ISAIAH

Thing 7 Pinterest

Having twenty something daughters means that I have been introduced to Pinterest.  They and their friends love this website.  I think it started with the weddings.  It was a good place to get ideas, then of course these young women moved on to homes and recipes and now they are pinning baby things.  I have stumbled upon it while looking for crafting ideas.  My co-worker, Carolyn and I were looking for things to do with some Reader's Digest Condensed books besides dump them in the trash, and this site offered many ideas from making journals, to purses to secret boxes.  I now have an account and am following some libraries and book sites.  I also  have knitting and recipe sites for hobbies.  I have to say that Pinterest is fun--it is like visual bookmarks.  I know that it is being used with the summer reading program to get ideas--might also be useful for storytime.  I plan to use it when I start planning summer reading.

Thing 6 - Making a document

I downloaded the Cloud App for my device to try to use the making document feature.  I like that the app looks a lot like microsoft Word which I use quite a lot, but I also was a little frustrated because it wasn't exactly the same.  I couldn't find a highlight feature so that I could change the size of the font after I had typed something.  I also forgot to name my document initially, so I didn't have a good way to retrieve it and keep working on it.  I did figure that one out on my second document.  I also could not cut and paste--that feature was greyed out.  Despite this, I can see the usefulness of this app if you need to generate a document. When I was teaching, I constantly had to make up quizzes, syllabuses, assignment sheets etc.  You would be able to work on those on the small device and then open them up later to print.  I'll bet students use these for homework also.  

I was also impressed that Google had a few of my other documents on file--mostly attachments from email.  My daughter's resume was among the documents that came up along with an old Christmas letter that wouldn't open up.  Maybe this feature can also be used for viewing documents that are sent via email.  Although, I probably will use my regular-sized computer to generate documents, it is nice to know that I can use my tablet for this purpose also.

Thing 5 Notetaking

I have downloaded "Remember the Milk" onto my device and I can see where this may be handy.  You can just click on the app (after you have entered some tasks) and it gives you a list of things not to forget.  The calendar isn't that specific--just gives the day, no times, but my calendar isn't that full anyway.  I have a notetaking app on my device and that is okay also--you can write with your finger or type.  Right now, I have note pads at both home and work so if I want to make a grocery list or jot an address down (or at work write down a book to order for someone), I just use the real thing.  Perhaps in a paperless society, I'll have to resort to a screen.  I do not have a smart phone, but I imagine this app would be nice for that.  Many people just carry their cell phone around in their pocket, so they could just use it to jot down those miscellaneous notes.  Some of the apps seem like they would be good for students who need to take notes for a class--maybe they can organize them by courses and units.  I do not have that situation.

In conclusion, though I may in the future find reasons to use this app, for now I plan to stick with paper and pencil.  For me, it is faster and handier than the device--paper fits into my pocket and I can write faster than I can type on my little device.

Here is the Link to the 100 Books

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/06/living/amazon-100-best-books/

Thing 4 -- Flipboard vs. Zite

Having taken a look at both Flipboard and Zite, I have to say that I prefer Zite.  I like that I can choose some general categories initially.  The feature that allows me to give articles a thumbs up or down is supposed to work to keep giving me similar articles.  The "flip" feature however, is a nice part about that app.  You just flip pages over to see new stories.  The stories I mostly got were celebrities in their underwear--Beyonce and Eddie Murphy's daughters.  Flipboard takes longer to load, although I did find a library article that mentioned the 23 Mobile Things--guess this program is wider than just Minnesota.  The Zite site was even able to connect to my blog--I shared a story about 100 books to read in your lifetime.  I will see if that worked.  I tried to find some blogs on the flip board site, but couldn't find any local ones.  I did find some on the 23 Mobile Things site though and I am now following some other bloggers from ECRL, but I am following them through Blogger, not Flipboard.  One thing that has been nice is to realize that there are so many choices in what apps to use and then if they aren't useful, they can easily be uninstalled.

Thing 3 Utilities

I had some fun this afternoon using my new toy to get information.  I downloaded the scanner code app and the google googles app.  I found and maybe this is not always the case, but that the Red Laser app is mostly for advertisement.  I found two codes--both were ads--mascara in an Avon booklet and gardening products in Mother Earth magazine.  I used Google Goggles to take a picture of a poster and a book.  In both cases, I got immediate accurate information about the items.  I think I may use this feature if I want to know more about a book or movie.  Based on my two experiences, I think the library will have a greater use for Google Goggles since the scanner codes are mostly for ads.  I did a little looking around google + and it seems like it is trying to be another network.  At least I was asked to find people and colleagues with this so I can share things with them.  Right now, I'm thinking that I don't need one more network.  I do use Facebook, but Linked In is just an annoyance since it comes up every time I get on the computer.  I am not looking for a job and it seems like some of these network sites are for career advancement.  I tried to download the ihome sleep app and it was only for mobile phones--mine is a tablet.  I already have an alarm clock on my device (I tried it and it works great)  Anyway, I give a resounding thumbs up for Google Goggles and I like the fact that I can get the information when a scanner code is presented.