Below are the “23 Things*” (or small exercises) that make up our TechLearning 2008 program this summer. You will use these to explore and expand your knowledge of new and emerging Web 2.0 tools freely available on the Internet. Participants need to complete all 23 items on this list by August 15, 2008 in order to receive their mp3 player!

Week 1: Introduction - (June 23 - 27 - Things 1 & 2)

1. Review the TechLearning 2008 site & find out about the program.
2. Discover a few pointers from lifelong learners and learn how to nurture your own learning process.

Week 2: Blogging - (June 30 - July 4 - Things 3 & 4)

1. Set up your own blog & add your first post.

Week 3: Photos and Images - (July 7 - 11 - Things 5, 6, 7)

1. Explore Flickr and learn how to get the most out of this popular image hosting site.
2. Discover some Flickr mashups & 3rd party sites.
3. Create a post about anything technology related that interests you this week.

Week 4: RSS Feeds and Newsreaders - (July 14 - 18 - Things 8 & 9)

1. Learn about RSS feeds and setup your own Google Reader account.
2. Locate a few useful library related blogs and other news feeds.

Week 5: Play Week - (July 21 - 25- Things 10, 11, 12)

1. Play around with an online image generator.
2. Take a look at LibraryThing and catalog some of your favorite books.
3. Roll your own search tool with Rollyo.

Week 6: Tagging, Folksonomies & Technorati - (July 28 - August 1 - Things 13, 14, 15)

1. Learn about tagging and discover a Del.icio.us (a social bookmaking site)
2. Explore Technorati and learn how tags work with blog posts.
3. Read a few perspectives on Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and the future of libraries and blog your thoughts.

Week 7: Wikis - (August 4 - 8 - Things 16 & 17)

1. Learn about wikis and discover some innovative ways that libraries are using them.
2. Explorer the UR Library Wikis.

Week 8: Online Applications & Tools - (August 11 - 15 - Things 18 & 19)

1. Take a look at some online productivity (word processing, spreadsheet) tools.
2. Explore any site from the Web 2.0 awards list, play with it and write a blog post about your findings.

*Note: TechLearning 2008 is loosely based on the 43Things website (which allows you to set and track personal goals) as well as the Stephen Abram article titled 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006).

Tracking Your Progress:

Record your progress for Boatwright Library staff in the TechLearning 2008 Tracking Log, available in Netfiles: netfiles\admin\library\TechLearning\techlearninglog.xlsx. Look for your name on the tabs at the bottom and then find the corresponding “thing!”

First you’ll need to register your blog. This will be covered in Week 2 for Things 3 & 4.

Once you start recording your discoveries through your own blog, you will need to check-off the item and enter the permanent link to each individual blog post that covers the exercise. Just use the URL to the full post as the permanent link.

To record progress for an individual item in the Tracking Log:

1. Click on the permanent link for the individual post..
2. Select the “permanent link” url from the address bar at the top of your browser and right click. Select Copy.
3. Open the TechLearning 2008 Tracking log and locate the item number that you’ve just completed.
4. Right click on the address line for the item and select Paste.
   

It’s as easy and copy-n-paste. To keep up with recording your progress, I suggest that you make a habit of recording your progress weekly.