This Week in 2.0 December 18, 2007
Posted by gmwand in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
Since my last post, some pretty amazing things have happened. First, I received comments (w00t – I believe is the correct expression to use here). They were very positive ad encouraging. But more than the morale booster that I needed, each commenter also offered to help me in my journey, offering not only advice, but contact information to ask questions or seek help. I now see my network beginning to grow as I follow more people in Twitter and a few have started to follow me. I have added to the RSS feed that I subscribe to. That means a lot more reading, but so far, its all been good stuff.
My new MacBook also arrived this week. With so many tools for creating and sharing digital media built into its design, I think it will be a valuable tool in my learning process. The day after it arrived, I was at an Apple Media Event where the iLife suite of tools was demonstrated. I’ve already created a basketball highlight movie with my son and a picture book of the first snowfall with my daughter. Tomorrow I am hoping to uStream our Band & Chorus concert. Should be alot of fun.
As exciting and encouraging as those things have been, the biggest boost for me came courtesy of Steve Dembo. Known online as teach42, Steve’s posts and tweets always give me reason to explore some more. It started when he and Dean Shareski started what I’m sure will be known someday as the edutwitter wars, as each climbed the Tweeter Leaderboard. Soon several edutweeters were claiming top spots in the top 100 tweeterers. Then came twitter invites to webinars that he was hosting. Those were very cool and again gave me more to think about. Lastly, and for me the most exciting part, came a comment from Steve on last weeks post. Again, his words were encouraging and full of practical ideas to strengthen my network. Thank you Steve, I am fortunate to have found an outstanding guide this early in my journey.
As for anything frustrating this week, well now that you mention it, I did get lost trying to explore Second Life. Somewhere between Orientation Island and Help I lost the window that was describing how to move about. I finally gave up and exited. Maybe, I’ll try again over Christmas break.
So that is “This week in 2.0.” Stay tuned for more updates as I continue to explore and learn that which is web 2.0.
The Dilemma December 10, 2007
Posted by gmwand in Uncategorized.4 comments
Ok. I missed posting something last week, but not to worry , no one is reading it yet anyway. I’ll try to make it up this week. Some new questions have been posed in my quest for web2.0 literacy. Mostly dealing with I’m not sure what to do with any of this stuff or how to make the most effective use of these tools.
I joined Twitter a couple of weeks ago and have been following the likes of Will Richardson, David Jakes, Steve Dembo, and Dean Shareski. While I’ve learned much just from seeing bits of their twitters, only Steve has returned the favor of following me and even still, I haven’t felt as if I have participated in a conversation yet. I know that I am still learning and don’t have much of a voice yet, but still I do have questions and don’t know how to get a response. I kind of feel like being at the kid’s table at Thanksgiving. Santa Claus, however, did respond to one of my Tweets. He response to my dilemma was kind and gentle and I will persist.
There have been some cool moments in the past week though too. By receiving tweets from these guys, I have found (and followed) some other edtech leaders including one in nearby St. Louis. I learned about the 25 days to make a difference blog and the Students2oh project. I also Ustreamed play rehearsal from our high school and a personal Thanksgiving greeting to family. Neat stuff.
My biggest question of all is: How much time do I have to sit in front of a computer to make all of this neat stuff happen? My posts don’t have many fancy links or embedded videos or pictures. And still, I spend a lot of time, day and night, watching the twitter page and Google reader to see what’s new. Today for example, I’m home on a snow day (Ice in the Metro-East today) and have spent most of the day reading blogs on the computer instead of actually doing something. It seems that social networking Web2.0 takes time from personal networking. And while most of the information is good, it isn’t the only thing I do.
I have been reading the past couple of days about folks who are not following as many people as they used to. That doesn’t seem to bode well for the new kid on the block. I may well be shut out of the game before ever getting on the field. I guess we’ll see.
