Thing 16

Sniff... Such mixed emotions. I am glad to be done, I really feel like I accomplished something, but in the same moment I am sad to be leaving this forum. This has been fun and I learned a lot of great information, and when the world is ready for web 3.0, I will be too.

But on to Thing 16, Geotagging. What a fun way to organize photos. You can see my map here. It will link you to all the photos. I only wish that I could type in a location's name (such as British Museum, London, England) and it would give me the location. So far, you need to know the street address.

I included at least one photo from all the places I have been in the last year. I think this is a great way to organize photos. Just yesterday I was lamenting how little I travel, but then when I look at this map I don't feel so bad. I've been a few places and I can't wait to add more. This would be an excellent tool if I spent more time uploading and organizing. But wouldn't everything - I still don't have wedding photos ordered and its been three years.

Again, I have to say thanks 16things, for all the wisdom and humor you have bestowed upon me.

Thing 15

Amazingly, I already download and frequently listen to many podcasts. I'm always searching for good ones on world history (thanks for the link to Dan Carlin, 16things) because I find it a great way to learn about something new on my bus ride to campus. I tend to like anything in the 20 minute range, just perfect for the ride.

I have included one of my favorite recent podcasts, from Krista Tippet's Speaking of Faith. She speaks with spiritual leaders, researchers and experts across all religions to gain insight into current happenings. The one I'm linking is called TV and Parables of our Times. Not only are the topics thought provoking, but Tippet's soothing voice can have you sleeping like a baby in a matter of minutes. I don't recommend her on the bus, but its better than a warm glass of milk before bed. I know I'm making it sound boring, but really the subject isn't, its just the melodic voice.

As far as searching for podcasts, I've always used iTunes. Its relatively easy to search and everything is updated and synched every time I visit the program.

Thing 14

Note: Wow, these things really fly by on a muggy Sunday afternoon in the only room with a/c

As an instructor, I often want to do research and write scholarly papers (I know, I actually want to do this), but because I don't have someone breathing down my neck with a due date and critiques, I find it difficult to get started and stay motivated. I think that the assignment calculator will be very helpful, as it breaks the process into digestible chunks, all with due dates. All I have to do is select a final date, and obviously, stick to the program.

The Teacher's Guides were great, excellent reminders of how to dig in and dig deeper. I especially appreciated the sheets about online research. I have always avoided online sources, as they were never accepted when I was writing on a regular basis, I have little/no idea how to do an affective scholarly search. Look out google, here I com.

thing 13

I chose igoogle as my start page, mainly because everything else I do is google based. They are the new microsoft, I swear. I enjoy some of the gadgets, a have a serious time-killer game, quote of the day and a moon phase tracker. All necessary items, I'd say. I will not be setting it as my homepage though, as searching through google seems slower when I'm logged in. Could it be that they are tracking my every move? Or am I just paranoid?

I checked out all of the calendar pages, as I a very planner-centric. It took me years to find the proper format (Moleskine, weekly notebook, vertical orientation with notes page, 5 x 7, red *see above*- I'm on my third year of them now, before that it was a Franklin 3 ring binder type, but that got too heavy) but I still check new ones out the entire month of December. And sometimes in August, there might be an awesome back to school find.

I thought Scrybe looked great, I liked the zoom in on day feature, but is still by invitation only. Backpack seems like a great tool, as well. The ultimate on-line to do list.

After all that searching, I think I'll stick to my moleskine. I experimented with a PalmPilot years ago, and I just never got into the tech thing. For me, its as much writing it down as it is having the list for reference. Often, if I write something down, I don't need the list later - which will disappear if I am typing the list.

I also looked at Zoho projects and will suggest to the interior design faculty that we check it out as a tool for accreditation. I can see how this would work very well for a group project.

Thing 12

Del.icio.us is a very helpful internet tool. There are many good sites out there, too many to keep organized with bookmarks, and this site seems to do it well. It will be especially helpful when doing research, not only to save the sites I'm interested in, but to also look at sites that have been tagged by others.

The only thing I find frustrating is that you have to be a very capable searcher (and tagger, as well) or things become too generic. Try looking at sites tagged design....

...there are thousands. You can narrow your search by looking for two tags at once, but who's to say others are using the same definitions for tags that you are? I suppose thats why I'm more of an orderly marching band kinda girl than the gutterpunk type.

I think del.icio.us would be a great way to share info with students, as you can search sites by user and tags. I often see a site that I think would be helpful or interesting for a class to see, but I am not sure how to share it, besides give them the url on a handout. And handouts aren't very web 2.0. I have also started following a lot of sites my students have suggested, any this would be a great way for us all to share. Unfortunately, with the whole social thing, I'd want to block anyone's tags that weren't design related. I still believe in a thing called "too much information."

Thing 11

I uploaded a presentation for my Problems in Residential Design class to see how slideshare worked. It can be found at this LINK if anyone is interested. Of course, I design slide shows to give visual reference to my lectures, so I don't know how "readable" or "interesting" it is without the notes. (If it was ever interesting in the first place).

Again, slideshare is a handy place for storage of slide presentations, similar to what we've learned earlier, but I wouldn't find a slide show on this site to share with students. I did look at the winners of last year's slide show competition and did see some new ways to think about the design of a slide presentation, which were much better than the colorful backgrounds and dynamic slide transitions offered by PowerPoint. I'll be honest, I never considered creating a slide presentation as a design problem before, and because of this exercise, my later slide shows will be much better (I hope).

Again, my recommendation would be to view slideshare to improve your own presentations, but I didn't feel compelled to add all (or many) of my presentations to the system. I can't imagine spending a lot of time looking at this stuff, but that may be because I missed the day in kindergarden when they discussed sharing.

THING 10

This was fun. I saw the sneaker app and was immediately transported back to junior high school when I used to write on my shoes. Now I can express my deepest thoughts without defiling my loafers. It even looks like my handwriting!

Since I was on the trip down

memory lane, I decided to make a personalized license plate from my home state. Of course, they do

n't have the awesome gold and green plates that my For

d Escort sported back in the day, but I guess the classic R, W, & B will do.

I'm afraid I could goof around on this site all day (these are from Image Chef) if I could think of enough clever things to say. I also checked out Toondoo. I had a great idea for a cartoon, actually something that happened on our last canoe trip, but I don't have the hours it takes to create characters, backgrounds, etc. I will have to keep this site in mind the next time I need to make a gift for someone.

I can only think of fun ways to use these apps, I'm not sure how I would use them in interior design. I do think photo sharing online is a great thing. I understand copyright issues, I'm a huge advocate of intellectual property law, but when you post something publicly you are inviting others to use it. Hopefully, if they use your work, its for educational purposes or the greater good and if they want it hanging on their walls they support the arts community enough to purchase a print from the artist.