I actually did it! After some major setbacks (like accidentally deleting my entire blog, starting a new blog, and recovering my original blog - which can be found at http://bookthief-trainingwheels9.blogspot.com/), and nearly giving up, I finished. From this I learned to slow down, not to do important work late at night when I am tired, to never blog in bed, and to think before I click! The ethic of persistence was also reinforced for me through this experience.
I enjoyed the experience immensely. Though I may not use all of the tools in my work or my personal life, and though I may not agree ethically with some of them - especially in the school setting, I feel it is important to learn about them and how they work. Our students and children are using many of them - and we need to know! I felt that the program was well-organized and researched. It was easy to follow - using "common man's language." I so appreciated the efforts of those who put this program together for us! The only suggestion that I have has to do with tracking the blogs of others involved in the program. Because so many people were registered, and because so many of the blogs had no activity, it was time-consuming and frustrating to see other's comments and experiences with each of the tools/23 things. Could the blogs be arranged by how far along the blogger is in the program? Or could the accounts that are inactive somehow be weeded out or put somewhere else? I feel that I could have learned a lot more from my colleagues had this process not been so time-consuming - you know, the whole collective intelligence thing. I wanted to more easily consult their blogs!
I warmed up to the whole blogging concept. I found the assignment calculators, the wiki discussion, Flickr, YouTube, and the podcast tools especially useful.
I would definitely participate in a "next step" program. If anything, I will look at this site: http://explorediscoverplay.blogspot.com to continue my learning.
If knowledge is power, I am a more empowered person and Media Specialist as a result of this experience. Thank-you!
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I am so glad you recovered your blog and finished all 23 things. You are terrific for not giving up! "Don't blog in bed." is good motto.
I know searching all the undone blogs was a bummer, but...with over 1100 registered it is hard enough to get them registered and on the mother blog. I am not sure we really thought we would have such a great response! I know there are ways we could have put the blogs in an RSS reader and exported the file for others to upload, but we didn't have staff to do that. Weak excuse, I know, but now we can figure out a way for next time--more on a stick is timed for fall or winter.
So Congrats again--thanks for hanging in there.
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