It's the final week of '23 things' and I am blogging about my experiences during this journey. This journey has been a wonderful one, exposing me to so many new ideas, thoughts and digital experiences. I think my journey has just began though for I now need to explore innovative ways with which to use some of these technologies. When I started, I had Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and ResearchGate accounts. While I feel very comfortable with Facebook and ResearchGate, I can't say that I like the other two or see much value in them within my industry. The course did push me to explore Twitter a little more but, by and large, my response is still the same - and so are my students'!!!

I loved some of the other tools we learned about such as Pinterest. I linked Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to my courses this semester and noted that students were totally disinterested in tweeting or posting on Facebook. By contrast, I had quite a number of students follow my Pinterest boards; which was great. What's more, I enjoyed being able to pin information for my students as I undertook research for my workshops. The next challenge is to get students to pin and share too. One of the problems with this step is that Moodle is not set up for links to Pinterest and so adding students to Pinterest becomes a spamming issue. There are tedious ways around this problem but hey, who has the time to play around as an academic... One thing is for sure: Pinterest is here to stay with my students and with me. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words!

I also love Blogger. As an extrovert, I can ramble on without worrying about the normal academic rigour and perfection. Blogger allows my mind to roam in a more creative domain and become inspired by my own thoughts as they float from the subconscious to the conscious. This blog is an example of my free writing process without the imposition of academic writing orthodoxy.

The other technology that I was most interested in was developing my own Youtube video. Unfortunately, I have not yet had the chance to take on this task, but it is a top priority on my list of 'to-dos'. I intent to become competent at this technology and to use it for my future social projects and as a teaching tool (instead of Camtasia Studio) if possible???

I loved the structure of '23 things'. The course was short, informative and required that you complete a basic task that was doable. I wish I could build on these skills now in a second level of this course which takes you from novice to more challenging tasks.

I believe the hardest part of undertaking this course was the time factor. I found it almost impossible to juggle my more-than full-teaching, research publication deadlines and other activities. But this semester is an exception to the norm and will pass. I would be great if the course could be offered over two semesters a year to provide more flexibility in taking on the course.

So that's it from me for now.