Summary

• Did I have fun? I had lots of fun, a little stress, feelings of accomplishment, the joy of learning new things.


• Did you find tools that you could use at work? I think that quite a few of the "things" could have work applications. The PB wiki has certainly worked well for us. Google Docs has great potential.


• Did you find tools that you could use personally? Definitely! I particularly like Flickr, YouTube, Del.icio.us, LibraryThing, and Google Maps.


• Did you enjoy working with your buddy? I didn't have a buddy, but Sara and Ann Margaret both helped me, which I was very grateful for.


• Are you ready for another Learning 2.0 experience? I would love to have the opportunity to learn more applications.


• How could we have made this experience better? I can't think of any way. The setup was easily manageable enough to make it very workable.

I really appreciate the thought, planning, and training that our "coaches" put into this. We have been very lucky to have this opportunity. I loved getting to learn new ways to use the Web with interaction involved.

Podcasts

I watched the 2 videos about podcasting and read all the information about them on the Catch 23 Thing 22 page. Podcasting looks interesting, but I don't think I am ready to get into it yet. For one thing, I don't have an Ipod or similar player yet. I tend to want to listen to music, if anything, while I am working, so I may check those files out. I did go onto Podcast Alley to look around; it will be fun to check out at some point.

YouTube

I've used YouTube for several years now, mostly when someone sends me an attachment for a funny video. In the last year, I've started searching for some videos on my own. It is a truly unique and wonderful website.
I looked for the TCU videos. There were lots of football and baseball ones. I looked at some of the TCU Marching Band Ones and a couple of other ones.
Oh, yes, I did watch the History of YouTube video and found it very interesting. I absolutely loved The Evolution of Dance video.
The 3 guys who came up with this concept are really gifted.

Google Maps and Google Earth

View Larger Map

I've used Google Maps for directions for quite some time. I still use Mapquest sometimes, also. I watched the video and searched Texas Christian University on the Satellite view. After a couple of tries, I got the TCU map pasted to my blog. I'm slowly getting the hang of some of these things (with Sara's help). I like the fact that you can explore places with Google Maps; I have a few places in mind that I intend to explore further.

I saw Google Earth in the coaching session and it was pretty cool. I also watched the video about it in the coaching session. I'm not going to download it to my computer at this time.

Google Docs

The video and tour of Google Docs helped to refresh my memory from the coaching session about this application. I didn't think I remembered much about it, because I was focused on getting invoices, etc. done that day. More of it stayed with me than I thought, because when I got on Google Docs, it was easier than I expected. I created a new document, typed a letter, saved it, and shared it with one of the Catch 23 coaches. After I saved it again and returned to the homepage of Google Docs, there it was! Yea! I can see that Google Docs could be very useful for a lot of different purposes.

Adding a Page to Catch 23 PBWiki

I watched the video, then made my new page, and wrote my "Dark and stormy night" paragraph. I created the link to my blog and edited the page.
That was an interesting exercise. I don't know that I could do it again by the time I have the need to, but at least I've had the experience this time.

Wikis

I looked at all the wikis listed and can see that it can definitely be useful. WikiTravel and WikiSource looked very promising to me. I've used Wikipedia for quite some time, as have most people. When I searched nouns on Google, I couldn't find any that didn't come up with Wikipedia in the top 6 hits.

Library Thing

I can see real potential for Library Thing, especially in the aspect of being able to view other people's collections that are similar to mine to get ideas for books that I would enjoy. I think I may show this one to my oldest son.
I did take the Library Thing Tour and learned about it. I created an account and added 5 books. I really like the idea of the tags to access groups. When I searched for the tag : banned books and then clicked on the first one, I saw how many tags were used by different people. I placed a "chiclet" on my blog. I will probably keep using this website.

Technorati

I viewed the video for Technorati and then looked at the website itself. I did the search for "learning 2.0" and looked at the list of blogs. I then clicked on blogger central and looked at the Top 100 blogs. I found that "i can has cheezburger" is number 8. I have that feed going to my bloglines already and enjoy it. I can't say that I was really impressed with Technorati. It's nice to know it is there, if I ever do decide that I need it. However, at this point, I doubt that I will be using it.

Del.icio.us

I really enjoyed Del.icio.us and think I will continue to use it. I looked at the video (thought it was pretty good). I looked around on it and decided to make an account. I have put several of my favorite websites on it. This will help me when I get a computer at home to have my favorite websites available to me there. I also like the social aspect of this website, although I may not use that for a while. Still, it's interesting to get ideas for websites from others.

Online Image Generators

This is my youngest granddaughter's name done with Image Chef's Flower Text.
ImageChef.com Flower Text

Mashups

I spelled my oldest granddaughter's name with Spell with Flickr.

Flickr

Thing 11 was to watch the video about Flickr. I did that.
I created a Yahoo account and a Flickr account for Thing 12. This could be really good! Sara helped me add some photos, which I made into a set. I added a couple of tags. I can see some great uses for this! I also added a couple of contacts and posted a comment on one of their photos.
I'll have to come back and do Thing 13.

Libworm and Digg

I watched the video and wasn't too very impressed. Then, on to Thing 9, Libworm. I can see that it could definitely have some good applications for library people. I set up 2 feeds to go to my Bloglines aggregator. One of the feeds is for Book Reviews and the other is about Out of Print books. We'll see how useful they really are.
Thing 10 was Digg. I really didn't think it was worth my time. I doubt that I will use that very often, if ever again.
The next Things are about Flickr and they sound great!

Facebook and IM

Thing 7 was making a Facebook account. I had fun with that, after I got started. I did my profile, got some friends, wrote on someone's wall, sent a message, put my picture in, and joined the TCU Staff at Mary Couts Burnett Library. I don't know how much I will actually use it, but it is great to know that I can! I think my kids were pretty surprised when I told them that I have a Facebook page.

Thing 8 (I love that we have "things") is Instant Messaging. I did the IM thing with the Reference Librarian and have to say it is pretty cool! I thought I would ask something useful, so I asked for some websites that suggest fiction books that I would probably like based on what I already like. The librarian gave me several websites, so I will make use of them. My son had already told me about a good one, called Fantastic Fiction out of the UK. Now I will have some more to work with.

Bloglines

Hey, I set up a Bloglines account (with a little help)! I added the complete Catch23 Blog Roll to it on RSS feeds, plus the Star Telegram and a few other interesting things, like library humor.
It's really cool to be progressing towards being tech knowledgeable. I'm usually behind the curve on these sort of things. Well, maybe I'm still behind the curve, but not quite so far back!

Creating & Registering My Blog

Creating my blog (Thing 3) was a somewhat intimidating to me to begin with. I have read some blogs, but never posted, let along created my own blog. I had no idea where or how to start. However, one of the TCUCatch23 team helped me and made it seem like a cool thing. Now that I have created my blog, I feel a sense of empowerment. It will be fun to have a whole new vista of challenging skills before me to explore.

Registering my blog (Thing 4) was short and sweet, with an email to get it done.

About Catch23

This blog is to record my thoughts and musings about TCU Catch23.
I enjoyed the video about the book technology on Week 1. I had seen it months ago, but it is just so appropriate to learning new skills (especially computer ones).
Thing 1 lets us know that we are in for some interesting times. It will be great to learn to do new skills.
Thing 2 has more to it. Lifelong learning is really an exciting concept, when you stop to think about it. It would be so very boring not to learn new things. In fact, I can't imagine not learning new things. It would have to be like you were put on "pause". You have to learn new things to go forward in life and it certainly keeps life much more interesting. I loved the section about different ways to learn and different things to learn. The attitude is "thinking outside the box", which keeps it all new.
On the 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners, the various habits are looked at. They can be a way for us view things in a different light. My easiest habit would be 7 1/2 : Play. Usually by then, you've begun to work some of the bugs out and it becomes fun. My hardest habit would be Habit 3 : View problems as challenges. Sometimes, I get bogged down in problems and have trouble moving forward. If I can learn to look at problems as challenges, it would emphasize a whole new aspect in moving forward.

First Post

I've just created my blog and here is my first posting.