The Conclusion of 23 Things

I was so disappointed when I first found out that I had to participate in 23 Things for LATI. 23 Things was starting during the summer and I wanted to take a break from the internet. However since I began this journey I have found the assignments informative, educational, and beneficial. My favorite discoveries or exercises were:
Thing #6 - uploading a flickr picture; Thing #8 - RSS Setting Up My Own Newsreader Account (I can get up to date information on the subjects that interest me); Thing #11 - Putting my favorite books on LibraryThing - that was cool, dude!; and Thing #17 - sandbox wiki - I got to talk about one of my favorite pasttimes - eating italian ice at Rita's on an extremely hot summer day.

This program has enhanced my lifelong learning goals - I will now explore resources on the web when I undertake a new learning experience. For the most part, once I found ample resources in hard copy format I did not further explore the web resources.

At times it was frustrating to post information on wikis - it was like being in traffic. I learned to be patient, though.

If another discovery program was offered I would gladly participate, but hopefully it would not only be offered in the summer. I would rather "play" (learning goal 7 1/2) than be inside or outside on a computer. I used some of my "play" time to accomplish the 23 Things.

My learning experience in a few words - informative, enlightening, challenging, and rewarding.

Sunset

Sunset
Originally uploaded by fmabrey

www.flickr.com provided this beautiful sunset. That's cool!

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

NetLibrary/Project Gutenburg/Overdrive

Although I would rather physically hold the books I am interested in, I can see why NetLibrary and Project Gutenburg and Overdrive are essential tools for a bookworm. I just don't have the space in my home required to own a copy of every book I love or desire to read. Being able to download a book on a MP3 and listen to it at one's own leisure, cuts down on a lot of clutter and makes enjoying a book in a car really easy to do. The last book I have listened to in ebook format is The Holy Bible. I enjoy reading the Bible so the ebook format is just an extra treat. I will not substitute the ebook format for the hard copy format, but I would use it as a supplement.

There were a wide range of titles on Overdrive, NetLibrary and Project Gutenberg and I know eventually more publishers will be offering titles as ebooks also. A lot of our customers enjoy the ebook format as well as hard copy. Some are enjoying a title in both formats for visual and audio stimulations to the upmost.

News Feed

I examined www.feedster.com, www.Topix.net, and www.Syndic8.com. I liked www.feedster.com the best. Feedster is divided into five categories - entertainment, technology, sports, food, and politics and it has a very green search engine. I found it easy to use and comprehend. Having up to date information is incredible. Often times I see up to date news on the internet and the next day read in the paper. I feel like I have secret informers when this happens.

Mom of Six will continue to use news feeds.

Bloglines Newsreader Account/RSS Feeds

I have set up my bloglines newreader account - great! - I have chosen subjects that are an interest to me. That's cool. I chose the following subjects: Investor,
Bookworm, and Vegetarian. I think I will add more later, but now I concentrate reading news on the ones listed above. The Web and its many resources has made my life easier I must admit. With RSS - Really Simple Syndication - I may
stop subscribing to any hard copy magazines or newspapers.

Flickr Mashups

I examined some of Flickr mashups and was quite impress with the website www.MashupAwards.com. Individuals can submit there mashups to be entered into a contest. Some of the award winners had incredible websites. Moving Earth, a meshup, about the latest earthquakes, was very informative and impressive. I think it would take me a little more practice to create a mashup of this sort. This would be project I would try to undertake at a later date. At any rate, mashups are incredible and very useful.