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.