23 Things to Learn

23 Things

Listed below are 23 Things (or small exercises) that you can do on the web to explore and expand your knowledge of the Internet and Web 2.0. Staff are encouraged to complete all 23 items on this list by May 25th in order to to receive a gift certificate to Amazon and the chance to win a netLibrary approved mp3 player in the grand prize drawing.

(Note: Details about each task will be activated every week with posts related to each item)

Week 1: Introduction
1. Read this blog & find out about the program.
2. Discover a few pointers from lifelong learners and learn how to nurture your own learning process.
3. Watch this video from YouTube. (Don't worry if you don't get it. We'll be watching it again later.)

Week 2: Blogging
4. Set up your own blog & add your first post.

Week 3: Photos & Images
5. Explore Flickr and and learn about this popular image hosting site.
6. Have some Flickr fun and discover some Flickr mashups and 3rd party sites.
7. Create a blog post about anything technology related that interests you this week.

Week 4: RSS & Newsreaders
8. Learn about RSS feeds and setup your own Bloglines newsreader account.
9. Locate a few useful library related blogs (other than those mentioned in thing number 8) and/or news feeds.

Week 5: Play Week
10. Play around with an online image generator.
11. Take a look at LibraryThing and catalog some of your favorite books.
12. Roll your own search tool with Rollyo.

Week 6: Tagging, Folksonomies, Technorati
13. Learn about tagging and discover Del.icio.us (a social bookmaking site)
14. Explore Technorati and learn how tags work with blog posts.
15. Read a few perspectives on Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and the future of libraries and blog your thoughts.
16. Peruse this study on tagging from the Pew Charitable Trust.

Week 7: Wikis
17. Learn about wikis and discover some innovative ways that libraries are using them.
18. Add an entry to the Learning 2.0 SandBox Wiki

Week 8: Libraries and MySpace
19. Read about Libraries and MySpace.
20. Create a MySpace account.

Week 9: Podcasts, Video & Downloadable audio
21. Discover YouTube and a few sites that allow users to upload and share videos or explore NetLibrary and learn how to download audiobooks.
22. Discover some useful search tools for locating podcasts.
23. Watch this video again. Summarize your thoughts about this program on your blog.

Note: This project is loosely based upon the website 43Things (which allows you to set and track personal goals) and the Stephen Abram article titled 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006).

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Netvibes

I discovered this today. www.netvibes.com
It's about the coolest thing EVER! You can create your own portal using a lot of the web 2.0 tools we've already been using. There's an article about it in "Computer and Libraries" for April, 2007.

Monday, April 2, 2007

Mckinney Public Library has a blog!

http://www.mckinneylibrary.blogspot.com/

What do you think?

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Comments!

Something that I've just discovered is that you can set it up so that you are emailed every time someone makes a comment on your blog.

Once you are logged into blogger, click on "Settings." Then click on "Comments." The option is at the bottom of the screen.