Step 23 - the final frontier

I am Very Happy to have reached the last step. The 23 Things program was difficult to fit into my workload. I was only able to do it by putting aside one hour a week each week since the program started in August and making sure I did nothing else for that hour. Some weeks I finished a step on the program in that hour and in other weeks I didn't and it had to be carried over to the next week. The other strategy I used to be able to get through the 23 steps was to ask some of my colleagues to put aside the same hour so that in fact we were tackling it together, even though we were out of sync in which step we were on it was the encouragement of my colleagues that stopped me from giving up. I would recommend that people have a 23 Things buddy or buddies that they do the program with.

As for what I learned, I was forced to explore new softwares and parts of the the web that I had not looked at before. This was a good thing. Having grown up, done all my schooling and my undergraduate degree before computers, has meant that I am naturally resistant to using computers and the web and unless I am told to do a program like 23 Things I will not go out and explore these new things on the web.

I can see the many Library applications for the 23 Things programs: like Meebo for communicating with the students, Blogs for individual units informing academic staff and students of tailored services for their study. Flickr & YuoTube to put up images of changes to the Library as with the Learning Commons project at Footscray Park and a VU Library presence on MySpace to promote our services where the students are spending time on the web.