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!