Reflection 2.0

Just a collection of thoughts………….this is the way I think and write best - my mind doesn’t tend to stay anyplace very long!

• I’m starting to reach the tipping point in the number of edtech networks I can actively participate in - right now I’m at about 4 nings, 5 wikis, Twitter…….spreading myself WAY too thin.  Classroom 2.0 is my main ning and although I’d like to dig deeper into Eduwiki.us, I’m not making the time.  Twitter is addictive, so I’m stuck there for at least awhile! I do have to admit, though, that Twitter isn’t half as cool if you’re just using it on the web - you really need something like Twhirl or Snitter (PC) to make it truly interactive.
• My principal approved the use of our school name in association with me and my classroom blog in a new book that’s being written about handwriting (coming out in October 2008) - “SCRIPT AND SCRIBBLE: THE RISE AND FALL OF HANDWRITING” by Kitty Florey.  How’d she find me?  Through Leigh Zeitz, who I met through various online communities.  That just blows my mind.
• I saw Lucy Gray (@elemenous) used the phrase Personal Learning Network to describe her network and I’m going to adopt it - thanks Lucy!  From now on, no more “edtech network”, it’s PLN all the way.
• Twitter came through for me in more than just education and 2.0 chat - I was astonished at the responses when I tweeted about my 11-month-old not wanting to sleep and whether I should let him cry it out………how cool was that?  Guess all of us need a little “real-life” thrown in for good measure in these discussions.
• I completed the first of the 31 Days in the challenge - emailing a new reader about the comment he/she wrote on one of my posts.  I had actually already been doing that, so it wasn’t too tough to adopt.
• Yesterday my 6th graders were over the moon about getting a comment on their blog from someone in Singapore……..but wait, where’s Singapore?  I almost died when not one of them even had an IDEA, and I didn’t want to just TELL them, so that’s our quest for today - effectively search the web to find Singapore.  At least they’re open about their ignorance, none of them even tried to pretend to know!
• When Twitter loses its cool-factor and people start dropping out, I’ll actually have to go back to using Google Reader again.  Yesterday the only place I heard of new blog entries was coming through Twhirl and I love getting that instant notification.  Right now my Google Reader has almost 400 unread items because every time I add a subscription, it adds 10 posts.  Thinking of just marking all “read” and starting over………

Day 2 of the challenge is here - I have to run a “first time reader audit of my blog”.  Perhaps my husband or a colleague will help me out, but I feel weird asking.  That’s why it’s a challenge, right?