Thing 3

I started "playing" tonight when I made my Avatar. I went to Yahoo to make mine and I was happy to see that ALA actually has their own avatar READ tee-shirt! I can see why the kids have so much fun with Second Life! It can be addictive to look through everything. I was a little concerned about picking up viruses on my computer from some of the free avatar sites and that was why I decided to stick with Yahoo. Does anybody know if viruses are an issue on these sites? If they are, is there anything I can do to keep my computer safe?

Thing 2

I am really excited yet a little overwhelmed about starting on a quest to be Web 2.o savvy. It is something I have wanted to do since reading an article about 23 Things in a journal last year. After going through the 7 1/2 Habits PPT on the Library2Play site, I believe that my greatest strengths are Habit 1 - Begin with the End in Mind and Habit 2 - Accept Responsibility for Your Own Learning. Through professional reading, conversations, and conferences, I have recognized that I am not as familiar as I would like to be with current technology. My goal is to be familiar with most of the Web 2.0 technologies and fluent in at least a few of them. Begining with that end in mind, I have begun to look for opportunities to reach my goal. This project seems like the perfect way for me to take responsibility for my own learning. My biggest challenge of the 7 1/2 Habits is Habit 3 - Viewing Problems as Challenges. This is especially true with technology snafus. It is easy to become frustrated and overwhelmed when things don't work right with technology and go back to doing things the way that are safe and familiar. Staying with what you know does not promote growth and what you are familiar with eventually becomes stale. Learning new things keeps us vibrant and new technologies keep our lessons fresh and engaging to our learners. I love the idea of Play as a part of the 7 1/2 Habits and I think that thinking of the 23 tasks as "play" makes them seem more doable and takes the pressure off to do them perfectly. Seeing those challenges as opportunities is easier to do when you are "playing" while you learn. I am looking forward to "playing" all summer!