Wow! I have finally finished. The 23 Things kept me on my toes all summer.
My favorite exercises were probably Photostory and the mashup, Bookr--although I really liked LibraryThing and YouTube too. The Photostory was really easy to use, giving step by step instructions. I thought I had done something wrong at first but then realized that my blog wasn't letting me view in Preview mode. I had uploaded it correctly the first time but didn't realize it until several hours of work trying to view it. Even with this trouble I love the things one can create with this program--reading a book aloud for our PreKers, making a show of them acting out a story. The possibilities are endless. I found some time lapse videos on YouTube and I think some of those will be great in class too.
In regards to lifelong learning goals, I realize that they are constantly changing. I am in charge of my own learning and the 23 Things helped me with that this summer. Every day that I worked on it was a new experience. It gave me a chance to experience things that I had never heard of before or was only vaguely aware of. And I was enjoying it, often asking my much more computer savy children if they had ever heard of this or that!!
The unexpected outcome was that the Thing that I thought would be the hardest for me--commenting--was not so hard after all-- plus I looked forward to getting on my blog to see if anyone had left comments for me. It really is about building a community.
I think the format of this program is just fine. I knew if I had a problem with something that I could ask Vaughn for help or even another blogger. And I learned all this from the comfort of my home and at my own pace, keeping in mind my deadline!
The 23 things was much more time consuming than I thought it would be. I'm sure that in part was due to my computer illiteracy. I had time to do it this year, but would need to make sure that I would have the time before I made a committment to another Things.
To sum it up in one word or maybe two--Library2Play is Fun! And Habit forming. I plan to keep in touch with all the new technologies that I have learned. They will be helpful not only in school, but also in my personal life.
