Of the 23 things that we spoke of in years past, some have gone by the wayside.

Even some things that we used for our Full Sail work.  Like "Wordle" which has now become a game.  Learnist is gone as are some of the others.

Story bird is still around although I am pretty sure that my account has been disabled.  Story bird is a place where a person (a child or adult) can write stories.  They supply illustrations and the author writes the story that goes with it.  or the author has an idea for a story, then uses their illustrations for their story.  It is a pretty unique way to get students to write.

Another program to get students to write is the Young Author's program during National Novel Writing Month.  I have not use this, but have been involved with NaNoWriMo for a while.  It seems like a pretty good program.

 It has been a wild ride since 2019.  I have learned so much.  I have worked with Google docs for the past 6 months and have seen it's shortcomings.

Labels are one of the things that it is lacking and it could have been used.

Oh, well.

As for learning anything new.  Not really, been too busy working.

learnist has gone by the wayside.  At least I can't find it.  I have used several sites to purchase items online.

Still using various blog postings.  I had to use one for a writing class several years ago.
Learning platforms that I have used include" Coursera, Udemy, and GCFL.  I have practiced typing, used Lynda.com, Gale Online.

I have researched using several of the databases available at the public library and used email almost every day.

I have used Dabble, ProWriting Aid and Auto crit to edit and revise literary ramblings.  I am part of several Facebook groups.

Yes, things have disappeared. One of the sites used by Full Sail for experimentation is no longer being used.  They started that after I left.  That was almost 8 years ago.  I cannot believe how time flies.

I have used more of the 23 things that were available.

I now have an Instructional Design and Technology Master's Degree.  I have used Facebook, Wordle, Animoto, YouTube, online games and many other new technologies.  Also in my instructional technologies I have worked with Blogger, wikis, and Word Press.  My iWeb page has moved to Word Press.  I have written blogs, worked with wikis and taught how to use various web 2.0 products to teach.

Unfortunately, iWeb and the Google pages no longer exist.  I am using Symbaloo to keep track of my book marks.  I have used Udemy, Coursera and Stanford Online to learn more about the world.

I am part of Pinterest, Ravelry and Craftsy.  I am also part of the Storybird community. Wow, who would have thought that being online was so much fun!

I have also used Learnist to show what I have learned.  I have updated my blog on a regular basis.

Continuing on....

Well, i cannot say that I have done a lot online. I have kept to using very few of the new technologies. I did start some kids on Blogspot, but they didn't have enough to use it thoroughly. More things are online that I wish that I could learn to use. May be this school year, while I am working on my education, i will take more time to discover what is out there. Meanwhile, keep on keeping on and continue to learn!

Wordle

Wordle is a Web 2.0 tool that allows you to play with words.  It can be used for brainstorming, poetry, definitions, and just about any type of writing that you might want to do.

Wordle can be found at: www.wordle.com.

Go animate!

This is a web 2.0 feature that allow a person to use animation without the knowledge of Flash.  You can create slide shows and other picture type things with it.

It looks like something that is a little harder to use, but I haven't quite figured it out yet.

here we are again.

This is a new blog for a different purpose. Instead of 23 things it is ETC.

Keep on learning!

I have at least looked at Second Life and if I ever do get it figured out, I will play it.

There are still many things to learn and do and there will be plenty of time to do it this summer!

Good luck to those who are doing it for the first time.

Thing 24: Things I would still like to do

I did not get a chance to see Second Life or the Pirate Game, so I am hoping that I can look at it this summer. If either of them are rpg games, then I would be interested in playing them.

I would also like to start posting my some of my writings on Docs so that I can get some ideas on how things should happen. It may be interesting to get some feedback.

I may revisit other 2.0 items... Like Library 2.0. Check for me there

And I may be back here to blog and let you know what I have been up to.

Thing 22: Keep learning!

What did I find useful? Despite the fact that I was not able to access several items there were some things that I did find useful. LibraryThing, Library 2.0, gmail, this blog and some of the photo sites were good. I have already discussed what I thought was a waste of time.

What will I do to keep learning? Add more books to librarything, maybe check out Webjunction and listen to more podcasts from St. Cloud State.

What will I do with students? Have them work with photos more, start doing web pages and get more involved with what is on the web so that they don't use Google for their research.

Thing 21: Other social networking

I was not able to get into most of the social networking sites however, Library 2.0 was available. I set up my site and looked around. There are interesting things on this network. I think this is more valuable to librarians than other social networking sites.

This is something that I would consider joining rather than other places.

Thing 19: Podcasts

I listened to podcasts from St. Cloud State University. It was interesting to hear media specialists from two sides. One said that she would like to have her kids do pod casts, the other thought that since they did not allow MP3 players or anything like that it would be not necessary to do podcasts, since the kids could not listen to them anyway. They also do not allow things like music or videos in the computer lab.

I also attended a workshop on Staff Development Day in my district on podcasting and found that it would be quite easy to do. We also have a radio station in our district so there may be a possiblity that a pod cast would be interesting. However, since our kids are so far behind in their other learning of technology it is not even something I would currently consider, although for a special project, it might be fun.

Thing 20: Facebook and MySpace

this is the other thing that I have been fighting against since becoming a media specialist. People using Facebook and MySpace in the library when they are supposed to be doing educational pursuits. The first district that I worked in was more of a problem and I even got an answer from one person that, "no one sees it except from our zip code". I was wondering where they got such a naive idea.

YALSA has a presence on MySpace. I cannot say how a library could use MySpace since most school libraries have access blocked. One states national education association has asked it's teachers to not have a MySpace presence. There are too many problems with what is going on with MySpace. Like pediophiles and the girl who caused another to commit suicide. I have not really seen much good come out of these social networking sites. Mostly bad. Again it is another reason why people cannot use computers at the public libraries. People are on these social networking sites so that others who need library time for actual research cannot access computers.

Thing 18: Discover YouTube and Google Video

What I have seen on YouTube is not anything I would be remotely interested in. However, when I went to Google video, I found a copy of the Last Lecture. The Last Lecture was given by a dying professor and his story has recently been on Oprah and Primetime. I was able to watch this vide and found it quite moving.

It is possible that it is easier for students to use Google video as it will not be blocked as YouTube is in our district. I would prefer that students produce their own videos and use them as they need to.

I have also found that many videos on the internet are not things that I wish for my own children to see let alone those I am teaching. However, things on specific sites, like PowerMedia or United Streaming are better for teaching.

Thing 17: ELM productivity tools

How can these tools benefit your students? If they can access them, it will give them an opportunity to use reference materials that a school does not have. By getting access, I mean being able to get onto a computer, and have a library card. Some schools have ELM as part of their electronic resources. Students need to use these resources and not depend on search engines such as Google to do their research for them. My experience with students doing research is that they go on Google, type in their keyword and spend hours looking through what they could use, not really knowing the types of materials that are legitimate or even trustworthy. I am from the old school which learned to research by searching encyclopedias, dictionaries, card catalogs and research abstracts. Kids these days do not always know what some of these books are, so we as media people have to teach them how to do it.

Thing 15: Online games

I was not able to try this as I have no access. This is one of two things that I have been fighting against in the four years I have been a media specialist. It is apparently the only reason that teens believe that they need to use the computer in the library. It is one of the things that we have recently blocked so that kids are using computers for things like research or schoolwork.

In my previous district the kids who were the worst offenders (playing games) were ones who were using laptops and we could not ask them to get off the laptops as we did not know what they were doing.

The public library is full of people playing online games. It is disturbing to me who would actually want to use a computer for research or business to have to wait because people are playing games. A public library had to quit having 2 hour computers because so many people were using the computers for games instead of legitimate uses. So do I think online gaming has a place in a library? no. Sorry.

Thing 16: ELM Research Calculator

How can I use this with kids? I think this would be a good thing to keep kids on track with what they need to do for say a History day project. It tells them everything that they need to do and when things need to get done. It would give them short deadlines to give them success in getting a long term project done.

It would also inform them of the little bits that needed to be done, thus there is not a push at the end of the project to finish everything in a hurry. I really like it.

Thing 13: online productivity tools

Which start page did you use? Well, I looked at iGoogle and picked a start page that I thought was more outdoors, but it wasn't. Looking at all the calendars and stuff, it would be good if I had access to the internet 24/7. But I am living cheaply and still depend on my paper and pencil calendars.

I can see using these if I had a PC (also which I do not). Personally, I do not see me using any of these soon. However, it might be good to show kids especially iGoogle when they want to learn about web design.

There are a lot more things on the web than there ever was, it is hard to keep track of where everything is.

Thing 14: LibraryThing

I visited librarything once before, but never really did anything. I can see where this would be a good site for librarians. I have added several of my books, but since I really don't know what is currently in my library, I had to guess. I also added a picture of my favorite author, (Sue Grafton).

My books were not real popular, about 800-1000 hits, but then Grafton is fairly well known. Other books may be more popular, like Patterson or anything on Oprah's list. I need to spread out a bit and read things other than mysteries.

How could this be used? Maybe if there were children's books listed in the library, it would be interesting to see how many hits different books got and whether anyone had reviews on it.