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As I write this last blog post, I feel the same wistfulness that one experiences when reading the last page of a really good novel, evincing how much I’ve enjoyed this course. Though I’m astonished that the task I dreaded most – blogging – was so enjoyable, I don’t think I’ll ever have a personal blog. As I mentioned in my previous post, I sent out my first tweet recently; what I didn’t add was that I’ve been a member of Twitter since October 2009. I will, however, with bit more confidence and a sense of adventure use a plethora of new social media tools thanks to “the 23 things.” I am grateful and humbled by this experience.  I really didn’t know I had so much to learn!

Since I started this journey with a quote, I’ll end with few as well:

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” Benjamin Franklin

“Technology has the shelf life of a banana.” Scott McNealy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems

“Giving is recognized as a virtue in every major religion and in every civilized society, and it clearly benefits both giver and receiver.” This was tweeted by the Dalai Lama. If His Holiness tweets, it can’t be all bad.

“A child reminds us that playtime is an essential part of our daily routine.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

A boy is Truth with dirt on it’s face,
Beauty with a cut on its finger,
Wisdom with bubble gum in its hair,
and the Hope of the future with a frog in its pocket.
– Author Unknown

Now I’m off to the park…

Over the last few years, most College and University Alumni Associations have ramped up their social media presence thereby providing alums with more tools to connect. From the alumni relations perspective, sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are invaluable for organizing events, delivering messages and finding lost alumni.  I’m not sure how many alumni I’ve found (or who’ve found me) thanks to Facebook, but after only 2 ½ years on the site I have about 740 friends.  Still, I’m not yet using these social media tools to their full potential – a fact that I’ve lamented over and over. I’m currently testing the waters with Twitter (@albm212) and sent out my first tweet last weekend.

Changing gears… as a resource for teachers, Classroom 2.0 is amazing. I was unable to find a Ning for Alumni Relations Professionals. Upon googling a bit I found a few alumni associations that utilize Nings as well as a Ning for “University Web Developers” in which members consider several social networking tools, including Nings, as a solution for creating a protected online community. Should we abandon our online community and set up spaces on social networking platforms or set up a Ning or blog that incorporates the most popular social networking tools? The jury’s out.

I found this gem in my RSS reader today: A Must-See Cartoon That Teaches About Motivation. Wow! The animation is as amazing as the message: excessive extrinsic rewards lead to mediocrity while intrinsic motivators (autonomy, mastery and purpose) inspire creativity and higher performance.

Not a big surprise, we all know the children have an innate desire to learn and explore the world around them. Propelled by curiosity, their minds soak up knowledge at an unbelievable rate.  As I ramble on I realize that it all comes back to “Thing 1” and Life-Learning; therefore, I won’t go on and on again about all of the personal and professional advantages of self-motivation revealed in this study, but I do feel inspired to find better strategies to engage alumni volunteers by harnessing the power of intrinsic rewards.

Inevitably, my first objective when exploring a new Web 2.0 tool is to differentiate between public and private content. The end result of this experiment: Random K12 Learning Pagecast.

Pageflakes has some very interesting widgets to enhance a classroom page: a widget for blogging, a widget to download and share files, a message board and an “anything” flake which was fun to play with. I couldn’t get the podcast flake to work but I was able to use the RSS reader flake to follow a podcast. Clicking on Pageflakes’ “community” button allows one to search for as well as follow other public pages.

For personal use, I still prefer Netvibes because of its polished, sleek feel. I like having all my favorite feeds, emails and delicious bookmarks available on my home page, but it’s not information I would want to share? And after dabbling a bit with Netvibes this weekend, I don’t think sharing public pages is one of their priorities.  The Pageflake widgets that I mentioned above may very well be available on Netvibes as well, but they aren’t listed among their “essential” widgets. On the bottom of the page you can search for other public pages, but searching “classroom” resulted in ONE page.

Therefore, as a classroom tool, the aggregator Pageflakes seems far superior – here I go again, reviewing tools which I didn’t know existed until last week!

My apologies in advance for turning this assignment into a product review – particularly since I’m no expert on either of the two products that I’m comparing: Google Docs vs. Office Web Apps.

I had an agreeable experience when I last used Google to share a spreadsheet (see Thing 8). A good way to see all that Google Docs has to offer is to peruse the “Public Templates.” It’s an impressive list: forms, schedules, calendars, budgets, project timelines. There is even a Student/Teacher section. In terms of sharing a simple word-processing document, Google Docs is hands down the tool to use. Google falls short when formatting or uploading a more complicated document (i.e. newsletters, brochures, invitations). There are only 11 fonts to chose from; you can’t wrap text or add a text box; forget about right-clicking or adding an image larger than 2 MB.

Then there’s the cloud-based software, Office Web Apps, which Microsoft introduced last month. I like that it has an “edit” and “reading” view. Though the functionality of Office Web Apps is also limited, uploaded documents do retain their formatting. This is advantageous when attempting to work on a complicated doc both at home and at the office. However, downloading requires that you have MS Office 2010.

I don’t know if there’s a clear winner – depends on what one wishes to accomplish. I was interested in comparing the amount of text wrapping control both had to offer.  In Google Docs I created a Drawing (above) and added a text box to achieve the desired effect. The resulting document can be downloaded as a JPEG or PDF.  If I had had MS Office 2010, as I stated above, I could have downloaded my document in Word and presumably preserved the formatting. I guess I’ll hold on to my MobileMe account until I’m upgraded.

I found a meme timeline on dipity.com! If nothing else it’s a hoot to see what captured our imagination back in the day – at least enough to click FWD.

Quiet Tube rocks!!  Thanks Shelley!

Has it really been only five years since the birth of YouTube? I actually haven’t spent a lot of time on the website, but I’m aware of many of the Internet memes that YouTube has helped create.  How is it possible that viewers have been compelled to click on “Charlie Bit Me” 5.9 million times? How did duckrolling evolve into rickrolling? Why does “Keyboard Cat” trail so many bloopers? Just google: “Play him off Keyboard Cat.”

Flash Mobs are another genre of meme found on YouTube. Improv Everywhere has by far the most amazing collection. Most of the flash mobs that I’ve come across online are promotional stunts and involve either a large group of people “spontaneously” freezing or performing a choreographed dance. One of the most popular takes place in the Central Station in Antwerp, Belgium.

The flash mob in Antwerp (above) was the video that I had planned to post until I came across the vlogbrothers (aka nerdfighters) and their video announcing the All For Good/YouTube’s Video Volunteers project. Their mission is to “help nonprofits connect with skilled video-makers.”  I am a fundraiser after all. Enjoy!

And here’s the video from Antwerp, why not?

Though I really enjoyed at long last getting to play around with Garage Band, I’ve been reluctant to complete this assignment and I’m not thrilled with the results. The poem I chose, A Poem for Those Over 30, was not that funny; my delivery (no surprise in only one take) was even worse; my amateur attempt to combine elements (background music) did not improve the fiasco. It’s evident from my efforts that audio engineering and public speaking are art forms. Since you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, I’m leaving my auditory assault to podcasting as is – warts and all.

That said, I was surprised at how quickly I completed this assignment. Putting together a simple podcast was actually technically easier than I thought it would be. I don’t think fundraising and alumni relations would be the most obvious departments to utilize this tool. But on second thought, why not? For those unfamiliar with PCS, our students and alumni are predominantly performing artists. An embedded podcast (or even better, vodcast) of a performance would interest both donors and alumni.

Over the last year, I’ve been asking alumni to contribute to a project we’ve been calling “My PCS Story.” We’ve included these reminiscences in the e-newsletter – adding audio and video to these stories would be much more powerful!

I’ve been “catching” podcasts for awhile now, usually while commuting to and from work. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I used my iphone or ipod to listen to music. My favorites include: This American Life, The Moth, NPR’s Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!. Anyone familiar with iTunes knows that my faves happen to be in the top ten among other podcast users as well. “This American Life” and “Wait, Wait” NEVER disappoint; so if you haven’t signed up for them, stop whatever you are doing and subscribe! To get a taste of what “The Moth” has to offer, start with Michaela Murphy’s astonishing true story about taking her brother to The All-Star Game. There are a few podcasts relating to fundraising to which I’ve subscribed. I have to keep reminding myself to look again and again – there’s something new ever time I explore iTunes and iTunes U.