Holiday time or not, the time is right for you all to go and investigate 23 Mobile Things – a wonderful professionally delivered opportunity to learn a few important life-skills for working and living in online environments!

The background

I’m sure most of you have heard about 23 Things for Professional Development – an open-source program for librarians. There are many variants of this course which was first developed in 2006 by Helene Blowers and the team at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County, and now the newish kid on the block is 23 Mobile Things, a course revolving around digital and mobile technologies.

Who created this course?

“The first version of 23 mobile things was developed in Danish by Jan Holmquist. This version of the course is an international collaboration, Jan Holmquist from Guldborgsund-bibliotekerne (Denmark) and Mylee Joseph and Kathryn Barwick from the State Library of New South Wales (Australia) are working together to build the English language version of the course. You’ll learn more about this excellent initiative and how you can learn more about the potential of mobile tools at 23mobilethings http://23mobilethings.net/wpress/

In Australia we have had a few derivatives of the original 23Things program, some of which charge hard cash to participate, which is not in the spirit at all of the 23Things model that was openly shared with the global community.

So it’s a real pleasure to see this latest initiative! The course is open to anyone with a tablet or smart phone. It is a self-paced learning course, with the 23 things providing a framework of resources to look at and information to consider. It can be done at anytime; there are no time-limit or deadlines for the course.

So it’s time for you to consider getting started – jump on into the self assessment survey, then head on over to investigate The Things.  Great for anyone working in libraries, and schools.  This new 23MobileThings is a fantastic initiative. Thank you.

23 Mobile Things …. the list.

1. Twitter
2. Taking a photo with a mobile device:  Instagram / Flickr app / Snapchat
3. eMail on the move
4. Maps and checking in
5. Photos + Maps + Apps: Historypin / What was there / Sepia Town
6. Video: YouTube and screencasts
7. Communicate: Skype / Google Hangout
8. Calendar
9. QR codes
10. Social reading: RSS / Flipboard / Feedly / Goodreads / Pocket
11. Augmented reality: Layar
12. Games: Angry Birds / Wordfeud
13. Online identity: FaceBook and LinkedIn
14. Curating: Pinterest / Scoop.it / Tumblr
15. Adobe ID
16. eBooks and eBook apps: Project Gutenberg / Kindle / Overdrive / Bluefire / Kobo, etc.
17. Evernote and Zotero
18. Productivity tools: Doodle / Remember the Milk / Hackpad / any.do /  30/30
19. File sharing: Dropbox
20. Music: last.fm / Spotify
21. Voice interaction and recording
22. eResources vendor apps
23. Digital storytelling

Image: 23 cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by erix!

Related articles

• 23 Mobile Things for CPD (newprofessionalsnz.wordpress.com)