Thing 23 - Evaluation

• Go back to your thoughts/ideas about  mobile devices and apps. Has anything changed as a result of this experience?  I think I understand my device a lot better. I'm more comfortable with downloading apps (and deleting them if I don't think they're worthwhile).

• What were your favorite Things and discoveries?  I have never really been much for games - but I can see myself playing lots of word games!

• How did you connect with others doing the 23 Mobile Things? I actually enjoyed reading other participants  blogs.  Since I'm using a borrowed device, everything is new.  I found a couple blogs that seemed to reflect my own opinions, experiences, and interests, so I could try some of the same apps that they did.

• Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? Yes, I want one of my own!  There are several apps that I would used regularly if I had them at my fingertips.

• What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or content? 

• If we offered a another 23 Things program like this in the future would you participate? Yes.

• How would you describe your learning experience in one word or in one sentence, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities to others? It made me look at the electronic world a bit differently.

Thing 22 - Discovering Apps

With Apps, just like finding good books to read, I count on lists or recommendations of friends and trusted sources.   

There were quite a few apps on Apps on today's apps gone free that I could see spending an inordinate amount of time with!

SLJ and YALSA put out lists as do many other organizations.  

My kids, co-workers and friends also have devices - so that when I actually do break down and get a device of my own, I'm sure there will be no shortage of apps to try and use.

Thing 21 - Free-for-all

Since I don't own my own device, I asked a coworker what apps he liked.  He came up with Akinator.  It is a web game  much like twenty questions where you think of a character, (obscure characters from novels are good). Through questions and answers, the app correctly identified Junie B. Jones, Scarlett O'Hara  and Bess Truman.

I also used the weather underground app.  I think I would use that one a great deal.  

Thing 20 - Games

I didn't think that I was much of a gamer - but I just spent an inordinate amount of time on word collapse!  (I guess I did know that I would like the word games).  I remember watching/helping my kids play the Sims when it first came out in the '80's.  It was fun, and I can see how much time goes by when you're focused on the details.  I get lots of notices about friends finishing many levels of candy crush saga among others on Facebook, and my daughter be oblivious to the time and miles on long drives in the car when she has a "game" going.

Of course I can spend an inordinate amount of time on crossword puzzles and soukous in the newspaper too!  

Again, some of these games leaves me wanting my own device...sigh

Thing 19 - Hobbies

What? No knitting?  Well, I signed up for Gardner.org to get ideas of plants to put in my yard that the deer and rabbits would not demolish in minutes.  Unfortunately, Gardner.org seems to be just a blogging spot - or a place to post photos of plants that you woul like someone to guess identification.  Not useful for me.  (And I couldn't figure out how to un-subscribe either).

I might like the vivino scanner app - but thought it might be inappropriate to download it onto the library's device :). 

Thing 18 - Education

There are so many fun apps out there.  I'm not exactly sure how I would use them professionally, but they sure could keep me entertained for hours.  I checked out the rhyming app - it might be fun to use in a writers/poetry. workshop with kids.  Bill Nye fascinates me though I sped through that sight pretty quickly.  I managed to find luminosity - and spent an inordinate amount of time training my brain!  I forwarded Thing 18 suggestions to my sister, a grade 5 teacher who is new to iPad world.  I hope she finds much to use with her kiddos next year.

Thing 17 - Connecting to the Community

I can see why these connect to the community apps could be pretty handy.  I checked out my alma mater SCSU.  It was fun to "see" the campus, as I have not been there for years!  The app was easy to use, but looks like it was really set up for recruitment rather than alumni.

St. Paul Connect seems like a good idea for residents to connect with street maintenance and public officials - since I'm not in St. Paul I didn't spend much time with it. 

I was lurking on some of the other 23 things blogs and found out about MN 511 app which would be really useful.  I often check the MN Dot cameras to find out about major traffic issues.  If I actually owned a device, you can be sure I would be using that one.

The Minnesota State Fair app looks pretty "sweet" too.  Maybe one of my state fair companions will own a smart phone and I won't be passing the same vendors as I walk in circles to get to my favorites.

Thing 16 - Audio

Professionally, I don't have a great need for audio recording now, but I can see some uses for it in some situations, such as recording an author presentation. However, most of the apps have limited time, so another digital recording device might make more sense for that.

I have fond memories of using a cassette tape recorder to tape myself reading bedtime stories to my young son so that he could  hear my voice when he had a babysitter.  It might be a good tool for that - as I recorded many stories on one tape, and fast forwarding to his favorite was a real pain.  With these audio apps, each oane could have their own file and the favorite would be so much easier to find!

I finished 15 things!

It hasn't been easy, but I did it!  I'm using my branch library's iPad, and really think I would like one of my own - I need to find a way to justify spending the $$$ after I just purchased MacBook.

Thing 15 - Infographics

We love statistics at the library! Check out numbers, number of circs per item, number of items in each collection, number of items per shelf, number of self check uses, ebook uses, computer hours used.  I think that if the library board monthly update used some info-graphics I might actually read the whole thing!

I used I visual info Touch Lite - only because it said "lite" and thought it would be a snap to use!  It was really pretty easy but because of that, the variety of graphics and designs was pretty limited. Of course I was using the free version, so it might be a more useful tool as a paid app.

Thing 14 - videos

I am in awe of blog mrshureads@blogspot.com  Mr. Shu does some amazing things in his k-5 library, and he often posts video using vine.  Sometimes it is kids doing something, sometimes it's the books on his hold shelf, or videos of guests in his school.  I tried out vine and it is quite simple.  I need to work on holding my iPad still, and where to start and stop (I managed to video my feet...sigh) but overall it is quite simple.  I'm not exactly thrilled that videos are automatically posted out there on the net somewhere, but maybe with some searching I can find out how to keep them "private" and post them a only where I want them.

A a major problem in the public library world is getting photo permission for anyone/everyone in a program.  I would like to use video, and Vine seems easy enough - it's just a bit too public for my professional use.

Thing 13 - Presentations

I tried both Haiku Deck and Educreations.  Both seemed pretty straight forward and easy to use.  Tutorials for some of the library research tools or for new book users might be a good use for these apps.  I had a great time looking through the "featured" lessons and could see lots of possibilities for my sister the 5th grade teacher!

Thing 12 - books and more books

I like book lists.  Though I work in a library and could browse for hours, I would rather choose books from a list.  I also like YALSA and the many many lists that it has for teens.  I was a bit disappointed with the small number of lists in the app, but still - a nice little tool for finding books in certain genres for that age demographic.

Thing 11 - Library and Reference

Dakota County's mobile app works wonders.  I understand it is a bit wonky from time to time, but it has lots of the stuff that people use/want most right at their fingertips - their account, the calendar, the catalog and books.

I am impressed with ELM's app too.  (Isn't Jennifer Hootman a gem?). I think it would be great if the school libraries that have iPads would put the ELM site right on their homepage.  I know that they use these resources extensively, to have the right at their fingertips would be great.

Thing 10- sharing photos

Instagram seems pretty straight forward, and sharing the photos on Facebook is easy.  I don't really like "following" anybody - it it just feels creepy :)

I think Instagram was made for taking pictures of food!! But I an see how it could work in. The library with teen programs on the library Facebook page.

Thing 9 - taking and editing photos

The iPad camera isn't bad- it seems a bit cumbersome to be holding up such a large tablet...but it works!  I tried the Avairy app to do some editing - fairly successful.  I never claimed to be a great photographer, or artist.  I took lots of pictures of dogs during our read to a dog program, and I "edited" Jeep.  I think it would take a lot more practice, patience, and paying for some effects to make this really useful for photographers or artists.  

Before

And after

Photo attached

So I had a bit of trouble attaching a photo in Thing 2- and with a little help from my friends found that Blogger looks and acts quite different when logging in from the web site or from the app on my digital device.  So, thing 2 is out of place because I finally got back to attaching the photo.  Yea me!  

Thing 8 Managing Social Networking

I just read an article in the StarTribune titled Mind Your Digital Manners.  It was a question and answer article - and one of the questions was about boundaries.  Here is an exerpt:

There are a lot of social networks, but that doesn’t mean you have to be friends with everyone everywhere. Facebook for friends, LinkedIn for professional acquaintances, Twitter for public discussion. If you were a financial planner, would you want your clients to know how you spend your money on the weekends? I certainly wouldn’t. The best approach is to not become Facebook friends with a professional acquaintance unless the relationship morphs into a genuine friendship.

And I think that's true for me.  I have a Facebook page, and it is just for "friends".  Of course many of my work colleagues ARE my friends, but for me, Facebook is family and old/good friends.

I also have a Linkedin account.  It is definitely for professional acquaintances.  I have posted only a brief resume, and I don't actually check it very often - maybe if I was looking for a new job, or doing the hiring for my "company" I would access it more often.

Twitter - I set up an account, but never really got into using it.  Personally, I just don't really care if the world knows what it is that I am doing at any given time - and I don't feel like I need to know about anything/everything from any particular person all the time either. Professionally, however, I can see where following a group of children's or YA librarians who tweet about their story times, link to professional journal articles, or comment about their library activities would be interesting and helpful, just as I am a part of a listserv for library related conversation.

I have a google+ account but it really hasn't taken off like Facebook, so there isn't much activity.  Professionally, it too might be a good place to follow and participate in a group with common interests.

Thing 7 content sharing and saving

I started a Pinterest account some time back - then never went back to it.  I have found other people's Pinterest boards interesting and helpful (craft projects for story time and bulletin boards and some great quotes).  I think that it needs a bit more organization because I search for such random stuff, my Pinterest page would look like my kitchen junk drawer!

I've finished 5 things!

Hot Dog!  I've figured it out!  There are a couple ways to create the post in Blogger.  This way will let me add a photo.  Maybe I'll go back and post those photos of the very level shelf markers we put on the children's picture book bins.

Thing #6. Creating and editing a Document

I can see where CloudOn and  Quickoffice would be helpful to have for those people that need to do spreadsheets and documents while they are on the go.  PowerPoint might be especially helpful for those people doing presentations regularly.  They can update and or make presentations using their devices -without having to juggle flash drives or laptops along with their usual mobile devices.

I thought Signnow would be really pretty great - add a signature - except this particular app only let's you do 5 per month without charge, and just signing up was an exercise in personal data hell!

Thing #5 Notetaking

Springpad looks pretty useful - my husband is the cook in my family and uses lots of recipes from the internet rather than from "old fashioned" cookbooks.  He has said a from time to time that he would like to find a place to put those recipes so that he doesn't have to google them each time he wants to recreate some marvelous creation.  This might be just the place for him to paste them.  I did read in another blog that pictures with the recipes don't transfer, and that's too bad because sometimes it's the picture or photo that I recall rather than the name or the ingredients.

I like the idea of thank you notes and a photo all organized by Springpad too.  I wonder if I can get my kids to sign up for this and send thank you's to the Aunties at Christmas and Birthdays!

Remember the Milk seems like a good idea, and seems simple enough -especially to those who are glued to their mobile device.  Since I am using a borrowed device, I won't be using it, but think that the concept definitely has merit.

Thing 4 - Keeping Up

I'm not sure that I can ever really keep up, because everything seems to change every day - and if it doesn't change, it becomes outdated and something new is created to take its place...sigh...sometimes it makes me feel old.

I have some RSS feeds one into my outlook email, and that works to keep me up to date on the things that I MUST stay up to date on.  Flipboard and Zite certainly look easy enough to use, though I prefer to read various blogs and  sites on my own time rather than have them pile up like so many unread magazines on my device :)

Thing 3 Utilities

I've downloaded Chrome.  It works just as I expected.  It seemed a bit more cumbersome than Safari or Explorer, but then I suppose I could get used to anything if that was what was available.

My son uses goggles.  It is pretty cool to see him snap a picture of something and have it identified.  I think that the Red Laser barcode reader could be useful.  The Q codes are everywhere! But since I am using a "borrowed" iPad I will not be downloading it.

It's reading some other 23 Mobile things posts and came upon an app called my permissions.com. Quite interesting.  For someone that doesn't have a mobile device, I've given my permission to quite a few web sites (not as many as the original blogger - who had hundreds) but still, I revoked a number of them!

Mobile thing 2 revisited

I can't seem to copy and paste a photo from my iPad camera.  I get lots of options for downloading from the web - I think it is just something wonky with blogger...moving on...

Mobile thing 2

Mobile Thing 2:
I tried out a few apps - including the level and the camera on this iPad. The level came in quite handy for putting up the new letter labels on our children's picture book bins.  If I can figure out how to add that photo I just took of the book bins - you can see how nice the straight labels look!

Downloading Blogger app

I am just as bad as many of my library patrons...sigh... I couldn't remember my password (since I am using a "company" device, I'll give myself a pass this time). App downloaded and ready to move on.

Beginning 23 mobile things

I'll be using the library owned iPad to complete this project. I secretly lust after my very own iPad, but somehow haven't justified spending the $$.  My manager made me very happy when training on this sweet iPad was approved.

I hope to be more comfortable with "mobile" technology when I have completed all these things!