Thing 23-Evaluate 23 Mobile Things

Whew!!  I made it!  I have completed the other 22 things and the evaluation survey for thing 23 and I managed to do it before school was done for the summer.  Yay!

I really enjoyed learning about all the different apps that were available for the iPad.  When I started this program I had only recently gotten an iPad so I was very new to the device.  I found the device tips in thing 2 very helpful!  I have gotten so much more comfortable with this device as this program has progressed.  I still use it more for entertainment than productivity but I do like that it can be both. I love the Bluetooth keyboard that allows me to type regularly on keys and not on the screen.  It makes this blog entry much, much, easier!

My favorite apps that I have discovered through this program are GroupOn, RoadNinja, Spotify, Minnesota511, Kindle, Evernote, SignNow and Quizlet.  Many of these I like for personal use but a few can be used in the library where I work as well.

23 Mobile Things was a fun self paced learning adventure.  Perfect for busy professionals that can carve out a few minutes here and there to learn a new trick or two.

Thing 22-Discovering Apps

I attended the preview webinar for 23 mobile things way back in January or February and was introduced to the AppsGoneFree app.  I really like this app because it compiles a list (and usually has some sort of category) for each day of apps that are free for a limited time.  As I mentioned in my last post, I like to get deals so if I can get an app for free that usually costs money, I really like that.  I can't recall how many apps I have downloaded because I found them on AppsGoneFree but it is quite a few.  I don't check it everyday so sometimes miss out on ones I might have liked to try.  I have noticed that they sometimes cycle back around though so just keep checking.  I find it very easy to use.  If you are looking for a specific kind of app, AppsGoneFree might not be for you but if you just want to know what's available for free that usually will cost you some money this is a good app.

Thing 21-Groupon (Free-For-All)

For Thing 21 I am choosing to blog about the Groupon app.  I love this app because  I love to find great deals.  The area I live in doesn't really show up but I use it to find deals for going on vacation or when we go to visit the Mpls/St. Paul area. You can search by your current location or you can type in a location to search.  This allows you to find deals in or near the cities that you plan to visit.  There are some really great deals on there!

Thing 20-Games

I have been playing Candy Crush for quite sometime.  I really enjoyed it at first but then it got more difficult.  I still play it occasionally but not nearly as much as I used to.  It is an easy game to pick up and put down so I do like it for when I am sitting in the car waiting to pick up my kids from various activities.  The other game app that I started playing is HayDay.  It is a virtual farming game and you can connect to friends through Facebook and/or GameCenter (the maker of HayDay).  It is very similar to Zynga's Farmville that I used to play through Facebook but I like it better because in HayDay the crops don't die if you don't make it back in a certain amount of time.  But it has consumed way too much of my time the last month or so because it is fun and there are all these goals to try to reach and I got sucked in.  The laundry is still getting done and the kids are still fed and bathed so I guess it could be worse.  :)

Thing 19-Hobbies

For this thing I looked at a couple different apps.  First I tried Spotify.  I liked it.  I hadn't used the iPad to listen to music before trying this app so don't really have any others to compare it to but I did like this one.  It was easy to browse and find playlists to listen to.  I imagine I could create my own playlists for the library or my own personal use but for now I am content to just listen to the ones I find.
I also checked out Road Ninja.  I think I will really like this the next time we go on a road trip.  I will need to find it for my phone though as my iPad only works with WiFi.
I was going to check out the Vivino Wine Scanner app but I was at work when I was doing this and didn't have a bottle of wine with me to check it out.  I like to tour MN wineries so think it would be great if they had an app like the MN beer app a few "things" back.

Thing 18-Education

For Thing 18 I tried out the quizlet app.  I loved it!  I was orginally thinking I could use it to help my son study his spelling words because sometimes making a set of flashcards is one of the suggested activities for studying spelling words.  I quickly realized that it is much more than just flashcards.  There are several different activities that you can do with your quiz sets once you have created them.  I think this would work well for some Info Lit activities.  The students could complete the activities built around concepts and terms that I put together.  I reallly like that you can access your account through the website www.quizlet.com as well as through the app.  One of my favorite apps so far in these 23 mobile things...

Thing 17-Connecting to Community

I found several apps to try for Thing 17.  My favorites were probable 511mn and the Duluth News Tribune app.  I use 511mn.org on the computer quite a bit in the winter to check on road conditions.  Since I wasn't checking the app during any bad winter weather, I couldn't tell if the colored road conditions would show up on the map or not.  I really hope they do because then this would be great. It is very helpful to have that information when planning routes.  It did show blockages, detours, etc which would be helpful for planning alternate routes as well.  I wanted to use the Explore MN app but ran into problems with it not opening pages.  I think I will just continue to use this on the computer or through the browser on the iPad.  The Duluth News Tribune app would be helpful in keeping up with the news from the Duluth area when I don't have access to the actual Duluth News Tribune paper.  The Hibbing Daily Tribune supposedly has an app as well but it did not work for me.

Thing 16-Audio

For Thing 16 I tried a couple of the apps suggested.  First I tried SoundCloud.  I found some recordings of some old songs that were kind of fun to listen to.   Then I decided to try ipadio.  While it was very easy to make a recording with this app I found it very confusing to do anything else.  Then I read that you need to login to the ipadio website itself to do a lot with it.  I didn't do this as I really just wanted to use the app so I went back to SoundCloud and searched for "library", "college library" and "university library".  I found several items to choose from and listened to some of them.  The Amarillo Public Library had uploaded recordings of poetry readings to celebrate National Poetry Month.  I think this could work for poetry slams or open mike nights.  Balliol College Library had a self-guided library tour recorded that patrons could listen to.  I liked this ideas also.  As has been mentioned elsewhere, this could be used to record interviews or brief snipets about the library.  It could also be used to record booktalks that could be linked to an image of the book.

Thing 15-Infographics

For Thing 15, I checked out a few infographic apps but wasn't completely happy with any of them.  I liked Infographics Hub for finding infographics that are already out there.  Some appealed to me personally but I didn't find any that I would use or share in my work life.  info.Graphics was very similar but after I opened the first one, looked at it and closed it I was unable to open any of the others I wanted to see or perhaps share.  This was disappointing so I deleted that app.  I also tried to use i Visual Info Touch Lite.  The trouble with this one was it just didn't compare to Piktochart.  Unfortunately, Piktochart doesn't have an app for the iPad (at least I didn't find one when I searched). I'm sure i Visual would work fine for some people but I missed the ability to easily make charts from data.  That was a deal breaker for me so I will stick with Piktochart on my desktop or laptop when I need to create infographics for now.

Thing 14-Videos

For this thing I tried out Magisto.  I liked that you could take video or that it would make a video from your still photos as well.  I liked picking a theme and music.  I felt that it took quite awhile for them to make my video so you can't really just pick things and see how they look quickly.  There is a bit of time involved in waiting for the video to be ready.  I would have liked to try more combinations but I didn't want to wait for each combo I picked to be ready to watch.  It didn't take hours or even half an hour for it to be ready but I'm impatient and wanted it ready right away.  Once you pick a song for your video, you can no longer hear the recorded voice or sounds so if that is something you want to preserve, you would either need to not have a soundtrack or use a different video app.  I think this would be a fun app to do a library promotion video with photos of either the library spaces and/or covers of new books.

Thing 13-Presentations

I found the apps for thing 13 interesting.  I just recently used Prezi on my desktop computer to create a library orientation for an online class. I was excited to see that Prezi has a free app so I downloaded that and when I login to my account my Prezi is there so now I can edit it from the iPad as well as any desktop or laptop computer I may be using.

I tried Deck for this blogging experience.  I liked that the description says it requires no design skills whatsoever because I feel that describes me quite well!  I tried to use much of the info from my online library orientation presentation that I made in Prezi.  I found that I didn't have enough space to go into in depth instructions.  I really liked how the presentation looked at the end when I was done but I wish there was a way to record audio.  I can't really use this app for my online presentation where I'm not there to talk and add details and explanations but I could use this app for my face to face presentations.  It definitely did a much neater job of presenting than I can do myself.  I also found it easier to use than Powerpoint.

I looked at HaikuDeck very briefly.  The one thing that really stood out about this app was it's ability to search our Creative Commons licensed images for you to include in your presentation.  I think this would be a great tool for students who don't always know or think to look for CC licenses.

Thing 12-Books, Books & More Books

I tried several apps and was not completely happy with any of them.  The first one I tried was Wattpad.  It supposedly had a complete copy of John Green's The Fault in Our Stars that a user had uploaded from a different site that she found.  I really didn't think this was legal so wasn't too impressed that it was possible.  I didn't read it and I haven't read the real one so I wouldn't know if it was the actual book or not.  This app contained a lot of fan fiction which I knew nothing about until recently when I read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.  I wasn't  interested enough to look into any of the fan fiction that was posted on this app.  I personally don't see myself using this app but can see where teens and young adults might like it as a place to post their original material and connect with others.

Free Books was okay.  I found a lot of classics available.  I tend to read more contemporary items and have a list that feels like it is a mile long of  things to read so I probably won't be using this app either.  I will stick to my Kindle app and continue to check books out from my local public library because I can find the things I want to read and it is free  of charge to me.

I couldn't find iStoryBooks but I did find iStoryTime.  I didn't spend much time on here because all the books I saw cost money and I didn't want to pay for a book.  I can check children's books out through Overdrive at the public library and either download them to the Kindle app on the iPad or my daughter's Nook so I don't see myself using this app either.

Thing 11-Library and Reference

None of the libraries in my area have a mobile app so I tried the Anoka County Library App.  I would love to have one of these available for my personal use at the public library.  I think it would be great tool for the students at the college that I work at.  Most of them have smart phones and those seem to be their preferred method of communication and conducting business so having an app where they can check their library accounts would be great.  The MNPals library consortium has developed a mobile interface for the OPAC for it's libraries.  I did try that out for this "thing" as well.  It was nice because it is a cleaner interface and loads much quicker than the regular one does on mobile devices. I'm not sure how much it gets used by my students but it's nice to have the option if someone wants to use it.

I also checked out the mobile ELM site.  When I typed elm4you,org into the address bar in Safari on iPad it didn't seem to look any different than on my desktop though so I was a bit confused.

Thing 10-Sharing Photos

I decided to give Instagram a try for thing 10.  I don't know anyone on snapchat that I am aware of so wasn't sure who I would share any of my exciting photos with if I chose that app.  I've seen a few friends post on Facebook with Instagram so knew that I at least knew people using that app.  It was okay.  It was nice that you could share the photo you created on several different sites/accounts at once.  My main problem is I really only use Facebook and find sharing photos there is easy as well.  For that reason I don't really feel that I need Instagram at this point in time.  I did try InstaCollage because I was looking for something a little more exciting as far as borders and such.  InstaCollage had the option of sharing to Instagram which was kinda cool.  I created my photo collage in InstaCollage and then shared it on Instagram.  I had the option of also sharing it to Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Thing 9-Taking and Editing Photos

I tried 3 different apps for this thing.  I didn't have any experience with the apps suggested or any other photo editing apps either so this was all new to me.  First I tried Line.  The thing I liked best about Line was the ability to make collages very easily and there were many different layouts available for free.  I didn't like that the borders and stamps all cost money.  I would think they could give you a couple for free.  I found it very easy to deform a face while trying to "beautify" it.

I thought ColorSplurge would be my favorite but I ended up not really liking it.  The pop up ads were extremely annoying!

CamMe was kinda fun and a much better way to take selfies than trying to hold the phone or tablet far enough away to not get an extreme close up.  I thought the photobooth function was fun.

There are a ton of photo collage and editing apps available so I think everyone could find one that would work for what they wanted to do with it.  It might take a little time to play around with them and figure out which one you like best.

Thing 8-Social Media Management Tools

I have to start out by saying that I only have 2 social media accounts and I only really use one of those so managing them really isn't a concern for me.  But, since the assignment is to try new things I chose a couple to play around with.  The first one I chose was Friendcaster.  I tried to use this app for about 2 minutes.  It didn't seem much different than my Facebook app and since it just shows your Facebook feed I didn't really see the point.
The second app I tried was Tweetcaster since the two accounts I do have are Facebook and Twitter.  I thought it could be kind of convenient to be able to post to both simultaneously.  It did work and I do like that there is the option of selecting one or both that you want the post to post on because sometimes I may not want it to show up on both.  I don't know that I will really use this much personally.  I did however see where it could be useful if I had Facebook and Twitter accounts for my Library because then I would only have to go to Tweetcaster and it would post whatever info I wanted to share in both places.

Thing 7-Content Saving & Sharing

I chose Pinterest to blog about for this thing.  I have been a Pinterest member for a couple of years so was very familiar with this app.  One of the things I like best about Pinterest are the photos or visual reminders of what I found.  Much better than having to tag or describe everything.  I connected   Pinterest to my Facebook account so it found my Facebook friends that have Pinterest accounts as well so it is a way to share ideas with my friends as well saving them for my benefit.  I also really like that my account and all the items I pin are available from whichever device or computer I am using at the time.  Mostly I seem to collect yummy looking recipes that I'm sure I will make someday.  I have found some display ideas for the library from Pinterest as well however.

Thing 6-Creating and Editing Docs

For this thing I tried SignNow.  I loved this app!  I think it is great that you can download forms, fill them out and sign them all in one app.  I also liked that the app saved my signature so when I went to sign the second doc my signature was there and all I had to do was click on it to insert it into the form.  I found it easy to move the blocks of text around on my form to get them to where I wanted them also.  Sometimes when I am trying to fill out a form on the computer things don't always seem to line up the way I want them to.  I liked that things could be moved around on the screen with this app.  I think this app could be very useful.

Thing 5-Notetaking

For this thing I tried out 3 different apps. The first one I tried was Remember The Milk. I thought this was going to be a good app to create a shopping list on my phone. I didn't feel that it lent itself to that very well.  It could be useful as a calendar type app but my phone already has a calendar so I don't think I will be using this one much in the future.
The second app I tried was Dragon Dictation. I like this app because you can speak what you want the text to say. This isn't very handy in some situations such as meetings or presentations or classes however.
Since I was attending a conference and wanted to take notes I tried Bamboo Paper. I probably would have liked this app better but I didn't have a stylus and my finger writing left a lot to be desired. I couldn't find a way to access a keyboard in this app so I went hunting for another one that might work better for me in my conference setting.
I found Evernote and ended up using that app for my note taking at the conference.

Thing 4-Keeping Up

I actually ended up trying both of these apps.  I was having trouble with Flipboard so decided to give Zite a whirl.  I ended up liking Flipboard better though so that is the one that I used more for experimenting for this post.  I'm not sure I will really use either of these at this point in time. I just don't have that many blogs that I follow on a regular basis.  I did add the two that I check out from time to time.  They are Rule Number One: A Library Blog  rulenumberoneblog.com and the ACRLog  Blogging by and for academic and research librarians  acrlog.org .  Since I only check these two on occasion it is just as easy for me to find them in my favorites on my computer.  I can see, if a person followed many different blogs, where Flipboard could come in handy because it would be a one stop shop for all of your blogs so to speak.  I also only have one social media site that I use.  If I used more I can see where Flipboard would be helpful to check all of them in the same spot rather than having to login to each site individually.

Thing 3-Utilities

I tried a couple different apps for Thing 3.  The first one I tried was Google Search.  I was really excited to try Google Goggles.  My family participates in an annual trivia contest that includes a visual trivia packet.  I thought Google Goggles might be a great tool to help find some info on some of these very obscure images.  It found 1 or 2 but wasn't as successful as I had hoped it would be.  It was fun to use though.  I will keep Google Search on my iPad because I like to have more search options than just one at my fingertips.  I didn't try the voice search but may sometime in the future.  I could do a comparison between the Google voice search and Siri since my experience with Siri has been a bit frustrating.

The other app I tried was called Stand Up.  This was kinda fun but I had it set to 30 minute intervals which were too frequent.  The other problem I had was that I don't necessarily sit still for 30 minutes at a time so I would get up to take care of something, come back to sit down and the alarm would go off telling me it was time to stand up and do an exercise.  I found myself ignoring it a lot because of this.  I did enjoy the different office/desk exercise videos and still make use of some of those from time to time.

Thing 2-Mobile Device Tips

As I mentioned in my first post, I am new to the iPad.  As a result, I found these videos to be quite helpful.  I had not clue that I wasn't actually closing out an app when I was exiting it.  The tip about double clicking the home button to see all your open multitasking windows and swiping up to close them was great.  I learned how to make folders and how to move apps from one screen to another.  My kids knew how to do both of these things and had made folders and moved things around for me but it will be nice that I can do it myself now and maybe undo some of the things that they have done.  Let's just say our ideas of organization don't always mesh.  I also learned about accessing the control center by swiping up from the bottom of the screen.  This will be handy for quick access to controls for volume, camera, disabling wifi and bluetooth, etc.  I didn't check out any of the battery saving tips since I don't have an iPhone.  If I did, I'm sure they would be very helpful as my android phone battery never lasts as long as I want it to.  Overall I found thing 2 very useful in helping me learn more about my iPad and how to use it.

Thing 1

As I posted the title for this post I thought of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in The Hat.  Hopefully these "things" are not as troublesome as those "Things" were.  I am excited to start this program and hope to discover many useful Apps for both my professional and personal life.   I am new to the iPad world but am looking forward to discovering ways to use it as a tool and not just as a toy.