19. Hobbies

Since gardening is my third passion, it was easy to try out My Garden. It is fairly simple. It is a Facebook for gardeners. I added the various types of plants that I have in my gardens. Some of the plant have pictures, descriptions and instructions on how to take care of  them. I am not sure why some of the plants have more info than others. I do not plan to post, but I am going to follow a few of the popular gardeners. Just looking at flowers makes me happy, so I like this app.

18. Education

This Thing is my kind of thing. It was the first time that I had too many choices. I plan to revisit and try more of the apps.

Google Earth is fun. I have the app on my computer but never thought of it on my IPad. I tend to play with it, looking up foreign places mentioned in the news. But I think it is a great educational tool.

I had heard of Ted but never tried it. I listened to a couple of motivational talks that I found interesting and very well presented.  There are a variety of topics and it is is easy to use the tag button to find areas of interest. Of course, I checked out the Library tag.

I also downloaded Khan.Academy. I listened to a great lecture titled the Pattern of  US Cold War Intervention. I found a wide assortment of topics that I would like to listen to. I appreciate that the lectures are short and some of them have great visuals.

17. Connecting to the Community

Now these apps could make a real difference in my life. I selected just two to investigate, but there are more that I will look into. Minnesota 511 is great. I sub in different libraries and during the summer, I am always running into unexpected construction. I love that I can easily find out if my route will be affected.

My personal goal is to visit a variety of Minnesota museums. I love museums. This app is great, I discovered many many museums that I did not know existed. Now I can plan a trip knowing the best route and the hours and cost of the museum visit.

I have only one concern, when will MN Beer go Apple?

16. Audioboo

Audioboo is another app that allows people to share just about anything. I listened to poetry, a selection from a book, Pete Seeger and some political views. Again, I am amazed how many people want to share their thoughts, pictures, activities and generally their life with other people. I can not think of a single reason to use this personally. In the library, I think short book reviews or poetry readings could be a fun activity.

15. Infographics

 

Infographics Hub  was fun. I searched a few subjects and was amazed at the variety and creativity of the subjects. While there were a great number of subjects, I was not able to search for a defined interest. The search bar did not work for me. I had to scroll through all of the graphics to find out if there was one of interest. Still, it was a whole new world for me and I was inspired to try to create one.

Visualize Free, although limited because I only used the free app was fun and very easy. I made a couple of  infographs just to try it out. I could see many uses for this in the library. It would be great for anything from promoting library resources to steps for using resources to "if you liked this title" infographs. For those of us that are visual, pictures tell the story.

14. Videos

I tried out Vine and took a short video of my daffodils in the garden. It was very simple and fun. I was not interested in most of the clips shared. I know I sound like an old crank but even six seconds is enough of someone doing the hula hoop. I am bewildered at the number of people who want to share every little moment with others. First Twitter with every ill considered thought, then Instagram with "selfies" and now videos of  performances, guess everyone will have their 15 minutes of fame.

Magistro was easy to use. I used the free version, so the length and tools were limited. I was not that impressed with the functions. But maybe, if I used the full version I would have liked it more. 

I can think of some uses of both apps in the library, especially with teens. Videos of teen activities or promotional videos of books or programs could appeal to patrons. I still wonder if the library is followed by teens (or anyone) on Facebook, but I could be wrong and perhaps it is a matter of  advertising and promotion.

13. Presentations

I tried out Haiku Deck. I read several of the other participants' blogs and decided that Haiku Deck seemed the easiest. It was very simple and pretty intuitive. I made a simple slide show of pictures of my gardens of the past.  I kept thinking of how I would have used it when I was teaching technology in an elementary school. To date myself, it was a simpler Hyperstudio. I am not sure how I would use it now. I do not have the opportunities to do presentations. The only use that I can think of is to bore coworkers with pictures of my gardens.

Thing 12. Books, Books & More Books

I tried out the app Free Books. It is simple to use and has an amazing number of free books to download. I already had on my iPad the Jane Austen collection, so I really have all that is needed. But, I was pleased to see a number of books that I would like to read. Of course, they are "old" classics.  It is very nice to have the ability to have a good book to read at anytime. That is true peace of mind.

I also downloaded Audiobooks. I rarely listen to books. I only recently tried out books on cd for a long trip. I did love listening while traveling in a car.  For this Thing, I tried out Audiobooks while crocheting and really enjoyed the experience. The quality was great.