The 23 Things

Listed below are 23 Things (or activities) that you can do on the web to explore and expand your knowledge of the Internet and Web 2.0 tools. If you are a Mesquite ISD employee, you must complete all 23 items on this list by July 24, 2008 in order to to receive 18 hours of Pay For Knowledge (PFK) and 18 Professional Growth Hours (PGH)!

Getting Started
Read the About, FAQ and Web 2.0 Hints pages to find out about the program. Leave a comment on any of those pages with questions you may have that aren't addressed.

The 23 Things*

Lifelong learning
1. Discover a few pointers from lifelong learners and learn how to nurture your own learning process.

Blogging, avatars and commenting
2.Set up your own blog, add an avatar and write your first post.
3. Register your blog.
4. Learn why commenting is important to the blogging process.

What is Web 2.0 and why should I care?
5. Read and watch these perspectives on web 2.0 and the future of education then blog your thoughts.
6. Explore any site from the Web 2.0 awards list, play with it and write a post about your findings.

Photos and images
7. Explore Flickr and learn about this popular image hosting site.
8. Have some more Flickr fun with mashups and 3rd party sites.
9. Play around with an online image generator.

RSS and newsreaders: keeping up
10. Learn about RSS feeds and set up your own RSS reader.
11. Locate and subscribe to a few fun and useful blogs and/or news feeds.

Google does it all
12. If you thought Google was just a search engine, think again. Learn about the cool tools that Google has to offer.

Collaboration with Web 2.0
13. Take a look at some online applications - word processing, spreadsheets, etc.
14. Go with the flow and take a look at some free web-based applications for creating flow charts and mindmaps.
15. Learn about wikis and discover some ways that schools and libraries are using them.

Online productivity tools
16. Learn about some web 2.0 tools that will help make you more organized and productive.

Web 2.0 - the "social" web
17. Learn about tagging and discover del.icio.us, a social bookmarking site.
18. Social networks like MySpace and Facebook are the way many people communicate. Explore one or both!
19. MySpace and Facebook get all the press, but there are other social networks.

Web 2.0 Video and Audio sites
20. Explore YouTube and other sites where you can watch and upload video.
21. Make your own video with Animoto.
22. Find and listen to some podcasts (you don't have to have an iPod!)

One last thing
23. Who owns all of this shared stuff? Learn about Creative Commons.

Bonus:
Summarize your thoughts about this program.

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