Thing 23 TheEnd!

Wow, I'm on thing 23!! I'd been doing a lot of the exercises but not posting. I finally sat down today and posted about the things I've looked at in the last couple of weeks. Now to finish it off!

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I think my favorite discovery was the Bloglines. I'm a news junkie and it now takes a lot less time to get my 'fix' than it used to.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
It has definitely helped. I finished this and plan to look for other self paced online learning opportunities. I really liked the 7.5 habits of life long learners. I feel I used all 7.5 of those, especially the last one, I played a lot.

Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I don't think surprised me is the right word. There were unexpected outcomes that I will definitely be using/returning to in the future.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?And last but not least…
I think it was great how it was set up. My biggest disappointment was trying to sign up for Merlin and never succeeding. I don't know if they were overwhelmed from number of us doing the 23 things. Maybe work with them in the future so we can actually sign up and use them.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?
Absolutely! I'd love to do this again.

How would you describe your learning experience in a few words or a few sentences, so we can share our successes and promote this program?
I never realized how much was out there. It takes time to look and learn but will save time in the future.

Thing 22 Audiobooks

This was the easiest for me because I'm already an audiobookaholic. I have used both Overdrive and Net Library. Net Library is nice in that there are unlimited copies of the books available. The draw back is having to register at the library ahead of time and needing to remember a login. The other drawback of net library is that to be able to listen to the audiobook on an MP3 player you have to download the higher quality larger file. Then when you download them to your MP3 player it downloads as one file. If you lose your place you have to start at the beginning or may have to fast forward through hours of book. I prefer the Overdrive system. You just use your library card number to check out a book. Overdrive books download in ~1 hour segments, less repeat if you lose your place. The draw back is that there are a limited number of copies available to check out. Since the check out period is always 3 weeks (can't return it early) if you get put on a waiting list, everyone ahead of you gets a 3 week turn so the wait for books can be months. PGCMLS dealt with this by forming it's own overdrive selection of books. Trouble there is they're not getting many of the new books that come out. I did a quick look at 6 books that have come out since June 1. PG County's overdrive had 1 of the books and Maryland Consortium had 5 of the 6. Trade off, fewer books but sooner access. I'll keep my card with another county so I have access to both!

Thing 21 Podcasts

Now this was overwhelming! There are so many podcasts out there you could spend hours looking for one. I did like the search on Podcast.net when you use the letter instead of typing in a search term. For instance, I searched knitting podcasts. When I searched under the term 'knit', I only got 4 podcasts. Two of those were about 'close knit groups', nothing to do with knitting. When I clicked in the 'k' and went down the list to knit, there were 12 for knit; one each for kniting(sic), knitter, and knitters; and 19 for knitting. The one I chose to add to my Bloglines was "Cast On" a humorous monologue and music and was under the 'knitting' category.

Thing 20 YouTube

There is no end to what you can watch on You Tube. More than you ever wanted to see ;-). Being a dog owner, I searched the pet pages. My favorite video was about feeding 100 dogs at once. Hope you enjoy the clip.

Thing 19 Award winners

I have already investigated or used many of the award winners on the Web 2.0 shortlist. Many of them already investigated while working on my 23 things. The one I chose is the PeerTrainer. This was under the category of health. It's a web site to provide peer support for dieting and exercise. Something we probably all need. Being a bit of an extrovert, having peer support can really help keep me on track to reach a goal. Sort of like comparing with my library friends the work and things we've learned on 23 things. Back to PeerTrainer, you can choose to belong to a group, which is limited to 4 members; or a team with unlimited membership. I chose to join a vegetarian group. Seeing as I've just joined it today, it's hard to say whether it will work for me but I have high hopes. As to how it affects library work, if I find it works I could suggest it to someone looking for group support for weight or exercise. This really is more for me though.

Thing 18 continued

I posted the previous blog directly from Zoho Writer. I thought it would stop where I could add to it but it went straight to a blog. It was very easy to use. I'm going to have to play around with it some more. As I said in Zoho Writer, I'd like to see a online database that could be used. I already use Google Calendars. Thats nice because we have one for each member of the family and superimpose all into one calendar, that way we can keep track of each other and what's coming up.

Thing 18

This is my practice document in Zoho Writer. The word processing is easy to use with symbols similar to Microsoft Write or Word Perfect. You can select different texts, fonts, formating styles. All in all, it seems like it would be very helpful/useful and a heck of a lot cheaper than Microsoft office or Word perfect. Now, I'd like to see an online database!