Tuesday, November 6, 2007

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 in 12 weeks in order to to receive a free USB/MP3 player. Those people who complete 12 items by the mid-point will receive a small prize for their acheivement. Those staff that complete all items by the twelfth week will also qualify for a drawing for a DVD player. (Note: There will be discovery exercises with each task that will help you learn.)

You will record your progress on the 23 Things Participation Log. You will check off the things as you complete them. There will be three check points: the second week with your name and initial blog, at the half way point(after Week 5) and at the end of the program, May 7th, in order to be eligible for the free prizes.

Many of the learning links will take you to the PLCMC Library website where this program was created by Helene Blowers for her staff. We have maintained the same numbering system even though you will occasionally be either on the PLCMC site or our Hartford Public Library Learning 2.0 site.

Week 1: Introduction -official start - week of February 10th
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.

Week 2: Blogging
3. Set up your own blog & add your first post.
4. Register your blog with the Hartford Public Library Learning 2.0 Committee by submitting the 23 Things Participation Log begin your Learning 2.0 journey.

Week 3: Photos & Images
5. Explore Flickr and learn about this popular image hosting site. Have some Flickr fun.
6. Discover some Flickr mashups & 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
9. Setup your own Bloglines newsreader account. Locate a few useful library related blogs and/or news feeds.

Week 5: Play Week
10. Play around with an online image generator.
11. Take a look at LibraryThing. 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 Library 2.0, Web 2.0 and the future of libraries then blog your thoughts.

Week 7: Wikis
16. Learn about wikis and discover some innovative ways that libraries are using them.
17. Add an entry to the Learning 2.0 SandBox wiki. (This is the PLCMC wiki, but we can post to it - use the password: plcmc)

Week 8: Online Applications & Tools
18. Take a look at some online productivity tools(word processing, spreadsheet).
19. Explore any site from the Web 2.0 awards list, play with it and write a blog post about your findings.

Week 9: Podcasts, Video & Downloadable audio
20. Discover YouTube and a few sites that allow users to upload and share videos.
21. Discover some useful search tools for locating podcasts.
22. Take a look at the titles available on NetLibrary and learn how to download audiobooks.
23. Summarize your thoughts about this program on your blog.