Too much of a good (mediocre) thing

It was only about a year and a half ago that I took the plunge and set up a Facebook page. Then this year, I took yet another step and established a twitter page. Since then I have been looking into and singing up for other social media site. As I delve deeper into social media, what I have realized is that it is all overwhelming. For every service, it is a yet another account with yet another log-in and yet another network of streams and streams of e-conversations. How in the world is a person supposed to be able to keep up with this information overload. And, how is a person supposed to be able to sort through the droves of what every human being on the planet finds of personal interest. No matter how specific the network it still seems like a brain dump. I have found that the more networks that I join, the fewer that I pay attention to at all. So instead of spreading out to more social media networks, I have decided to constrict my usage back to the initial two - Facebook and Twitter. Even these have lost some of their edge for me. It seems troubling that in today's day and age everyone under the sun can have a public forum whether they have something intelligent or interesting to say or not... including this blog. I apologize in advance for any time that I have wasted for my readers - three minutes better spent on planting strawberries.

The context where I can see value is when the network is so small that a very specific framework can be laid out for usage with a particular goal in mind. One such example would be a classroom setting. A tool such as Edmodo could be a great platform by which to engage students outside of the classroom. Classroom notes, texts, and even videos could be posted to a class network. Classroom conversations can be continued online and students could ask questions to the network. HW and test dates could be posted to the calendar and assignments can be posted as well. When the network is a class, the use of a tool such as Edmodo can actually benefit student growth by expanding the classroom beyond the 45 minutes during which a teacher sees students in class. It also provides a space in which to help students organize classroom work.

So although I would not suggest becoming a follower of this blog, I would encourage teachers to try out social media platforms for the classrooms.

Productivity tools to help ease the work flow

The two main purposes of productivity tools seem to be to help ease the work flow and to be able to connect teams together around information. A great tool that I have discovered is http://www.instapaper.com. It is a tool that enables you to instantly save a link to a running file for later viewing or sharing. I have lots to read throughout my day and little time to read it at the moment that it comes across my desk. The ability to file a link a way to a place which is easily accessible from any online device and which has a way to create folders to organize these links has posed invaluable to my work. It has enabled me to keep up with my reading without having to read things on the spot. It also gives me a way to share these links with my colleagues. It can share via email, Facebook, and Twitter to name a few. In a world of over inundation of information it is nice to be able to file things away in an organized fashion for later read/use as well as being able to share the information with others.

Vodcasting - everyone is doing it...

Not too long ago Vodcasting was new media. Like many technologies that have hit the scene over the last few years, they come fast and furious. Not every technology makes it (we usually don't even notice the ones that do not) but the ones that do tend to alter the way we get our information and interact with others in our world. Vodcasting is certainly one of those world changing technologies.

It used to be that the majority of our information came from written text. Even with the advent of the internet, people were still getting their news from written online news. But the tides have turned. More and more people are actually getting their information from online through video. Even straight audio is on the decline.

What is so great about vodcasting is that it connects the viewer to image. Like the transition from radio to TV, people like to be able to see the speaker. This kind of technology enables anyone to share not only their voice but also their facial expression and body language with their audience.

The downside to these technologies is that everyone under the sun can produce one. And so everyone under the sun seems to do so. Which means that there is no dearth of of vodcasts. This can be a little overwhelming when looking for something specific that meets your goals and is something of quality. But with the ease of use, students can become engaged in producing their own related to in class work as well as begin to follow others that may be of interest to them or related to a class they are taking.