#23 Summary

And I am finished!! It has been a fun adventure of discovering new and fascinating ways to use my computer. Although it has taken me many hours, almost entirely done at home, I have really appreciated this method of learning how to find and do all the things available. Perhaps my favorites have been the things I can actually see myself using - flickr, You Tube, and generators, although these were actually some of the most frustrating ones to learn.

I would absolutely do this again. What I have learned is invaluable and I am sure I will be going back to many of these sites to learn and practice more. If another discovery program was offered I would certainly participate. For me personally, I would have liked more helpful hints and suggestions about how to do things, since I often struggled for long periods of time, finally having to ask family members or other staff how to do something. Looking at other staff blogs was often very helpful also. Thank you to whomever set this program up! It was probably my best learning experience in many years.

#22 Podcasts

I was surprised by how many podcasts there are available, but was also irritated by how many podcasts were in very poor taste, totally useless, or just stupid. It took a bit of searching to actually find something I was interested in listening to, but I guess after awhile I will know where to go and what to avoid. I found Yahoo to be the least helpful, but found some good gardening sites on Podcast.net which I added to my bloglines.

#21 You Tube

Unbelievable! I was amazed at all the video websites. I have watched You Tube and very much enjoy it, but was not aware of all the other sites.

I had a difficult time figuring out how to upload a video from You Tube at first, but I finally did it. I chose this video because I have a son in the Army, and realize all the sacrifices he and his family make for our country. No matter what our view is about the war in Iraq, men and women willing to serve our country deserve our gratitude and respect.

#20 Special Treat

The video was very confusing and difficult for me to follow since I am not computer savey in many ways. However, I believe that the ending brings food for thought. The ability to change almost everything on the internet causes one to not believe things simply because they are written on the internet. We must learn to question and decipher what is truth. It also should make us aware of what we ourselves are using the internet for and how we share information.

#19 Online Music

I have listened to Pandora before and really enjoy it, but was pleased to discover online radio. I bookmarked that also and am sure I will often use it. Downloading files and music has not interested me, so I doubt that I will ever pursue that avenue of online listening.

# 18 Social Networking

The popular networking sites are wonderful for those individuals who are confined to their homes, are lonely, or for some reason do not have much social interaction with others. It is a way for them to still communicate with others.

After looking up the information on the political candidates, I realized that it can also serve a purpose as a learning tool. I am better informed about the candidates now.http://www.facebook.com/home.php?

#17 Wikis

I personally enjoyed the BookLoversWiki and think it might be useful for Reader's Advisory . I wouldn't use Library Success often, but for those in charge of finding new and innovative resources, layouts, methods, or publicity, this would be a very valuable source.

The wikipedia idea is clever. I looked into the one on books and authors and it was very informative. I will use this when I want to research other subjects.

#16 Technorati and Blog Tagging

I search for quilting (again) on Technorati and got 22,ooo matches, most of them totally irrelevant. I thought a lot of time would probably be wasted searching blogs before finding some valuable information. From my viewpoint now I don't think I will use this site because I can use other sites more satisfactorily.

#15 Tagging

I created a del.icio.us account for quilting and found some really interesting sites which I think will be very useful. I tagged them and am eager to see what response I get over the next while. It is a site full of information. I am finding out that there are a million different ways to spend time looking for information on my computer.

# 14 Web 2.0

I tried several, but liked Event ( Eventful) for finding things to do in the area, and especially Health ( PEERtrainer) for ways to stay healthy. I will definitely be going back to Web 2.0 to check out other topics.

#13 Online Productivity

Zoho is pretty neat for making documents. I even think the spreadsheets might be really useful - now I just have to figure out a way to work it into my life to save time.

#12 Rollyo - Customized Search Engine

http://www.rollyo.com/search.html?q=gardening&sid=web

This might be a good way to find information about a subject, but I have a feeling it would involve a lot of time researching all the sites that appear. I did add it to my bookmarks, because I may at some point need information on a particular subject and this would be a good source.

#11 Library Thing

http://www.librarything.com/profile/hmartinus

I may go back and browse through more books and reviews later, but don't feel any need to catalog my books.

#10 Library 2.0

The rate at which libraries are changing is mind boggling. Patrons are still coming in looking for card catalogs. How we will manage to help these older people to feel comfortable using modern libraries will indeed be a challenge.

#9 Library Blogs

I found http://www.syndic8.com/ to be a very user friendly site for locating feeds, and signed up for several on gardening, news reports, and books.

#8 RSS feeds

http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs

I found feeds to be an easy way to keep up with several topics of interest and will probably use them for daily information.

#7 - Online Image Generators

I found the generators great fun to explore, but when I tried to download them to my blog I kept getting stuck.

Finally after much help from friends and family I managed to succeed.

http://www.imagechef.com/ic/flowers/

#6 Mash-ups

Hours could be spent browsing through all the flickr sites. I enjoyed the tag related browser and the flickr color picker.

#5 Explore Flickr

I found this thing very challenging. Having never worked with photos on a computer, I started at the beginning. Flickr was very interesting to explore, but getting it to actually work for my blog was an extreme challenge.

Gardening is my hobby of choice in the summer, so you may be seeing a few pictures of flowers on my blog.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

#4 Register Your Blog

After reading the list of 23 things as well as several staff blogs, I am eager to plunge in and try some of the amazing things that are possible to do with a computer.

# 3 - Lifelong Learning

Having fun is the easiest for me, and learning to have fun using the world of the computer is the reason for me in doing 23 things.

Most difficult is probably going to be using technology. This is not my strong point. Setting up this blog, picking a template, figuring out how to blog have already been a challenge. But I still have 3 months!