Week 9 Thing 23 Program Summarization

I have completed the 23 things. There is no way I wanted to be thinking about this during the summer. My goal was to complete this program before the end of the year. So, after many late nights (and many more later nights) I have arrived at the finish line.

The program was interesting. It exposed me to many concepts that I would have otherwise been unaware of. At least now when someone speaks of bloglines or RSS feeds I will know what they are talking about.

I definitely found some of the topics more interesting than others. I liked blogging, wikis, you tube, and the online image generators. Some I had no interest in at all. For some topics, I am looking forward to further exploring them and learning how I can use them with students.

To say that each thing can be completed in 20 or 30 minutes is a gross understatement. It took me more time than that just to figure out what I was to do. Then I had to complete the task. Of course, wandering off in various directions with many of the tasks consumed a lot of time. I guess if you are computer savvy, these tasks may only take 20 minutes or so.

The broken links were a distraction. The directions said to go to a particular site but it was no longer available. This was usually no big deal, just a minor glitch.

So now I am finished. Good luck to all of you who are still working.

Week 9 Thing 22 Audio books

Audio books are great for people who travel a lot and may not have time to read a hard copy of a book. I have also talked with people who are listening to audio books while they are walking. They are especially wonderful for those whose have lost the capability to read from a hard copy but still are avid readers. Personally, I like the feel of a book in my hands. Often, I refer back to previous pages to read about a character or a scene and I think it would be difficult to do this with audio books. One slight worry I have is that reading the printed word may decrease with students as more and more books are audio.
One of the things I liked about the e books is the fact that the books automatically expire and you no longer have access to them. You don’t have to worry about returning them to the library yourself. What role will e-books have in the future of school libraries? Will it be more cost effective to use these?

Week 9 Thing 21 Podcasts

I can see the value of podcasts in all types of venues, from classroom instruction to professional training to tutorials to just pure fun. But there is just so much out there. Looking at Podcast.net it seemed pretty easy to use with easy searches. I looked at the top 100 podcasts and enjoyed some, but not others. What was with the Ninja? Did not like that.
I added an RSS feed for a podcast to my bloglines, Share the Earth. This is our Earth PBS KIDS. It’s neat for kids.
I could use podcasts in my classes. Hopefully, this summer, I will get back to this topic to figure out how to create one.