At work, I had a list of bookmarks a mile long....all great stuff I used, or wanted to explore, or read, or learn! It was a mess though, almost a search in itself to find which one I needed.Then, there was a day when our new IT guy did a 'cleaning'...yep, lost them all. I was in a panic at first, this was alot of content I used in my classroom. But, turned out my new searches easily yielded some of my old favorites and then so much more. That's the thing, bookmarking feels like an attempt to hold on, just for a bit, to an 'oh so rapidly' changing, improving, shifting, availability of content. I feel like I have to keep this in mind...bookmark more fluid resources, blogs, on-going conversations, etc...not so much the static content.FLASH FORWARD: So, Diigo or Delicious seem like a great answer. I can organize and cloud computing opens up the access. My first search, just to get some content on it, as part of a assignment, yielded awesome stuff!!!! I could've explored for hours...which brings me to my concern....BALANCE....this could be sooo addicting but I do not intend to ever spend more than an hour on my computer at night, maybe more if it's rainy, some days less - after all - soccer games, amazing foliage, house projects etc are wayyy more important. Does this make me less driven, in the new teaching/learning environment, will I be left behind?
So, let's see how I mange this new step, see how I maintain balance, yet give my students what they need and keep my teaching/learning relevant?
Balance is the key. I find when I have a question it is so easy just to log on and try to discover an answer. The problem is the screen time takes me away from the project underway and my productivity drops to scary low levels. This is especially a problem if I am in my garden and want to identify an insect, or find out the best way to prune back a plant. If I go in and fire up the computer, I lose precious day light time and energy. More screen time isn't always the best option.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you - balance is hard to maintain. And, more screen time is not always best. I find myself in the same situation, thinking one more resource or article will be even better. The other cost I see in myself is not reading good print materials as much. I was an avid reader of books, and now I have trouble making the time to read anything that's not on the computer. Not everything worth reading is on the internet. Also, thanks for the pictures - they do say 1000 words.
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