I'm not gonna lie - I thought these customized start pages were a little underwhelming (not as underwhelming as Linkedin, but nothing is that boring). I think that maybe I'm being unduly influenced by the fact that I realize they're not so cutting edge - I remember creating something similar on iGoogle years ago. So this wasn't as innovative or new to me as some of the other tools and things we've been looking at.
Still, I checked them out, and did create my own Pageflakes start page. I even made my own theme, and added a fun page, and really set it as my home page. I'm just not sure I'll really use it much. I know I recently gushed about how awesome it was to have all the blogs I follow and news sources I check in one spot, but for some reason, it quickly becomes overwhelming when there's also games and facebook and email and weather... It was Walt Whitman who said "Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes" - I'm feeling him right now.
I can't put my finger on what makes this less appealing to me than Google Reader, but it is. That said, I'll acknowledge there are a few things I like:
1. It's pretty. I like my customized theme.
2. Being able to create separate pages is very convenient. Dividing feeds for news from those for fun or for work is smart.
3. Some of the widgets are cool.
However, I also see some things I don't like:
1. The obnoxious, unmoveable ad space.
2. I have some trouble actually getting the content (at least at school) - it simply won't download. What's the point of setting all this up if it's not reliable?
3. The reader function doesn't seem as user-friendly as Google's. I just prefer the layout and sidebar menus there instead.
Final verdict is meh.
25 March 2010
23 March 2010
Thing 7: Google Reader Rocks My World
Tonight, I fell in love...with Google reader. It's awesome. I love it so much I want to marry it.
That might be just a little over the top, but not much. When I think of the time I can save by not navigating to each page individually, I get very excited thinking about how I'll use those extra minutes of my day (that might sound glib, but I really don't mean it to be). Perhaps focusing on those minutes isn't the real way to show the value here. Like the Blogger dashboard, it allows me to see who's updated recently (to save me the trouble of checking each page only to be disappointed), but at the same time it gives me the headlines from sites I can count on being updated. All my news coming to me at the same time and in the same place that I can follow friends' blogs and work sites...heaven. I resisted the urge to add (yet) the fun sites I check frequently - a healthy dose of shame precludes me from naming all the gossip sites I lurk - but after 23 Things is over, I think they'll be there too.
And Google Reader Play? What a treat. Such goodies there. Did you see the happy meal? Gross.
Obviously, the personal benefits are fabulous, but yes, I'm excited about the professional ones too. I already subscribed to my ning, for example. I'm wondering how I could use this with students though - how cool would it be to set up a home page like this that I could share with students? So they could check out the updates that most interested them? Hmmm... how to make that work...
I was surprised to see that some others in the project were underwhelmed by Google reader. I think they're either nuts - no offense, of course - or just not people who surf as many sites as I do regularly. Because to people who do a lot of searching, like me, it's crazy cool.
That might be just a little over the top, but not much. When I think of the time I can save by not navigating to each page individually, I get very excited thinking about how I'll use those extra minutes of my day (that might sound glib, but I really don't mean it to be). Perhaps focusing on those minutes isn't the real way to show the value here. Like the Blogger dashboard, it allows me to see who's updated recently (to save me the trouble of checking each page only to be disappointed), but at the same time it gives me the headlines from sites I can count on being updated. All my news coming to me at the same time and in the same place that I can follow friends' blogs and work sites...heaven. I resisted the urge to add (yet) the fun sites I check frequently - a healthy dose of shame precludes me from naming all the gossip sites I lurk - but after 23 Things is over, I think they'll be there too.
And Google Reader Play? What a treat. Such goodies there. Did you see the happy meal? Gross.
Obviously, the personal benefits are fabulous, but yes, I'm excited about the professional ones too. I already subscribed to my ning, for example. I'm wondering how I could use this with students though - how cool would it be to set up a home page like this that I could share with students? So they could check out the updates that most interested them? Hmmm... how to make that work...
I was surprised to see that some others in the project were underwhelmed by Google reader. I think they're either nuts - no offense, of course - or just not people who surf as many sites as I do regularly. Because to people who do a lot of searching, like me, it's crazy cool.
09 March 2010
Thing 6: The Ning Thing
I'll admit that at first I didn't really know what to make of nings. On the one hand, I like the social networking framework - it is familiar to me, and helps establish the feel of a sort of grass roots online community. One of the best examples of this I can think of is the pre-service and practicing teachers who formed a group to discuss literacy instruction within the Web 2.0 ning. In a couple different classes I took during my certification work, I was asked to write letters to practicing teachers, and they responded, eventually. The exercise was a very valuable one, but a bit frustrating as well - a professor assigned the letters to us in the class, we submitted it a week later, the letters were delivered shortly thereafter, we waited for teachers (admittedly, a very busy bunch) to write back and return their own letters to the professor, and waited again for our professors to distribute the letters to us. By the time the cycle was complete, weeks had elapsed, and often, the questions asked were no longer relevant, pressing or interesting to us. The accessibility and immediacy afforded by the online group is impressive, and makes the exchange that much more meaningful.
On the other hand, I also got the impression that the nings operate as little more than a fancy sort of meta-search engine, whose primary value is to connect people with similar interests so they can provide referrals to existing content. Helpful referrals, sure, but I didn't see a whole lot of original content...
UNTIL I found the English Companion Ning. I'm in love. Here's a group of people asking and answering the very questions I revisit over and over again in my career. The original content is their dialogue, and it's helpful. The site is organized well, and thus far I haven't found too many vacuous or vapid posters. What I have found are some concrete ideas and suggestions for summer reading texts (something I'm struggling with at the moment) and cool lesson plan ideas for my Walt Whitman unit.
This might render an even bigger improvement to my life than my shiny new food processor.
On the other hand, I also got the impression that the nings operate as little more than a fancy sort of meta-search engine, whose primary value is to connect people with similar interests so they can provide referrals to existing content. Helpful referrals, sure, but I didn't see a whole lot of original content...
UNTIL I found the English Companion Ning. I'm in love. Here's a group of people asking and answering the very questions I revisit over and over again in my career. The original content is their dialogue, and it's helpful. The site is organized well, and thus far I haven't found too many vacuous or vapid posters. What I have found are some concrete ideas and suggestions for summer reading texts (something I'm struggling with at the moment) and cool lesson plan ideas for my Walt Whitman unit.
This might render an even bigger improvement to my life than my shiny new food processor.
20 February 2010
Thing 5: LinkedIn
I spent at least 10 minutes trying to come up with a witty title for this post, something funny and engaging that would grab readers' attention and make them smile as it conveyed how underwhelmed I was by LinkedIn. Then suddenly I realized that perhaps a better testament to my feelings about the LinkedIn experience was to make the title as boring as possible. Because that's what LinkedIn is - boring.
I don't get it. I've looked at other job sites and think they're much better. I can't really imagine using this to find a job when there are other sites and services that cater to educators and are frankly, better looking (the NAIS site in particular comes to mind). I recognize that LinkedIn is supposed to be more than just a job seeking resources, that it's also supposed to be for networking and other things, but I really can't see how I would ever use this. At all. LinkedIn provides some suggestions from its help section, but not one of them seemed relevant or useful to me.
This is not my best post, but I am completely devoid of any emotional or intellectual response to LinkedIn. Look for me to start using LinkedIn only in sarcastic and derisive ways. In conversation, I might say "that's so LinkedIn" and what I'll mean is "that's so mind-numbingly dry, irrelevant and uninteresting."
I don't get it. I've looked at other job sites and think they're much better. I can't really imagine using this to find a job when there are other sites and services that cater to educators and are frankly, better looking (the NAIS site in particular comes to mind). I recognize that LinkedIn is supposed to be more than just a job seeking resources, that it's also supposed to be for networking and other things, but I really can't see how I would ever use this. At all. LinkedIn provides some suggestions from its help section, but not one of them seemed relevant or useful to me.
This is not my best post, but I am completely devoid of any emotional or intellectual response to LinkedIn. Look for me to start using LinkedIn only in sarcastic and derisive ways. In conversation, I might say "that's so LinkedIn" and what I'll mean is "that's so mind-numbingly dry, irrelevant and uninteresting."
Thing 4: Are Comments Conversations?
So I've been reading other blogs and commenting more than I ever have before. In the past, I was more of a lurker (and I think someone else used that term, so I can't really claim it as my own, but I don't remember who), reading and thinking about other people's ideas, but not really responding to them in any official or public way. Now, however, for lots of reasons, I'm excited to do that. A big part of that change is knowing more about the bloggers whose pages I'm reading, and it's also significant that I'm reading blogs that say something to me and have real relevance in my life and work. Of course, I'm also doing it because I have to for the project, but I found myself posting to blogs that aren't involved at all with 23 Things, so it's not entirely a mercenary impulse.
I liked Cool Cat Teacher's page about how to comment like a king or queen. Some of what she said seemed very common sense to me, like linking to a page you write about in a post of your own, but some ideas were ones I hadn't thought about at all, like using a comment tracking service. I haven't set that up yet, and I don't usually tag posts or comments, but I totally see the value in doing so. I have to say, though, that I was more impressed by Sabah Karimi's page on how to write intelligent comments, perhaps because it was significantly more concise (which not surprisingly, is one of the things she advocates in good commenting).
What both pages stressed though, and what I find both fun and frustrating, is that it's the commenting that makes blogging most like an actual discussion, more of a dialogue. And I see that to a certain point, but conversations tend to be more immediate. While it's advantageous in certain situations, especially with those who don't know me or my discourse style or sense of humor well, to have time to mull over the exactly right way to phrase something and choose my words precisely, it also precludes some of the authenticity of a spoken conversation. Spontaneous and genuine reactions are a part of the give and take that happens when people speak to one another face to face, for better and worse, and they're absent from carefully crafted comments. And of course the catch-22 is that I don't really want to read comments or posts that aren't carefully crafted. It's not just the artifice or pretense of a drafted, revised, polished response to a comment that bugs me or breaks down my sense of posting and commenting as conversation - it's also the time delay. I'll admit that I'm disappointed when I don't see responses to things I've posted. When I do see them left later, I've sometimes moved on from thinking about the subject of my post, and I don't pick up the conversation the way I would were I across the table from someone and it were happening in real time.
Still, I'll continue to comment, and see what kinds of sort-of-conversations there are to have.
I liked Cool Cat Teacher's page about how to comment like a king or queen. Some of what she said seemed very common sense to me, like linking to a page you write about in a post of your own, but some ideas were ones I hadn't thought about at all, like using a comment tracking service. I haven't set that up yet, and I don't usually tag posts or comments, but I totally see the value in doing so. I have to say, though, that I was more impressed by Sabah Karimi's page on how to write intelligent comments, perhaps because it was significantly more concise (which not surprisingly, is one of the things she advocates in good commenting).
What both pages stressed though, and what I find both fun and frustrating, is that it's the commenting that makes blogging most like an actual discussion, more of a dialogue. And I see that to a certain point, but conversations tend to be more immediate. While it's advantageous in certain situations, especially with those who don't know me or my discourse style or sense of humor well, to have time to mull over the exactly right way to phrase something and choose my words precisely, it also precludes some of the authenticity of a spoken conversation. Spontaneous and genuine reactions are a part of the give and take that happens when people speak to one another face to face, for better and worse, and they're absent from carefully crafted comments. And of course the catch-22 is that I don't really want to read comments or posts that aren't carefully crafted. It's not just the artifice or pretense of a drafted, revised, polished response to a comment that bugs me or breaks down my sense of posting and commenting as conversation - it's also the time delay. I'll admit that I'm disappointed when I don't see responses to things I've posted. When I do see them left later, I've sometimes moved on from thinking about the subject of my post, and I don't pick up the conversation the way I would were I across the table from someone and it were happening in real time.
Still, I'll continue to comment, and see what kinds of sort-of-conversations there are to have.
07 February 2010
Really? Seriously?
I am connected to the internet ON AN AIRPLANE. I had no idea this was possible. After rejoicing (inwardly, lest my seatmates think I'm ridiculous), I began to then get resentful about all the other places one can't get wireless internet service. I mean, if you can get it in the air itself, why not at every airport (and I'm talking specifically about you, George Bush Intercontinental)? And every school? And every home?
I've read a bit about how far behind other industrialized countries, like South Korea, for example, the US is in terms of being more fully wired, and it's beginning to matter more and more to me. Obviously, my primary or immediate concerns are selfish ones - I want to be able to connect whenever and wherever I need or want to. That said, I'm also interested in the principle. If Web 2.0 is all about deconstructing hierarchies and democratizing the internet, then it needs to be available to all. I learned about a project in Chicago that was seeking to use grant money to wire neighborhoods in socio-economically disadvantaged communities and distributing computers to residents who completed a certain number of training hours. It struck me that this was a beautiful idea, and an important one. When we look at all the different ways that technology is revolutionizing the ways that we work, communicate, network, socialize, organize and distribute information, I think we lose sight of all those who are at risk of being left behind.
But I digress... I'm going to tackle some Things.
01 February 2010
Thing 3: Reflections on Reflections
So finally, I've had some time to read other blogs that were recommended by our project, or those that friends here at school have put up. I'm so amazed by the diversity of opinions on different subjects (especially regarding homework), but also by how much congruence there is between my own professional curiosities, interests and concerns and other people's.
That struck me especially when reading budtheteacher's What's "Print"? post. How murky the waters have gotten on that one! After years of trying to get students to broaden their understanding of texts to include works that aren't necessarily books with pages full of words, but also films, paintings, and webpages, I feel now as if I have come full circle and now need instead to remind them that books count too. Categorizing and labeling resources has become difficult, so much so that the 2009 MLA guidelines now require one to indicate the "Medium of Publication" - Print, Web, CD-ROM, DVD, Film, etc. - at the end of each work cited entry.
What's strange to me is the way that I have a split personality when it comes to my own feelings about texts and books and print. The genesis of the Kindle has challenged me to question my feelings about reading, or perhaps my feelings about what the experience of reading is. While I am totally comfortable with electronic texts for the classroom - I assign lots of reading that's available online, and distribute readings to my students as PDFs instead of on paper - I have struggled to embrace the Kindle as delivery for my pleasure reading. I resist it with passion and zeal usually reserved for some sort of religious proselytizing; as much as I can sit and stare at my screen to read the Hawthorne stories my American Literature students are reading, the idea of curling up and reading Richard Russo the same way is loathsome. I have yet to successfully evince or articulate the reasons why, but that's just the way it is for now. Do I associate computers and technology too stringently with work tasks? No, there are lots of other ways I use my tablet for recreational or social activities. Do I want a paper copy so I can mark it up and re-read sections at will? Not really; I rarely mark books I'm reading for fun, and recognize that I could do that just as easily on a Kindle or tablet anyway. I can't put my finger on it, but it's real to me.
The other blog that really gave me pause was Why I Don't Assign Homework. I don't want to belabor any points that have already been made - many other readers have already elucidated clear arguments for and against dy/dan's theses - but I do think that there are qualitative differences between subject areas that make it very difficult for me, as an English teacher, to fathom this. The homework my students receive involves reading and writing that couldn't possibly be completed entirely in class. When skill acquisition is the primary goal, I can see an argument for better, but not necessarily more, opportunities to practice; independent acquisition of content, on the other hand, warrants time out of the classroom being devoted to schoolwork. The separation of the students from the teacher in this situation is an important part of the means by which we help students develop a pro-active role in their education. And while my feelings about a lot of other things are mixed, I'm 100% sure that that is something I'm all for.
That struck me especially when reading budtheteacher's What's "Print"? post. How murky the waters have gotten on that one! After years of trying to get students to broaden their understanding of texts to include works that aren't necessarily books with pages full of words, but also films, paintings, and webpages, I feel now as if I have come full circle and now need instead to remind them that books count too. Categorizing and labeling resources has become difficult, so much so that the 2009 MLA guidelines now require one to indicate the "Medium of Publication" - Print, Web, CD-ROM, DVD, Film, etc. - at the end of each work cited entry.
What's strange to me is the way that I have a split personality when it comes to my own feelings about texts and books and print. The genesis of the Kindle has challenged me to question my feelings about reading, or perhaps my feelings about what the experience of reading is. While I am totally comfortable with electronic texts for the classroom - I assign lots of reading that's available online, and distribute readings to my students as PDFs instead of on paper - I have struggled to embrace the Kindle as delivery for my pleasure reading. I resist it with passion and zeal usually reserved for some sort of religious proselytizing; as much as I can sit and stare at my screen to read the Hawthorne stories my American Literature students are reading, the idea of curling up and reading Richard Russo the same way is loathsome. I have yet to successfully evince or articulate the reasons why, but that's just the way it is for now. Do I associate computers and technology too stringently with work tasks? No, there are lots of other ways I use my tablet for recreational or social activities. Do I want a paper copy so I can mark it up and re-read sections at will? Not really; I rarely mark books I'm reading for fun, and recognize that I could do that just as easily on a Kindle or tablet anyway. I can't put my finger on it, but it's real to me.
The other blog that really gave me pause was Why I Don't Assign Homework. I don't want to belabor any points that have already been made - many other readers have already elucidated clear arguments for and against dy/dan's theses - but I do think that there are qualitative differences between subject areas that make it very difficult for me, as an English teacher, to fathom this. The homework my students receive involves reading and writing that couldn't possibly be completed entirely in class. When skill acquisition is the primary goal, I can see an argument for better, but not necessarily more, opportunities to practice; independent acquisition of content, on the other hand, warrants time out of the classroom being devoted to schoolwork. The separation of the students from the teacher in this situation is an important part of the means by which we help students develop a pro-active role in their education. And while my feelings about a lot of other things are mixed, I'm 100% sure that that is something I'm all for.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
