Thing #23-Is this really the end? Or just the beginning...

What a mind-boggling learning experience. My brain is still trying to absorb so much information in so little time. I wish we could take time and really focus on 5 0r 6 different "things". I realize this class was to give us an overview of all the various web 2.o tools that are available. This class definitely accomplished its goals. During this experience I found some areas I will explore further and others did not interest me. I would like to learn more about Library Thing, NetLibrary and online generators. Since I am not in a classroom or a school, at the moment, I can see using all of these on a personal level. I would consider taking another discovery class in the future. Only a few more comments to add to other blogs and I am finished...yeah!!!

Thing #22-Audiobooks (or "The end is in sight")

This area was great fun to explore. I have never really been into audiobooks but I noticed some very interesting ones I might want to try. I have always been a big fan of the public libraries and this is just one more aspect to use. I like the concept of the media center. This allows you maintain a free library of audiobooks and anything else you download. Open culture was also great. There was a nice selection of every type of genre available. I will definitely investigate ebooks and audiobooks further. We are going on a couple of long driving trips this summer and this would be an ideal time to download a couple of books for the trip.

Thing #21-Podcasts, smodcasts

Podcasts are great! My favorite was Odeo. I liked the way it was set up by genres and was very easy to search. I enjoyed looking at the education and hobby areas. I can see this being useful by having students create their own podcast for a class. I can envision students recreating a historical event and videoing it for the class. I will explore it more when this class is over.

Thing #20-You too can YouTube

I am very familiar with YouTube, though I must admit I use it mainly for watching music videos. While searching videos for this "thing" I explored beyond the box. I thought of what these could be used for in an educational setting. I worked at a school where there was a 50's & 60's unit. This unit took about 6 weeks to complete and involved research, a quiz bowl and designing a project. I thought students could use YouTube to find videos or shows related to that time period. I found some very interesting videos and commericals. I've posted here the first McDonald's commerical. Students could learn how to embed the videos in their powerpoints.

Thing #19-Discovering Web 2.0 tools

Wow, this is a great website! Lots of information in one spot. I explored several Web 2.0 tools, such as books and jobs. I found one called Wufoo, which is an area to build forms or surveys. I think this could be useful for a teacher or librarian to build a survey evaluating teaching/library resources/books etc. This is done all online so the students can access it anywhere. Students can also create forms for their assignments or whatever is needed. You can use it for free on a limited basis or there are a variety of prices for more usage. I can't wait to play around with this one some more.

Thing #18-publishing Zoho

One large benefit to web-based applications is that they eliminate the need to worry about
different software versions or file types as you e-mail documents or move from PC to PC. Another bonus is that they easily accommodate collaboration by allowing multiple users to edit the same file (with versioning) and provide users the ability to easily save and convert documents as multiple file types (including HTML and pdf).

Thing #18-Web-based Apps: They're not just for desktops

I like the concept of web applications. This is helpful when your version of a word processor doesn't match another one (i.e. working from home and sending to PSD....which has the older version of Word). I can see me using this just for that purpose. This would also work great for students to create their work and open it up wherever is needed. I like the idea of not worrying about what version you need to save the document. Zoho was very easy to use easy to convert into different file types.

I published Zoho to my blog. I should have saved as a draft first and then added the comments to it. It was easy.

Thing #17-Playing around wikis

I did not find PB Wiki very useful. First, I had a difficult time getting logged on and then I found it not very user friendly. I think there are plenty of other wikis out there to use.