebook group. I'm looking forward to hearing what the group has to say. Even though I really dragged my feet on this thing, I really do think if we librarians are going to be "with it", we must move forward with technology, not drag our feet!

Thing 19: Podcasts

I listened to Minnesota Public Radio and the Directory of MN Produced Podcasts. I immediately recognized the voices of the MPR morning program guys on their podcast, which was fun! I even created my own, short little podcast over the phone with Gcast, which was very very easy. I prefer the lay out of the Yahoo podcast directory. I can see how using podcasts could be beneficial at school, giving directions on how to do something for students, and also for family - recording a message for family members overseas when there is no phone access, but is computer access!
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Thing 18: YouTube

Thing 17: ELM Productivity tools

OH MY GOODNESS. OK, I have spent the last hour and 1/2 on this thing! But yes, it was worth it. I really enjoyed creating the web page - but I have a question for you fellow librarians out there...can you post this page on the web for free? Don't you have to have a hosting site? or is it actually ELM that would do this for you? That's pretty cool. I did try to put an image on mine, but couldn't understand the directions how to make the image appear. That's when I really starting feeling inadequate on this one.
Once again, since I teach elementary kids, the academic search premier, netlibrary and proquest all seemed too advanced for them to use. But I most certainly would like to share these free databases for my staff! Some of them would really use it for their own professional growth, while others would give up and say they didn't have the time. It truly is wonderful that all Minnesotans can take advantage of these free resources. Thanks for making them available.