Thing #23 Evaulation of 23 Mobile Things

After completing this program I am much more excited about the possible uses for ipads, teaching ipad classes, and introducing the idea of ipad storytimes in the library. Previously, I mainly viewed the ipad as a tool to keep kids busy watching videos and playing simple puzzle games. Truly, the possibilities are endless it just takes some adult supervision and guidance to ensure that this is an educational tool rather than a replacement for the tv!

My favorite things:
Content Saving and Sharing- Pinterest. It is not just a fad, but a very handy tool to save ideas, recipes, pictures, endless use for this app despite being more of a chick thing!
Books, books, books- istorybooks, and audiobooks- two very appreciated apps with free books!
Videos- fun to play with Vine to see what all the buzz is about. And, this exercise proved that a 6 second video can show a lot of stuff!
Connecting to the community- this was perhaps the most interesting to me. I had never used any of the apps listed, and immediately became a fan of several!

One of my coworkers and I had a great time comparing notes as we completed each thing in this program. We expanded our knowledge of what is possible with an ipad- besides our existing uses of game playing, e-book reading and facebook or pinterest surfing!
I most definetely would participate in 23 Mobile Things Part 2 if there were such a thing. This was a great way to learn something new and useful that is current with what many of our library patrons are exploring.
In one sentence: 23 Things was a fun way to explore the many uses of a variety of apps.

Thing #18 Education

I appreciate the fact that technology can easily support education. There are many arguments for and agains the use of ipads by young children. I fall into the camp of 'in moderation' Ipads can be a useful learning tool when kids are playing appropriate games/watching educational shows. And, yes they are a wonderful diversion in the doctor's office waiting room! I was happy to learn about a few new apps including the following:
Advanced English Dictionary and Thesauraus
This seemed like something that would be very useful to have on my ipad. This dictionary/thesaurus is unique in that is has auto-complete to assist you in spelling the words you are looking up. Fantastic!! The definition shows whether the word is a noun, verb, adjective, adverb and links to 'hypernyms'. I tested this out by looking up 'pachycephalosaurus' the name of a dinosaur that my three year old nephew can pronounce, and which I was curious how to spell correctly. I was most impressed with the hypernyms that related this term to other scientific names and common names for dinosaurs. A great tool which I will use again in the future!

Bill Nye the Science Guy
For fun, I installed this app simply because it reminds me of hours spent watching the tv show when I was young! This starts off as a totally impressive app with the intro, then leads into many possibilities for experiments in the book on the corner of the desk and mini-lessons when you tap on the other objects found on Bill's desk... Can't wait to try some of these experiments at home! I think the key here is that despite the fact that I could check out a book on experiments, the visual stimulation and simple fact that we are using the ipad will act as an attention grabber for young children. This is certainly a keeper!

Thing #22 Discovering Apps

Quixey- app search engine- I briefly explored this and am not 100% sure it is useful to me. It seems to repeat what you might find in the app store with a simpler visual display. You can do a basic search for the type of app you want, and the results are display and then you can 'go to store' to download the app from the App Store... I chose not to install this app and went on to try something else.

Apps Gone Free- great idea for an app to find free apps. I am a cheapskate and hardly ever pony up to get new apps. It is nice that some of these apps are free for a week or a month at a time. When I feel the need to find something new, this will be my newest go to tool! Each app that is advertised has the basic details and typical 'get it in the App store' download button. Also helpful are the reviews and number of stars as rated by users. Perfect! Also, the App store can be searched for 'free apps' anytime. But this was kind of cool to feature the calendar for how long items are free.

Thing #20 Games

I have heard of the many Candy Crush addicts out there... so I will not let myself install this game! Instead I decided to install Frogger! It is a classic game with an ipad friendly version. Then I tested our Word Collapse... oh this is a dangerously fun time waster! I have limited the games installed on our ipad to very simple kid games, educational games and Phase10. I try not to bury my nose in my ipad and think that if I installed too many games for myself that I would not get anything else done sometimes! However, it would be fun to play some of these if stuck traveling for work or while in a waiting room somewhere!
What a fun excuse to test run some more games, the possibilities are truly endless!

Thing #14 Videos

Vine- an app that allows you to share a 6 second video on a website or social media. I had vaguely heard about this app prior to starting this 'Thing'. While 6 seconds may not seem like a lot of time, it surprisingly is enough time to shoot a quick promotional video to be used by a library. Ideas include a quick run down of new books- show the cover of as many books as you can, video coverage of a library display advertising summer reading events, showcasing new artwork in the children's area of our library- Smart Play Spot, or show an update of a construction project- we are currently remodeling two branches in our system.

I created a video to show how many carts of books the TS dept. has ready to process and distribute to our branches. This would be fun to embed in our monthly staff newsletter! I'd post it here but I think this only works for posting within Vine, or on Twitter and Facebook. It would be nice to have the hyperlink available for blogs!

Thing #17 Connecting to Community

Wow, what a cool 'Thing'!! I have not explored any local apps prior to this, and I am so excited to try out the following Minnesota-centric Apps:
Minneapolis Skyway
Going Out
Minnesota 511
Explore Minnesota
Minnesota State Fair

I will start with 'Going Out' by the Star Tribune since it seems like it may be similar to what is published in the newspaper highlighting local events. I first searched for 'Family entertainment' and learned that you can sort by zip code, 'near current location, event, or venue. I quickly found the upcoming Eagan Art Festival and also music events at Eagan's Central Park. Also advertised is the Eagan Funfest over the 4th of July.
The movie section was also useful  to learn about movies that are currently in theaters, coming soon, and an option to find nearby theaters. I also liked what I saw in the restaurant section- provides all the necessary info for restaurants close to your current location- great for when you are in a new area and need to find some lunch or dinner options! All the information I found was accurate and useful! This would be a perfect place to post information about library events for families like our recent Rhythm and Words children's event in Burnsville! I think I will use this app in the future, it was fun to explore!

I will be sure to install the Minnesota State Fair app in late August :-)

Thing #16 Audio

SoundCloud is a social platform app for all things music, audio, etc... Things can be shared easily, very accessible and customizable. After signing up you choose your favorite types of music which creates 'streams' similar to 'stations' on Pandora. To record your own audio, there is a basic record button under the 'You' tab which is your personal library within SoundCloud.
This is very much a social community in which you may follow other users and they can follow you, it does require log-in/sign-up, but you could be creative and use this to record your own podcast then share it to your library's website to allow people to see the link to view it. Otherwise, other users of SoundCloud may just stumble across your podcasts by browsing, or being your 'followers'. I would describe this app as a vocal version of facebook or instagram. It is intriguing, but currently my library does not do much at all with podcasts. I prefer to use Pandora to listen to music, and I do not listen to podcasts. Fun to explore, but not something I will likely return in the near future.

Thing #15 Infographics

I explored the app Infographics Hub, and was very surprised to see how many categories are included. I think I could find a graphic for just about every subject presentation imaginable.
I was amused by the 'best time to post on social media' infographic. Best time for a blog is noon! Best time for Facebook is 6-8am or 2-4pm. I also liked the 'how to extend your life at work' which reminds us to get up and move vs. sitting/being sedentary for your entire 8+ hour work day.
I could see this as being quite helpful to librarians looking to spruce up a presentation or class they are teaching. It could also be useful to show to middle school or high school students (even college!) who are working on assignments for a speech class or presentation as well.
Some infographics are cutesy, some are more informative- all very well put together, clear and attractive graphics!! Love this new app.

Thing #13 Presentations

I decided to use Educreations to create a presentation for this assignment. Educreations is an app that turns your ipad into a whiteboard. You write on the whiteboard and record yourself explaining what you are drawing/your ideas/your presentation. The app allows multiple pages for the presentation and has easy to editing tools for moving images, adding text, and the ability to share the finished product on Facebook, Twitter or via email. Your lesson can be made public or private when you save it.
I envision this app as being useful for teachers and students alike- especially for math or science- calculus or geometry, anything requiring drawing or equations. In addition to a plain background you could choose lined paper, graph paper or a coordinate grid.
Example: http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/what-is-the-pythagorean-theorem/947104/

In a public library setting this could be used to create a short presentation to be posted on a website, a how to use the OPAC using screenshots for example, or any other library tool on our website- e-book tutorial or other endless options. The best part of this app is its simplicity and ease of use. A quick review of the app allows anyone to create a presentation! For a free app this one is pretty great!

Thing #19 Hobbies

ESPN ScoreCenter

This app caught my eye in the list of apps to try. This is loaded on my ipad and used everyday by my husband, although as I read the short summary I realized he is not using it to its greatest potential- so I explored the app and added our favorite teams so he can easily catch the updated scores, stats, etc...
How surprised was he that I 'fixed' his app?? Now he can find the information he is looking for even faster which means it is my turn on the ipad even sooner :-) The organization of information on this app is awesome- separate tabs for each professional sport as well as options for NCAA sports and other sports including tennis, golf, NACSAR, etc.. There is a basic scoreboard, standings, and news/video section for each. Pretty cool for the sports obsessed crowd!

Thing #12 Books, books, & more books

The iStoryBooks app includes a variety of children's books with a read to me feature that can be turned on or off. I liked the selection that includes classic picture books, some non-fiction titles and even a few multicultural type books. My 2 year old loves dinosaurs currently and I was pleasantly surprised to see a dinosaur book here! I can see the value of this app for libraries as a way to introduce children to technology in a way that relates it to something they are familiar with- storytime! Personally, I think this app may be useful for long car rides!

Thing #11 Library & Reference

Dakota County's library app is called 'DCL mobile'. I admit that since I work in the library the majority of my searching/request placing, etc...happens while at work! I am taking some time to look at our app with the eyes of a beginning user! The first thing that caught my eye is the 'ISBN scanner' feature. Well... several minutes later this was a bust. I could not get it to recognize any of the barcodes of books on my desk! I did type in the barcode for 'Eleanor & Park' and got results for the ebook and regular print version owned by DCL. Nice! There are options to request and also the availability and location is shown for the print copies. Other things I liked about our site include the quick links to the catalog, events calendar and my account. Also listed is our facebook page- one more way to raise our social media visibility!

Other library apps used by Dakota County include 3M and Overdrive for books, Zinio for magazines, and OneClick for audiobooks. Within the DCL mobile app there is an area for ebook that separates out the ebooks that are available for immediate checkout. How helpful!! I immediately tried this and found a flaw- many of the books were only available to place holds on. Darn!

This 'thing' was a great excuse to spend some more time with the mobile apps offered by Dakota County Library!

Thing #10 Sharing Photos

Instagram is a popular photo sharing app, simple to use, with the ability to follow friends and allow friends to follow you. I was surprised to see that some of my relatives are more likely to use Instagram than post pictures on Facebook. Maybe because you can limit the audience by being selective of who you add as a follower? Interesting to say the least.
I explored Instagram to find out if any libraries have accounts. I found very few and some nightlife venues with names including 'library'. The State Library of Victoria is a member and has posted many photos of events, exhibits and scenes in the library (kids play area, outside steps, etc...) and has 922 followers!
This illustrates that Instagram could be used professionally- however the use of patrons in pictures could be problemabit (release forms?).
A fun app to explore nevertheless!!

Thing #9 Taking and Editing Photos

I love taking photos, but rarely take the time to 'jazz' them up so this exercise is a fun one for me! I decided to use LINE Camera.
Professionally, I can see the use of an ipad camera plus an app such as LINE for quick promotional photos of book displays, events, etc... to post on a library's Facebook page while wandering the stacks!

This is what I created in 5 minutes at my desk- a 'Meet the Staff Member' post. I included a selfie, and picture of what you will find at my desk... My complaint is that the text wrapped/cut off words and does not look so great... But, the color options, rounding of corners, etc.. are endless!

Thing #8 Social Media Management Tools

For this exercise, I explored the social media management tool 'Friendcaster'. This app is advertised as a easy to use app for your Facebook page, meant to make using Facebook easier. Indeed, this is a very simplified way to view your Facebook news feed. I didn't particularly care for it as all the pictures were smaller and the view is pretty much stark white plus text. The app is easy to navigate, has options for posting updates/photos for your Facebook, a newspaper icon for the news feed, and a link to your 'friends' if you want to check up on someone specific. For me, it is too simple, too easy. I guess I prefer the regular Facebook app, and even with that find that the live internet version is often different in how items are posted on the news feed. What I like best about using social media is looking at pictures or videos posted by friends, or following links to stories others recommend. I don't need a special app for this. I am not sure how Friendcaster would be of use professionally unless there was a way to filter the items that appear on the news feed to very specific groups or friends. Interesting to try, but this one will be deleted!

Thing #7 Content Saving & Sharing

Pinterest! Oh how I love Pinterest. I have many boards and pins, and pinners to follow. I recently read a funny quote that "Pinterest-ing is the new Googling". I find that to be true when I am looking for recipes, craft ideas, inspiration for family photography and gift ideas. I store many recipes here, and ideas for future projects to do with my kids.
What I like about the Boards is that you get to see a visual cue to what the Pin contains- either a picture of the finished product or a set of several pictures showing the steps involved in making whatever it is. Sometimes that visual reminder is enough to get you to click on that link again to see why you saved it in the first place. Healthy muffins is much more exciting when accompanied by a mouthwatering picture!
I often neglect searching by category, and instead type in some sort of keyword search. Many hours can be wasted away jumping from Pin to Pin, Board to Board- fantasizing about having the time to cook/bake/create all of the ideas collected in my Pinterest account!
I have not used Pinterest for work, but am aware of others who use it to collect ideas for storytime, library programming, etc... It is a multiple purpose tool. Out of curiosity I used the link on 23 Things to checkout how the Owatonna Public Library uses Pinterest. My first surprise was how many boards there are! What a great way to push Staff Picks or other topical reading lists!

Thing #6 Creating & Editing Documents

I installed the app Quickoffice which allows you to create and edit Microsoft Office documents, spreadsheets and presentations, then saves everything via your Google account. I think this will be useful in order to access work from either a mobile device or computer workstation.
Perhaps the most useful part of this app is the pdf file for getting started. It told me everything I need to know about creating or moving files and folders, deleting or emailing files, and much more.
The biggest stumbling block I can envision with using Quickoffice is the fact that all my work documents are stored on the server at my employer. We do not use Google Docs, and therefore I would need to remember to upload files, and later download and re-save newer versions. This could get complicated!
However, for personal use I have started to use Google + for photo sharing, documents, spreadsheets... It seems to be an easy transition to Google Drive.

Thing #5 Notetaking

I decided to test out Dragon- a dictation app. It seems simple enough- speak and Dragon will type whatever it is you say. This could have many practical uses- list making, letter writing, brainstorming sessions, etc...
I quickly realized that you truly have to tell Dragon each and every punctuation mark in order to make your text make sense at all... It is like speaking another language. After a short trial I decided that I would make better use of a more intuitive app and did a test run of Remember the Milk instead.
With Remember the Milk, I liked the easy to use Weekly display, simple text format, ability to have a title to each task and then expand with more notes on that task. For example- an entry for Dinner Party could easily include my grocery list. The app also includes different ways to create personal, work and study lists to further differentiate your to do list. I was unable to figure out how to set up notifications for email or text message which I think would be helpful. This app may take a little more time to figure out the bells and whistles, but it could be a helpful tool for both work and home! An internet search for help/tips on RTM led me here: http://blog.rememberthemilk.com/2011/05/introducing-remember-the-milk-for-ipad/
Lots of useful tips!

Thing #4 Keeping Up

Keeping Up

 

There are many ways one could waste time online- Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, multiple news and entertainment/gossip sites... the list goes on and on! I was pretty curious to see how the use of Flipbook could streamline my time spent online.

I installed the app, created several 'magazines' and tried to discover how it pulled info from Facebook. I ended up spending even more time exploring the info found via Flipbook than I would on a normal session of trolling my usual sites. There is just too much information!! I must be a creature of habit and prefer to access my favorite things separately when I have the time. Otherwise, I am tempted to read everything that comes in.

I guess RSS is just not for me... or I need to discover another avenue to narrow the types of articles that come in. Simply clicking on sports- baseball- brought in too many articles when all I really care about is American League Baseball, Central Division, MN Twins!! Go Twinkies.

One final complaint is the content drawn from Facebook was only related to posts of articles/videos on other websites. I use facebook mainly to see cute pictures of my friend's kids/vacations/pets and to read their status updates. Only occassionally do I click on the odd interesting article link.

Overall, Flipbook has an interesting concept- I see myself using it when I want to browse various topic, but it does not narrow or streamline anything for me.

 

 

Thing #3 Utilities

For Thing #3 I tried out StandApp, an app that promotes good health by providing an alarm reminder to stand up and take a break from your desk to do easy exercises. I set the app for a reminder every 60 minutes and soon learned that each hour of my work day really does fly by... soon enough the reminder to get up and move appeared followed by 5 minutes of exercise.

While this was a good reminder to get up and move I did feel silly doing some of the stretches for the full 5 minutes. I work in an open area of cubes- no closing the office door to do my stretching! The stretches and other exercises were simple, but not challenging. You will not work up a sweat doing these- perfect for the office environment. I can see myself continuing to use this app on days that my energy levels are dragging. I felt that I was better able to focus on my work after taking the time away from my computer screen to do these exercises. I may not have time to do this every day, and the option to set the reminder for every 120 minutes may be a better use of my time throughout the day. 20 minutes of exercise at my desk vs. 40 minutes would be better for my productivity!

Thank you StandApp for helping me find a way to 'get the wiggles' out at work and allow me to settle down again to re-focus my attention to my work!This is a great healthy alternative to checking personal email or facebook on your mobile device for the umpteenth time just to break up your workday! Or, a walk to the vending machine for that matter...

Thing #2 Mobile Device Tips and Tricks

Thing #2- exploring device Tips and Tricks.

I have had my ipad for over a year and still have not updated to ios 7! After researching many tips and tricks I feel more confident in finally installing the update. I am excited about the many new features I have learned about including the following:

• Notifications- I like the idea of using my ipad as a family calendar, a quick glance in the morning should show us things like daycare field trips, reminders for the day, or plans/appointments we have set up.
• iTunes radio- how cool that it will intuitively know what type of music to put in my custom radio stations. I love Pandora, and think this might be even better!
• Editing tips- Finally, I think I can competently copy and paste info I find online into emails/documents with greater success. Very happy to have learned you can select an entire paragraph of text with a simple tap of two finders to copy and then paste. Also, I was not aware of the ability to drag the handles to set the area to copy. Fascinating!
• Safety net- iCloud backup is something I should really do and yet have procrastinated to do. Such a simple way to ensure that my apps, pictures, everything on my iPad can be protected from the accidental actions of my 2 year old playing with the iPad.
• Pictures- a way to delete multiple pictures (taken by the 2 year old!) was not clear, and I have spent way too much time deleting things one by one. Finally discovered in the comments of one tips and tricks page that a simple way to do this DOES EXIST!!! delete photos on an iPad tap edit on the top right hand corner in your photo library then tap the pix you want to delete and it will put a tick on the ones you select then press delete on the top right hand side. Drumroll please.....To delete photos on an iPad tap edit on the top right hand corner in your photo library then tap the pix you want to delete and it will put a tick on the ones you select then press delete on the top right hand side

Websites that I found interesting and helpful included:

http://www.techradar.com/us/news/mobile-computing/tablets/50-really-useful-ipad-tips-and-tricks-688556

Extremely useful, basic tips in how to use your iPad. For the beginner, but also useful reminders for those who are relatively comfortable using their iPad. Here I learned how to take a screenshot of my ipad.

"You can take a screenshot on your iPad by pressing Home and then the Sleep/Wake button. The screen will flash and you'll hear a click, indicating that a photo has been taken. Your screen shots are saved automatically in your Photos gallery."

Also, a simple but useful tip to set CAPS LOCK. Double tap on either shift key!
http://www.zdnet.com/30-iphone-and-ipad-tips-and-tricks-to-make-you-faster-and-more-efficient-7000026210/
Concise description of 30 top tips and tricks. Easy to quickly scan through this webpage and learn something new! A must on my to-do list: "Worried about young ones racking up huge in-app purchase bills? Tap Settings > General > Restrictions and scroll down to disable In-App Purchases."

Now it is time to put this new knowledge into practice! Thank you 23 Mobile Things for allowing me to learn some valuable tips for using the iPad!

Thing 1

As a newbie to the land of all things ipad, I hope to learn about apps that may apply more to my work life than the basic apps I currently use to take notes during meetings. Personally, I hope to realize there is more to my ipad than the constant checking of facebook, email, and of course using 3M/Overdrive/Nook apps to read books.
I joined 23 Mobile Things because I do not want to be left in the dust in the world of Library 2.0. I have not learned much about Library 2.0 since completing my MLIS in 2008, (other than my own exploration of e-book platforms) and hope to gain greater insight into the useful, free tools available today. The description of the program says that we will learn about "apps will cover a variety of topics: social media, presentations, photography, reference, news, notes, games, and so much more." Can't wait to get started!

Welcome back

Time to resurrect my library blog! I have joined the '23 Mobile Things' program and will post updates based on this self-paced learning program.