Thing 23: Art

Muse: I browsed through several categories of art - who knew there were so many? I especially enjoyed the "Op Art" group, and saved a couple of those in my gallery. However, I think this would be a much more enjoyable experience on a bigger screen, such as an iPad. It is nice to have access to art galleries from around the world, though. And the Salvador Dali paintings that appear on my phone's lock screen are much more interesting than the default that came with the phone.

Bitstrip: Now I know where my friends have been getting their avatars! I have seen many of them on Facebook and Ravelry, my other go-to social media site. I tried out the Bitstrip app, and created an avatar of myself, but somehow it doesn't really look like me. I had tons of fun playing around with it though! I also played with building a comic strip, and can see how people can sink a LOT of time into this! It would also be a lot of fun to make avatars for my kids, husband, etc. I have to admit that whoever created this app is really clever.

Thing 16: Presentations

I have worked with PowerPoint for many years, and have even shown students how to create slide shows during some of my school-age technology programs here at CCPL. It is nice to know that the app is available on mobile devices too. The one thing I really don't like about PowerPoint is its tendency to turn presenters into "PowerPoint Slide Readers" - something I try really hard NOT to do as a presenter!

I am working with a couple of other members of the Children's Staff on a presentation for the CYPD Conference coming up at the end of August. We explored the possibility of using PowerPoint, or maybe Prezi, but finally chose Haiku Deck as our presentation tool. Since we are working as a team, we were planning to all export our slides onto Elizabeth's presentation, which apparently was working in the past couple of weeks. However, now it seems that we cannot export without paying for the "Pro" upgrade. The GoogleSlides look like they might be a nice option for our "sharing" purposes, but it's probably too late in the game to make the switch.

I really like the professional look of the Haiku Deck slides, but I wish it doesn't auto-save quite so quickly. And I tried editing and adding slides to my presentation using the app on my phone, but didn't find it nearly as easy as just working on my laptop,

Here is my presentation so far:
Take Me There!

Thing 22: Languages

I have used Pronunciator before, and have recommended it to a couple of patrons who were looking for World Languages materials. So for this Thing, I decided to try Duolingo, something brand new to me. One of my big goals in life is to learn Spanish - I actually taught in inner-city Houston and didn't make the effort to learn it then, which is something I have always regretted.

I downloaded the Duolingo app to my phone, set up an account, and completed the "Basic Lesson 1". Each lesson is supposed to take approx. 10 minutes, which is perfect for my short attention span. I learned the difference between "el" and "una", and heard the correct pronunciations of several phrases. I moved the app's icon to my main home screen, and really do plan to continue with one or two lessons per day. The reviews are somewhat mixed, so I don't know how far it will actually get me in my functional language learning, but it certainly cannot hurt!

I took quite a few German classes in college, and might also try Duolingo's "placement test" to see where I fall in their German lesson sequence.