Task 23- Final Thoughts

My final thoughts on 23 Things. I have enjoyed most of the tasks and learning about the new technologies. Some I found frustrating, such as Flickr and others I found I could spend a lot more time on, like LibraryThing. I can see that some would be applicable to work, such as RSS feeds and some to personal life, like iGoogle page. I really think I will use it more.

Unfortunately, when some of the links were broken or you were directed to an example that wasn't there, a lot of time was spent looking for these or assistance in working your way around this.

I am glad I did 23 Things but felt that I was rushed at the end to complete it as a lot of projects came up and made finding the time during the week difficult. This has left me thinking that I will still need to go back revisit some when I have more time.

In summary, I feel that I am no longer a Gen X struggling with Gen Y technologies, only a couple but hey, I can ask my Gen Y colleagues.

Task 22- Social Networking,,,,,

To be social or anti-social????

MySpace, Facebook & Twitter all modern Web2.0 applications for socialising. Time & distance are longer barriers to keeping touch with others all you need is a computer and an internet connection. It is a way of the younger generations and perhaps some older techno savs keeping in touch with family and friends.

I looked at Facebook, opened an account and was greated immediately by my nephews. Just goes to show the cool Aunty can become cooler by becoming a Facebook Friend. Now that I have a Facebook page I may tend to visit a little as I have found some other friends on the site.

So Facebook yes, Twitter maybe and no to MySpace afterall Facebook is enough.

Task 21- Twitter

Twitter!? What is all the fuss about? That is what I first thought and now I know.
Yes it has its place and some people are interested in what others are doing all the time. For me, it is something that I am not sure I would use regularly. We have all heard about it and know a little bit about it. Actually watching the television a few nights ago and add came on, and there is a guy sitting on the lounge 'voice twittering'. My husband said to me, "Is that twittering? What is the point?" I guess this is the reaction of many people.

I have to say even though I may not keep it up, but it was a nice simple task.

Task 20- Podcasts, Smodcasts

Podcasts are increasing in popularity particularly in Libraries. Here in the library we used them as part of O-week.
Yet, I found this task frustrating and to be honest gave up. I started eager but when the links did not work for Yahoo and Podcast.net. I tried Podcastalley but did not find it user friendly.
I am still interested in learning more about Podcast but after spending a while and getting nowhere, even speaking to a fellow 23 Thing colleague. I simply gave up.

Task 19- YouTube

YouTube is one of those sites you can go to find many things from video clips for our favourite songs, snippets on different things, (like the man cold) and also the UQ Law Revue. It is one of these that I have added "I still call St Lucia home." I hope you enjoy it.

In fact I could spend a lot time on YouTube but we do have to stop sometime.

Task 18- iGoogle

Wow! My own homepage in iGoogle. It is easy. The thought of having a customised page on the Internet was something that I had always steered away from thinking how hard it would be. I have never wanted to create a website but do get tired of going to a number of sites to get what I need or want. The website said "Create your own home page in less than 30 seconds" and yes you can. I believe that I will use this. I will probably also use Google Docs as it is there on my homepage.

A nice simple task that did not take too long to do like some of the other tasks.

Task 17- Google

Google Maps... is this the demise of the atlas and the street directory. As a child I used to love sitting and looking at the atlas, the countries, states and trying to find my hometown. But now we can look at all that on the web, via Google, including getting directions.
I did find it interesting, I put in for directions from work to home, and the two alternate routes it gave are basically the way I travel with an average travel time of 1hour 10 minutes which becomes just over 11 hours if I was walking.

Google Docs....just another word processing program. But I believe it has advantages, some similar to Wikis. Just like a Wiki information can be shared by a number of people who are working on a presentation or assignment together (very good for group assignments with external students). It has the versatility of being able to work on a number of different formats such as PowerPoint presentations. The portability is another advantage of being able to access from any computer. Certainly something to keep in mind.

Tasks 15 & 16- Wikis

Wikipedia and Wikis.

I for one very rarely go to Wikipedia for information on the Internet. When I see it an alarm bell goes off and a little voice says STOP!!! I guess it comes back to being told "Wikipedia is not an academic resource and not always accurate." I will always go to another resource first. I know children often use it for assignments at school and that is probably okay in primary school. It just disturbs me when I have a uni student come to the desk and show me his assignment. He had only used one resource Wikipedia. Not for an academic assignment so it was off to start again.

Wikis on the other hand like LibNet I enjoy. It is so much easier than the old system, but somethings are still just as hard to find. I often add things to LibNet and find it easy. I honestly think that it would be useful at work and also for other things as well, such as sporting groups. Sure would be easier than sending texts all the time.

I enjoyed looking at the other wikis, but like someone else mentioned. I couldn't bring myself to edit any as I am always cautious of ruining someone's wiki entry or wiki in general.

Task 14- Technorati

Visual overload!!! Too much on the page... all the advertisements are distracting. There is so much information that navigating the site could be considered difficult. Too many distractions.
After completing the exercise and looking at some of the blogs. My final thoughts are tagging can work to help with searching blogs but this is not a site for me.

Task 13- Del.icio.us

Keeping in with the del.icio.us theme, my first search was chocolate desserts. This lead me on a piece by piece journey to some interesting recipes. But I will admit like some others I found it not as easy to search.

I was surprised by my final search, bush walking which lead me down a path to various locations and onto accommodations sites. I could have booked a room at a hotel in Tasmania (probably not good for snap decisions).

I could see the advantages of sharing tags between colleagues working on conference papers etc and computers. But I am not sure how this works. Perhaps if I had an account which I didn't at the time as do not see an immediate need.

It is not a bad site and I think I could use it in the future.

Task 12- LibriVox

LibriVox vs book on tape. I guess LibriVox is a modern version of books on tape. I have never been a big on audio books personally but do see the advantages for some. Those who like to catch up on books while doing other tasks, such as exercising, or traveling to work.

I guess for me LibriVox is not something that I will be rushing to use. I like to find the time (can be a little hard these days) to sit down with a book, and read the pages creating my own experience.

I also found listening to some of the books, that the reader didn't have the same expression, some were a little droll and with a basic white screen with the bar running across it added to the lack of interest. Perhaps if the coloured waves were added like you get with music, I may have enjoyed it more.

Task 11- Google Books

Google Books is a tool I thought I was familiar with but discovered not necessarily true. Like most technologies and everyday things in our lives we merely touch the surface. I have used Google Books primarily to look for books that I am having trouble sourcing but that is only one aspect of it.

Who knew you could create your own library?

I also took the time to explore it a little more and found an interesting quote from one of the authors here is an excerpt from her quote:
"Someone asked me recently, 'Meghann, how can you say you don't mind people reading parts of your book for free? What if someone xeroxed your book and was handing it out for free on street corners?' I replied, 'Well, it seems to be working for Jesus.'"
Meghann Marco
(accessed via Google Books http://books.google.com/googlebooks/thoughts.html on 22/06/09).

Task 10- LibraryThing

Okay,,,, I will confess this was my favourite task. A few years ago, I went to Library 2.0 session in which they talked about LibraryThing. I initially thought it was for Librarians and people who love cataloging books. Cataloging is not an area of interest of mine....I like to be a librarian who is out there with the people.
But was I mistaken. I loved LibraryThing and finding other people who like the same books as me, (usually not Librarians but the average person reading for pleasure). Afterall my favourite author, Di Morrissey, is not one of great scholarly information but a great author for recreation. To the point I have converted many people, including a sister who never read before I gave her a Di Morrissey book. Now she has more than me.
LibraryThing was a task I found hard to pull myself away from. After looking at it here at work I then went home and spent another hour or so on it.
I will be returning and you do not have to catalogue!!!

Task 9- RSS Feeds

Okay... I am nearly converted.

Yes as I read other blogs I can see the advantages of RSS feeds. To be honest I have often looked at sites and thought it would be nice to have an RSS feed instead of having a number of 'favourites". Yes still a IE user at home( and usually at work), and as mentioned it does not work with IE or at least that is what the tutorial states. Thank you for Google in helping to find the tutorials in task 8.

However, after visiting some of the suggested sites I have set up a few on my Blogline account. Now the question is will I go back into it.... remember to or find the time to look at it.

RSS feeds have been around for a while and as time is showing they are lasting the power of time. It has been a couple of years,,, so I am guessing that it will stay the case as for Twitter I am not so sure. I will see what all the fuss is about when I get to that task..

Task 8- Bloglines

In a previous life I attended a session on RSS feeds. But walked away thinking information overload not from the class but from subscribing to so many feeds.
Now I was forced (well I volunteered for 23 things) to look at RSS feeds. So with a new found interest I launched into setting up my account with Bloglines. It was not hard except the email they sent went into my junk mail folder and took a little while to find. Subscribing to the feeds was easy but making it public is where I struggled for quite awhile before giving up. The instructions were not the best and the screen grab???
I think there are advantages to using RSS feeds in work, especially to assist with areas of interest or new publications. But like most things I can easily see one becoming swamped with information.
Let's see how it works for now.....
Okay off to task 9.

Task 7- Technologies

This task asks us to think about technology and comment on one. This is difficult as we are surrounded by technology all day, from every day things such as the alarm clock, television, to the computer we are using now. Technology dictates nearly all aspects of our lives from travel, to cooking and in the way we communicate with each other. I often think of people in the older generations, our grandparents, and parents, who saw the development of television and telephones. What do they think of the way we communicate these days? I recently had an interesting conversation with my 7 year old step-son recently. It was my mother's birthday, and he said to me, "Send her a text message", I replied, "Nana doesn't have a mobile phone." He looked at me and said "Send her an email". I replied, "Nana doesn't have a computer and doesn't know how to use one." He looked at me again, sighed and said "Send her an old fashioned card then." This made me realise how dependent on modern technology the younger generation are now, imagine what it will be like when they are adults.
I guess if I had to think of one technology that is one of those that is big in some areas is Twittering, even though most people do not carry through with it for long. Recently, I heard one of the astronauts on the recent space mission, was a twittering each day with reports. It was interesting to listen to these each morning on the radio. But why do people twitter and who follows them??
Finally, I have posted some comments on the blogs and agree that Wordpress blogs are more difficult to post to. All the blogs are proving interesting to read and some have great photos. Who knows I may get game myself and post a photo or two!!!

Task 5 & 6 - Flickr & Picasa

To me flickr equals frustration. As you can tell by the delay in tasks this is where frustration really kicked in. I like many others tried to use Firefox and this just added to the frustration.
Why didn't I leave it and go on with other tasks.... I wonder but being someone who likes to work in order, or do most things in orderly fashion. It was not in my nature, just ask anyone who has ever been to a market with me.
Now Picasa is a different story. I felt at ease with Picasa even though I have never worked with Web Albums. My husband introduced me to Picasa this year, for croping photos, touching up photos in the preparation of a family event. We had over 300 photos to touch up and Picasa was a life saver. Picasa is definetely my choice over Flickr any day. But in all fairness maybe I gave up to easily.
As for "where in the world" one bit of advise...do not follow me!!!!

Welcome to My 23 Things Blog

Here it is my first blog and posting. I guess it is time for this Gen x to move into the times of Gen y. Actually what is this comparison between the different generations and technology. Do we really have to join society and focus on the differences between the generations. I will admit I like shows that keep challenging my mind, some really do challenge, like "Are you smarter than a Fifth Grader?" I would watch with the husband and children and often found one of us ducking off to do a quick Google search. What are they teaching in schools these days??? Hang on I never did see any of the teachers do well (especially the fifth grade teachers). However, I have been waiting for the new show, a quiz show with the 3 generations going up against each other. I am pleased to say that the sample questions for my generation I know, after all who does not know 'the plane, the plane'??
I guess this can be linked to the traditional ideas of life long learning. Thinking about what we were taught at school that was going to take us on through our lives. Yet, this activity goes to reinforce the saying, 'you should learn something new each day'. It does not have to be from reading a book but could be from sitting and observing children at play.
After sitting through the Lifelong Learning tutorial I have to say that I find the teaching and mentoring the easiest. I love teaching a class or an individual a new skill, it gives me a sense of satisfaction. Like sitting back watching a child read a book, knowing that you have helped to teach them to read. However, it does not all come easy as I find the hardest is to have confidence in myself, as a competent, effective learner. It is a skill that I hope to improve by participating in this project.
Looking forward to the challenge.....