THE END

I can't believe I have completed the 23 Things. When I first started this program I was easily frustrated. My blog reflects that. I think it was because the most difficult discoveries were early on in our learning. Bloglines was a killer. I might not have been so defeated if Bloglines was later in our learning. Some of the easier activities were ones we just completed. Experience with some of the easier more popular sites might have made the more difficult ones a little easier if they came later in the list of discoveries. As I worked my way through the lessons I found some I enjoyed a lot more than others: Flickr, Web applications, Facebook, and the biggest surprise to me, keeping up my blog. I hate to write but enjoyed recording my learnings.

I discovered that Learning 2.0 opened conversations with fellow workers and anyone that would listen to me. Four of us at Weed participated and we often shared our experiences and offered help to each other. I was able to help Shelley save here URLs from her Bloglines feeds to the lesson tracker. It was satisfying answering questions asked of me by fellow workers. Friends heard my tales as I worked on lessons. One friend in particular, Jim, was encouraging. I often thought of giving up but he would convince me that it was worth going on. He also offered ideas which helped me get through the Bloglines blues. "Focus on something you're interested in" were his words of advice. "You like the UCONN Huskies womens' basketball. Look for blogs written about them. That would be a good place to start." It worked. I found feeds in the Hartford Courant and the Connecticut Post. That was the beginning of my Bloglines success.

If I had not participated in Learning 2.0 I would never have done some of the activites I was exposed to through the weekly Discoveries. I would never had done a blog. I would never have opened a Facebook account. Del.icio.us and Technorati were never part of my vocabulary. My Pictures is where I house all my photos. Now I know I can store them some where else--Flickr so others can see them. Will I continue to do that? I don't know. Facebook. Will I continue to keep that account? Do I want to continue my social networking? I don't know. The teen tech did show me I could cancel it. That makes me feel better knowing that is an option. I never conquered Rollyo. I tried several times and was defeated by that search engine activity.

I now have some new words to add to my vobulary list thanks to this technology workout:
tags URL, HTML, XTL(?) Del.icio.us
authority RSS Technorati
blogshpere WIKI feeds
blog LibraryThing
Each word has taken on new meaning since completing this technology workout. There is an ad on TV for medical care for the elderly. At the end of the ad the people say, "I'm old, I'm bold, Get used to it." That's me. "I'm old but wiser. I'm bold and smarter. I'm a technological wizard." What will I do now? No mail from Maura. No lessons to complete. I'll live. It's holiday time. Thanks Maura and Learning 2.0. I had a great time.

Facebook and Second Life

I played with both sites tonight and during break time at work today. I showed Second Life to Marilee. I am amazed at the time people must spend participating in Second Life. Marilee and I looked at the events list. There was a yard sale going on, Christmas parties being organized etc. I watched CSI NY a few weeks ago and their show was based on a murder that used Second Life. Luckily one of the detectives knew about Second Life and was able to get involved and the murder was solved. Wonderful television story. That show did make me curious about virtual life. This Learning 2.0 discovery provided the opportunity to learn a little more. I know I will never do anything more with Second Life, but it was intertesting to navigate the site.

I volunteered today at the school where I taught before retirment and was I telling the people in their library about Second Life. They were fastinated. The librarian told me about her son playing the virtual games. Another worker mentioned seeing the CSI NY show and that got her interested in Second Life. She did get on their site and checked it out but didn't do anything more than that. Learning 2.0 has opened up a lot of conversations with people I may never have talked to about technology.

Facebook is a little more my speed. I have two friends now; Marilee and Maura. I added a fluff friend thanks to Marilee. The teen tech taught me now to superpoke a friend. TodayI superpoked my two new friends. I can handle Facebook.

Second Life

This one is beyond me. I looked at several videso/slideshows. They are interesting but I am not interested in anything like Second Life. I can see where teens would really be taken with the Second Life teen site. Libraries could find the vitural world helpful. They could present many services via the virtual world. I can see where Second Life could create interesting jobs for the library, Don't ask me to apply for this job.

Facebook

That was a fun and easy discovery. I looked up Marilee on Facebook and found her. I also poked her--whatever that means. Marilee told me she found the email I had sent. Yea. It went through. We are trying to figure out what poking is/means/ She will let me know when she finds out on her Facebook page. I don't think this is something I will keep up. I don't know anyone, other than Marilee, that is on Facebook. It seems to me that the "younger" generation is into this kind of thing. I did look at LinkIn but found it too professional for me at this stage in my career. If I were in business and trying to network, it would be part of this site.

Avator

I edited my avatar that Maura helped me begin. I don't know how I got the new me into my blog. I copied but never pasted the URL into my blog. All of a sudden, there I was--the new me with long black pants instead of blue shorts, so not me. Another learning success. I am getting good.

The Winners

I just looked at several Winners: Fun Stuff--One Sentence
MedStory--asked a question about the shingles shot
Yahoo Local--investigated this one
I noticed several sites that we have already visited through our discoveries--Flickr, Technorati etc.

I liked Yahoo Local. It was easy to use because of the category listings to browse. One feature I found intriguing was the ratings and reviews of not only restaurants but services and businesses. There was a posting about an electrician and one about Sports Authority. It also listed the most popular searches for this week. It looked to me like they were "tagged". Whoa, that is a new word in my technology vocabulary due to Learning 2.0. Yahoo locals is in My Favorites. I did added a feed to Bloglines--Most Recent Say-So. Looked like a fun feed.

Once again, I liked this discovery. I discovered A LOT.

Fun Quotes

The hardest years in life are those between ten and seventy. -Helen Hayes (at 73)-

Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission. -Eleanor Roosevelt-

I got these quotes, along with several other, in an email. I liked most of them but thought these two were worth putting in my blog.

Web-Based Productivity Applications

This was an easy lesson and fun too. I looked at several of the applications. GoogleDocs was one I tried out. After writing a few sentences I tried changing font, font size, etc. It was easy because it was so much like Microsoft.

Because of Learning 2.0, I learned about these web based applications that I would never have found on my own. The word document applications are ones I will use. I also found a calendar on 30Days that I will use when preparing the pages schedules. Thanks for this easy and useful discovery.

What's Authority?

I found out, with Marilee's help, what it means when it says Authority with a number after a blog. Just click on authority--Marilee's advice--and it says "Reactions to blog". Yea, a new discovery.

Thank you Maura

What an afternoon at Weed. Maura helped us with our questions about our experiences with Learning 2.0. We appreciate your support.

Del.icio.us

I watched a great link on Del.icio.us tonight. It was entitled "Flight Patterns". Spectacular! I can see where Del.icio.us could be very useful to people that use the computer for work or for entertainment and view numerous blogs and links they are interested in reading daily. The tagging aspect makes finding topics of interest very easy. Connecting to what other people are viewing could be revealing. I most likely will not create an account with Del.icio.us but will visit it occasionally just for fun.

TECHNORATI REVISIT

I just spent 45 minutes looking over Technorati again. I looked for Learning 2.0 in Blog Directory and Blog Posts. I don't know if I found what this discovery wanted me to find , but I did find references to Learning 2.o. Under the Blog Directory, Learning 2.0, learning, and 2.0 were picked up as tags. Blog Posts seemed to find Learning 2.0 only. Again. I am amazed at what is blogged. Everyone seems to have something to say about something. And there are all kinds of folks looking to read others' blogs and comment on posts. This was an interesting discovery. I will probably revisit Technorati just out of courisity.

Technorati

Justed looked at Technorati. What a site. There is so much to explore I could be on Technorati all day. I looked at several favorite blogs. The Popular section was useful. I liked all of the headings being available. It made it easy to sort through numerous options/blogs. I crusied through sports, a fan of NCAA foot ball and basketball, and looked at some entertainment blogs. It is interesting how many people are out there blogging about everything. They must have a lot of time on their hands.

What is Authority I see attached to blogs?

Del.icio.us

I worked on this lesson off and on today--between patrons. I established an account but fail to see how it is much different than Bloglines or Favorites on AOL. I still have exploring to do and will do so over the next few days. Look again for my thoughts.