#thing19

Overall I have enjoyed 19 mobile things. I learned some new information about my device that I didn't know before and I also got a little more experience with some apps that I am already familiar with. I typically use google docs a lot anyway, but having the extra practice with it really helped teach me more about it. I really like that I can use this knowledge in my classes and to help improve some projects. However, since I use my phone a lot anyway, I already had prior knowledge on most of the apps and programs. It mainly added some additional "tid-bits" so to speak to what I already know. If there was another 19 mobile things in the future I think it would be better to give a list of say 20 things and let people chose 10 from it just to make it easier for them to choose things they may want to know more about and skip those that they already know. But, I did enjoy the experience and I do think it gave me some knowledge that I can use in the future.

A riff on 19 Mobile Things would be interesting. I don’t think I would want to focus on apps again, but would enjoy new challenges. There are so many things we can challenge ourselves to do with technology! Jennie F.’s Teen Tech Week challengers are so much fun. Maybe we could mix different types of challenges together. We could have some maker challenges, some web challenges, more app challenges. I will definitely participate if this type of program is offered again.

My friends from college have spread out across several continents, so I’m pretty familiar with Google Hangouts and Skype. Even my kids have Skype on their tablets so they can talk to their grandparents, all of whom live out of state. (Last year we Skyped using my phone so the kids could take their grandmother out trick-or-treating with them!) I’ve never used Google Hangouts to send SMS texts or Google Voice calls, since I’ve always thought of it as a video chat app. I’ll definitely give that a try next time instead of just reaching for Skype. I love how easy group video calls are on Hangouts. A few of my author friends use it to do real-time book question-and-answer sessions with fans, but I’ve never tried that. I’ll admit that even when I’m chatting in Hangouts, I call it Skyping. They have such a big share of the market and were my go-to video chat service for years, so it’s kind of like calling all photocopies Xeroxes. I hadn’t heard of Skype Qik, though it seems to serve the same function as Snapchat, though perhaps without the false sense of privacy that Snapchat (erroneously) gives people. I think I’ll stick with Snapchat for my goofy photos and five-second videos of eyerolls and whatnot. :)