Thing 23 -- Reflection

Wow! I'm finished! What a great journey! I've come a long way and learned many things. Although there are some technologies I likely won't ever use again, I plan on returning to this blog to relive some of these experiences and develop more expertise with certain Things.

I think a few of my favorite Things were the mashups and image generators. I can't wait to start playing around with those to incorporate them into my library webpage and blog for promoting programs and books. I also want to do more with blogging in general. I want to create my own videos of booktrailers to post, as well as create wikis for instruction and collaboration. I'd like to team up with some teachers to put together some projects with podcasts and other Web 2.0 technology.

I may not ever spend much time "Tweeting" or on Ning or Digg, but I've certainly gained a lot of knowledge regarding what these things are and how crucial they are in today's society. In order to prepare the future generations, we have to teach young learners how to be effective users and creators of information. We also must teach them Internet safety, how to evaluate online information and sources, and we must allow them to grow and develop their skills as "digital natives" in a highly diital world.