How much is too much?

Well, it's been months and months since I've posted here. I look at the link on my iGoogle home page every day, and think to myself, "The last post talks about spring arriving, and here it is the dead of winter. I really should write something. But what?"

Something that's been percolating in the back of my brain has to do with all the connectivity we have in this modern age. Take me, for example. I have six email addresses and three telephone numbers, one of which is, of course, a cell phone with text messaging. I'm on Facebook, Ning, LinkedIn, Twitter. I have a blog, (actually two), a Bloglines account to manage my RSS feeds, and a web page. I'm sure if I thought about it, I'd have other things I could list, too.

But how much of that do I actually USE? Well, email, for sure. And I use all six of those accounts for various things - one is for my friends & family, one is my "accounts" address - when you have to use an email address to sign up for things (like Facebook) which I check less frequently (though I DO check it) - one is my work address, one is for my youth theatre group, and the other is sort of part work-related/part personal.

As for the rest - I get on Facebook infrequently, because it's blocked at work (yeah, I know I have a filter override password, but I don't like using it for something like that) and it loads really slowly at home for some reason. Takes forever sometimes! I have almost never used LinkedIn, and I follow some folks on Twitter (Sockington the cat is my personal favorite), though I seldom tweet myself.

I do tend to use Ning a lot; we use it for theatre-related things. It's a great way to set up a communication network for the kids in our show casts (thank you, Stephen Miller, for that wonderful idea!). We can post schedules, pictures, videos, exchange ideas, send messages. Works great!

The RSS feeds are useful; I do check my Bloglines, but once again, I need to pare that down. There are some feeds on there that seemed like a good idea at one time, but I don't look at them.

Some days, though, I simply feel overwhelmed by all the technology and, paradoxically, guilty that I don't use it more efficiently and effectively. Perhaps that's why I was so intrigued to hear about the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine when I was listening to NPR on the way to work yesterday. Apparently I'm not the only one feeling overcome by the thought of being caught in the Web!

RSS Revisited

I love my RSS feeds. You can learn so much stuff quickly just by glancing at the little synopses that are listed under the headlines. If I see something that looks interesting but don't have time to really look at it then, I can either mark it to keep it new so it doesn't disappear on me, or else I can email it to myself to look at it later. I've got a nice little folder in Outlook to file those emails, and I periodically take a moment or so to check them out.

Like today, for example. I took a little time to look through the folder, and found a reference to Time.com's First Annual Blog Index. It lists 25 of what it considers to be the top blogs in the blogosphere - quite a range of different topics, too! People are SO creative with their blog names sometimes..."The Velveteen Rabbi," "Freakonomics," "Web 2.Oh...Really?" You have to love it! Now, I haven't read most of these blogs, but I do intend to check at least some of them out!

Maybe I'll go do that right now.

This is fun!

I've always wanted an avatar, and this morning one of my RSS feeds sent me to Meez.com, where I created the avatar at right. Very fun! Not that I really look like that, but I do have blue eyes and and a cat. (Actually, make that THREE cats. )

This particular image links directly to the web, but you can export your avatar to a file and use it in other ways. Might be a fun thing for kids to do and put in one of those "all about me" PowerPoints, perhaps?

Hmm. Something to think about.

Session One!

Alice Yucht, (Itinerate Curmudgeon and Teacher-Librarian) -
Webfeeds 101: How Blog Reading can make you Look Brilliant

"As school librarians, we are and should be the CIOs of our building."

Note to self: check out Jott - Directory of Open Access Journals (you can set up RSS feeds by subject!)
Transl8it - translates IM txt lingo

Infoblog - check it out for a description of what a blog is.

Professional blogs - essential professional development and reading for us

Three types:
Personal/Point-of-View - reports of events & impressions
Partical/Purposeful - links to useful info and new resources
Philosophical/Polemical - Explorations/disccussions of Big Ideas

Blogs are instant - hot topics - lifelong learning - conversation>collaboration

Very cool - children's book series wiki!!! Check it out: http://seriesbinder.lishost.org/index.php/Main_Page

Cyber-learning in the classroom: Current Issues in Education

Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

Blogging & RSS is "Like having TIVO for your mind."

http://blip.tv/file/205570/ - really simple explanation of how RSS feeds work.

Why read blogs? You have choice of topics, sources, formats, as well as when where and how much to read. You can "gather useful online resources while you sleep."

Hmmm, note to self: check out Google Reader. Like the star feature.

RSS feeds by subject in EBSCOHost - investigate!

Caveat - RSS feed reading can be addicting! Alice suggests setting a time limit for yourself.

http://aliceyucht.pbwiki.com/WebfeedsWorkshop

Blog recommendations at http://aliceyucht.pbwiki.com/YouthServicesBlogList

and http://www.bloglines.com/blog/aliceinfoshow2rss

Back again

Well, so I'm not a prolific blogger. It's been MONTHS since I wrote here, and all kinds of things have happened, all kinds of opportunities have been missed. Ah, well. I've always been sort of like that; I kept a diary as a kid for awhile, then put it aside and didn't do anything with it for ages in between entries. Finally stopped altogether. Guess I'm easily distracted with the next new thing!

In any case, I use this primarily for the Blogs/Wikis/Podcasts class, so that's generally what prompts me to write. In fact, though, at the moment, I'm not coming up with anything that seems to be particularly full of wit, humor, and/or instruction. Maybe it's because we had yesterday off, maybe it's because I haven't had enough coffee, or maybe it's just too close to lunchtime.

Best I can do right now, I guess, is point you to this site I just found. I'm sitting here in amazement because I never saw it before, although it's apparently been around since November of 2005, according to The Wayback Machine:

TLT Group's Exploration Guide: Educational Uses of Blogs, Wikis, RSS Feeds, etc.

More Wikis, Podcasts, and Blogs stuff

Some articles and websites I've clipped

I've been collecting articles and websites forever, it seems, on various topics, figuring that some day I'd find some use for them. Actually, I do that with a lot of things...it's the pack rat syndrome, my dad always said, but I prefer to thing of myself as a collector. As if he had room to talk!
But I digress...
Here are some links to articles or sites that I found interesting on the various topics we'll be discussing in the workshop. I've got zillions more, but I'll just list a few lest it become totally overwhelming:

Podcasts:
20 Ideas for a better podcast (Lifehacker)
Podcast Books (Long Elementary School Podcasts via Will Richardson's blog)
Podcasts from California's Summer Reading Program

Wikis:
Ed week on Wikis (via Will Richardson's blog)
Great Deconstruction of Student Wiki Work (via Will Richardson again; you should just read his blog!!!)

Blogs
BlogSafety a forum to discuss and learn about safe blogging and social networking
Bloggers' FAQ about student blogging from the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Cool 7th Grade Science Blogs (once again via Will Richardson)

RSS
12 Things You Can Get Besides New on the Web via RSS (Lifehacker)
How to use RSS feeds (Lifehacker)

I think that's all for now - I'm starting to feel overwhelmed by the number I have clipped/bookmarked. Time to organize a little better...