Reflection of 23 Things Mobile

23 Things Mobile:

I really appreciate participating in 23 Things Mobile.  What a great way to learn about different new ways of using my mobile device.  One of my favorite mobile apps that I hadn’t used was the Elm Mobile app; what a great way to discover Minnesota Library Services.  I am so proud to live and work in Minnesota; we really have wonderful library resources for our communities.  Each little homework assignment was fun.  At first, signing up for the blog seemed like I would never get through the project.  I decided to take it one at a time, which made it easier.  Also, it was good to reflect on why an app was good to use, it got my reference skills more into 21^st century. 

One activity that I shared with an instructor that teaches Global Citizenship is to use iPadio to tape interviews of community members.  I recommended that the students use StoryCorps to frame their questions, which will make that part easier and that they interview elders in our community.  We are going to see how that will work in one of our summer Global Citizenship classes.  23 Things Mobile has allowed me great ways to give back to my institution that I work at, and to assist my nephews with possible apps that could help them learn.  Thanks, for putting this on, I really enjoyed this.

Finding Apps

I used Quixey app search engine to find apps for my iPad. For the City of Minneapolis, I found their snow emergency app, which will be useful later this year. I also found MultiCAM to see how traffic is flowing. Since, I live close to downtown Minneapolis, that will be a nice tool to find out if there are games scheduled etc.

 

Free-For-All

In the free-for-all I would like to recommend the Ted app, which allows you to listen to TED talks on your Apple or Android.  The talks are really very wonderful and inspiring well worth the time.  I listen to them while I am riding the stationary bike, which makes the time go by quickly.  Another good app is APPS Gone Free, it gives you an update every day of which apps have gone free, very nice way to spend less money.  I am always for that. 

 

Games

For games, I want folks to try a new game that I tried out.  It’s called the Grading Game.  The objective is to fail a student after reading his/her paper.  The Professor wants you to give a grade that is failing, so it’s sort of fun to correct all the mistakes that the student has made.  It’s timed so you have to find the mistakes quickly.  If you don’t fail the student, the professor says that she is mad at you and you get fired! I tried it on my iPhone, but that was too small of a screen, so it’s better to use an iPad size screen.  Very fun and gets you thinking.

Hobbies

I tried out Sibley eGuide to Birds of North America LITE, because I love watching birds.  When, I was growing up, I would go for bird walks, and come back to tell my grandmother what birds I had seen.  We used a print bird book to locate the birds that I described to her, it was fun.  I still love bird watching, the Sibley eGuide to Birds of North America LITE, allows you to also hear each bird’s song, which is pretty wonderful.  Very nice app, not sure I will buy the one for $19.99, but I am considering it.  I played the sound of a Belted Kingfisher, I hadn’t heard that for quite a while.

Education

Education:

I tried out the app Duolingo, because I wanted a resource to help me with my rusty Spanish. I was asked today if I spoke Spanish and I had to say very little. It would be nice to know more, it’s really a growing language here in Minnesota. I found Duolingo fun; it’s a good way to play games. I like educational games. I have also used Khan Academy, which is a wonderful tool for students to learn subject like math and science.

 

Connecting to Community

Connecting to Community:  I downloaded the Highlights of the Superior Hiking Trail, because it’s a beautiful trail.  The app allows me to find hikes that are from 2 to 8 miles.  A day hike of 2 miles on the Superior Hiking trail sounds like a good afternoon of hiking and enjoying nature.  I also downloaded the Minneapolis Art Institute app to my iPad to navigate the MIA.  I had visited the Matisse exhibit and they also had tour via their app of it.  Very nice way to get around the MIA.  It does cost $1.99, but it was well worth it.

Audio

I used ipadio on my iPad to record an interview about my father’s life.  I used questions provided by StoryCorps, http://storycorps.org/great-questions/#parents.  The questions allow you to interview and have the person tell his/her story.  StoryCorps and ipadio are wonderful resources.  Good way for local community members to access the local history of their community.

Infographics:

Infographics:  I tried the app iV Touch Lite.  It was a quick way to put together a sweet little title page for a presentation.  I didn’t build infographics, just a title page.  While, I like to have statistics, I really don’t care much for sweet little charts. 

Videos:

Videos: I tried out the Viddy app.  It’s a quick learn, point and shoot.  Then, it allows you to edit coloring, and actually clips within your video.  It was very fun and quick to learn.  I was able to post right from Viddy to my YouTube account. This is a fun new technology to capture short videos of library activities.