Open Windows

Real and or Photoshopped or not these are a few destinations I would leave to those much more adventurous than me!

It seems that almost every day for the past year or so, we have been presented with exciting new betas and startups that illustrate the exciting promise of the collaborative web. Due primarily to changes in venture capital spending and the overall economic downturn, I am afraid that this flow may soon slow substantially. I am sure that great ideas will still make their way to the masses, but even more than ever it will be hard to stay afloat.
One example I hope lasts is one I found a few months ago and have been using on a small scale for a personal project. www.TabUp.com promises an easy way to share news and opinions with a targeted audience. To see an example site to illustrate the simple but sleek interface of TabUp, check out http://www.tabup.com/edtechguru The page is not intended to be a primary source of new information, but rather a living example of another great FREE tool available to educators.

Please view and comment on the possible uses of this great FREE tool.

As information technologies have advanced rapidly, things like Google, blogs, Blackberry, i-Phones, and social networks have become ever more prevalent, and being “connected” has taken on a whole new meaning for many people. For more and more people the thought of being “offline” for even a few minutes is a real cause for concern. I read recently an entry form the creator of one of my favorite “social bookmarking” pages www.twine.com (which is currently in invite only beta to participate) His thoughts are that this prevalence and that the ubiquitous nature of technologies and sharing of information will only continue to grow.

This brief article is definitely worth a read.

Some unintended results have come from all of these advances. Some people find that keeping afloat in this massive wave of information is a challenge. Here’s a link to listen to some very tech savvy individuals mull this over at a session of the Churchill Club that took place earlier this year.

I will leave you with one more look at the same general trend towards a possibly “techno-centric” future. This is brought to you by the ever sharp Colbert Report

Review your experiences, and what you know of your students’ experiences, and let me know your thoughts…pro…con… or otherwise.

I have now added a few new features on my sidebar for this Blog.  I am teased just a little at work  because I tend to know a little about a lot of things.  It seems that they don’t spend every waking hour looking and learning, but actually spend it LIVING.  To each their own…

I am a firm believer in building  my “PLN”  and I hope that I will make it on some other people’s radar as a resource or at least as someone to share ideas with.  Anyhow, I thought I would share just two of the ways I gather new information.

Two ways that I have been able to gain knowledge at an increasingly rapid rate is by joining some “social networks” and by bringing the news to me.

• So far, I have embraced Twitter and Friendfeed as reliable “social” sources of news and opinion, and I have added a badge on the sidebar that streams my Twitter feed.  Take a look, and you just might see something of interest to you!
• I have also know about subscribing to RSS feeds for some time, and have often spent a long time going through a number of feeds.  Now I have been introduced to Yahoo Pipes by my colleague Kim Cavanaugh as a way to bring these feeds together into one easily accessible stream.  I have added one of these “Pipes” that I use on the sidebar as well.  This particular pipe pulls in several feeds with information related to educational technology, but the possibilities are endless!

If you like to keep up with new ideas, or just like to customize your information overload, these tools can be a great help.