Wow! What a ride! I have thoroughly enjoyed doing "23 Things". I'm sure there were other times in my life when I was just as frustrated, angry, overwhelmed, truly amazed, enraptured, and/or awestruck but I can't remember when. I've learned so much about programs and tools that I can use in my personal and professional life. Instead of my old routine of taking it for granted that I don't have time to blog or learn about avatars, I have become a blogger with an avatar and so much more. This will make a big change in my life.
The most exciting programs I learned about were the creation of avatars, creating my own blog, and learning about and gaining access to thousands of photographs that I can use at will. In creating my blog I learned how to connect and share information with other blogs and sites. I've also learned how to "follow" others blogs and I posted comments that a published blog page, ROOTS, actually printed. Imagine! But the cherry on the cake came when a total stranger became a follower of my blog.
I have been a member of a couple of book clubs for years. Creating a blog about book clubs that all my book club buddies and blog followers could access and contribute to is now possible with what I've learned. For the longest time, I've visited web sites that had little pictures and buttons that were a mystery to me. Now I know what they are and can add them to my blog to link followers to other sites, instantly. It will probably take all my will power not to let this blogging business take over my life. I feel like I could do this for a living now, and I haven't completely learned all the "gadgets" yet.
Fortunately, I had the time to struggle with the difficult parts of this learning process. If I had not had the literally hours to study each new "thing", I would never have learned as much as I did. Prior to "23 Things", I knew only the basics about PCs, the Web, E-mail and data entry. The "23 Things" process teaches by immersion. You just get tossed in and have to sink or swim. In my struggle to swim (figure out how to do this thing or that) hours passed. Just registering to become a member of all those sites, took up boat-loads of time. A different password and account had to be developed for each one, not to mention birth dates. I think this last was the worst of it. There wasn't sufficient warning in the beginning that all these programs could only be accessed when the participant revealed their birth date, an invasion of privacy to say the lest.
To be sure, if another "23 Things" kind of program came along, I would jump right on it. The painful parts are worth enduring. Hopefully in the future "Things" training, a better way will be found for students to access the various sites to learn just the basics without having to register. At this writing, I have twenty or so accounts that need to be deleted since they were opened with my County (work) e-mail. As for promoting the program to new students, I would entice them by promising that they will be able to use any gadget ("Click-on") they see on a web screen, after doing the program. All things considered, however, I'm glad I got the chance to do this. I learned a lot. Thanks!
GrandmaDeeDee and Mini-me
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