The end...

tombstone
Originally uploaded by Yummy Mummy 2007

Watch this space for new posts, as I continue my learning journey...

Thing 23 - the end...

This doesn't seem like the end, but just the end of the introduction. There is so much to explore and tools are developing and changing all the time.

My favourites were the image generators and Youtube - and of course creating this blog! I've also enjoyed sharing the experiences with my colleagues and friends, and my children.

As professionals we have a resposibility to ensure we understand these new tools, so that we can provide our clients with the best possible access to information and new techonologies.

As parents we have a responsibility to understand the technologies and tools our children are and will be exposed to, so that we can educate and protect them. They need to understand what is safe, what can be fake, what is a proper source of information and what is just someones opinion.

As people we have a responsibility to ourselves to spend time learning new things, and there are now many more ways we can access both information and people who have the same hobbies as us.

Thing 21 and 22 - Podcasts and AudioBooks

These are interesting, and have been around in one form or another for some time. They have a place in providing both information (useful podcasts on particular subjects), and also providing access to information for people who are blind or unable to read well. Many books have already been made into tapes (and probably CD's) for the elderly or vision impaired. We used to borrow them for my Grandmother to listen to after she had a stroke and could no longer read. She was a voracious reader, and not only a teacher librarian, but also had an honour degree in English, something quite unusual for a woman in the 1930's.

I downloaded 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit', because I love reading it to the children, and also loved it as a child.

I have heard podcasts before, but being a visual person rather than an aural one, they don't really do it for me at all. However I'm sure some people would really benefit from them.

Give me a real book to curl up in bed with anytime!

Things 18 & 19

Yep - I know I already did thing 20, but I just couldn't wait to get onto Youtube.

So I've had a look at the 'awards', and found that 'Facebook' won top award for Social Networking. Seeing as I have been 'invited' to be someones friend in Facebook, I took this opportunity to explore Facebook a bit more.

Facebook is a social networking tool, a rival to MySpace. You can set up other people in Facebook as your friends, and invite friends who aren't already in Facebook to join. You can also join networks of people in your area, who you went to school with etc. It seems to be kind of a mini network within the web. You can post messages and video onto peoples 'walls', share photos etc.

You can create photo albums that your friends can see, which is a nice feature.

You can also 'poke' friends, but I'm not really sure what this is, and the 'about' didn't tell me.

I now have 2 friends on Facebook, but I'm not really sure what to do with them...

Vader Boy

My very clever friend found the clip I wanted on Youtube - but it has embedding disabled, so here is the link. It is worth watching...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PMOYDYLd8MQ

Thing 20 - Youtube

Youtube was really my first introduction to 2.0 technologies, when a friend told me about the 'Star Wars Kid'. Apparently this high school kid in Canada filmed himself pretending to be a Jedi, and it was leaked online. It became a phenomenon, with over 100 different clips created on Youtube, based on the original footage. Some of them are extremely clever. 'Star Wars Kid' even has a Wikipedia entry! Unfortunately the fame wasn't so good for 'Star Wars Kid', who apparently was unable to live the Jedi thing down, and left school.

This clip is one of my favourites, partly because I like the original song, and partly because I think the new lyrics are very clever. Enjoy!

Except - now I can't find the one I want, but it was a clever Star Wars clip using new lyrics to Avril Lavignes Sk8er Boi. However I also like this one...

Thing 16 - Wikis

So what's not to love about a Wiki? They are a wonderful way to share information in a shared space. But, with everything on the Net, you need to be aware that the information they contain is not reviewed or refereed in any way, so cannot be taken as an authoritative source. However sources like Wikipedia contain lots of really interesting information that would be hard to find elsewhere - for example a list of all the Muppets from the Muppet Show!