Monthly Archives: December 2007

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This Sharing Thing

Google_2
Google has made it much easier to find relevant, valuable information through its Google Reader and the Share with Friends component.
I’ve started sharing, and I’m getting lots of good stuff. Plus I pull my shared items into my blog for easy access.
I’ve also realized that we are, in many cases, sharing the same things! That speaks volumes, really. The best stuff is seen as the best stuff by many. On the other hand, I don’t need to have the same blog/article/podcast saved in 14 different places!
So now I’m trying to figure out if just keeping the article in a friend’s shared file is good enough. Will I be able to find it when I want it?
What do you think?

 
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An Old Friend

Chris probably doesn’t consider himself an old friend of mine, as he has moved on. But I remember his early blogging days on CompleteRunning.com, when we were a handful of runners, supporting each other’s attempts at improving health and fitness. He was always there with the right words when I wanted to quit. (I’m still at it, Chris).
His site now focuses on business and social media.
You might be interested in reading a recent post about Twitter, where he gives suggestions for managing and ways NOT to manage all this information (oddly enough, I found him again through Sue Water’s post here). He also blogs about social networking, and his ideas are worth reading as they apply to our students, as well.
Great to find you again, Brogan!

 
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Going to learn…

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That’s it. It’s official. Three of us are heading to Philadelphia to attend the SLA Conference EduCon! I’m so excited to be attending with two of our teachers who are beginning to use technology in their classrooms.
And, I’m really looking forward to the discussions/conversations with so many edubloggers/twitterers I’ve been following. See you there!

 
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Twittering about Twitter

Twitter
I’ve had an attitude adjustment about Twitter.
When I first started using Twitter, it seemed frivolous. I wasn’t following many people, and most seemed to tweet about what they had for breakfast.
Then, I found the edubloggers. Suddenly I was getting wonderful resources and meeting new people. I found myself checking Twitter regularly, and on those days when I couldn’t access it, I spent hours catching up, going back to reread all the tweets–even the tweets from people not following me.  After all, I didn’t want to miss anything!
But recently I’ve been frustrated. For example, I follow Will Richardson, so when he tweeted, needing examples of how people used blogs, I wanted to respond. But Will doesn’t follow me, so I knew if I responded, he wouldn’t get it. Same with Dean Shareski. For a while, Chris Lehmann followed me and then stopped. I had a moment of middle-school angst, but, hey, I’ve stopped following people for one reason or another. I understand we all can’t be all things to all people.
However, I found myself spending more and more time on Twitter and, subsequently, on people’s blogs.
Too much time. I had this overwhelming anxiety that if I didn’t read everything, I would miss whatever the application of the day was, whatever the next cool website was. You know.
So, I’ve had an epiphany.
I realize that if I miss something (even a whole DAY of Twitter), I will eventually get the information in this echo chamber. I may not get it instantly, but within a day or two, someone will post about it!
My new plan is simple.
I follow those people who mostly provide links to resources AND who follow me. I don’t want to have to worry about people with whom I have no connection. And if I miss a few pages of tweets, I’m not going to try to go back and read them all. Life is too short.
Ahhh. I feel better already.

 
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The “real” world map-what we care about

Web
I’ve been following this photo set from lynetter on flickr. It’s a great collection of photos and quotes about the web. This is what she said:

"I’ve always been fascinated by efforts to map cyberspace… most maps
seem to focus on the physical network connections but the ones I find
the most interesting are those that try to map the diversity and
connections between content. This quote nicely articulates why.

Here is the quote in full: “If you were to make a map of the Web,
showing all the sites and all the links, you would be making a map of
things the 500 million people on the Web find interesting. That’s a lot
different than a map of the real world that shows where the mountains
are and where the oceans end and land begins. The real world map shows
what we humans have been given to work with. The Web shows what we have
chosen to care about.”
Quote comes via Vodafone Receiver www.receiver.vodafone.com/19-what-the-web-is-for in an article written by David Weinberger."

"What we care about" resonates with me as we try to find ways to engender creativity and lifelong learning in our students’ lives.

To see the entire set, click here

[ Photo uploaded on December 9, 2007
by lynetter]