I love that summer is a time to relax and recharge. For most teachers, it is part of the rhythm of the job. It also gives me a chance to learn and reflect on the year from a much different perspective. Part of my learning and reflection comes from all the great people and content that I connect with online. The problem is that I'm starting to connect with a lot of people and content. And that makes for a lot of buckets to keep up with.
As of this post, I have 151 feeds in Google Reader, I'm following 338 people on Twitter, and I have 159 Facebook friends. I also have friends on MySpace, Posterous, and FriendFeed. It's starting to overflow. I know that I don't even have that much input compared to some of you, but I am beginning a quest.
It's a zen type quest to simplify and slim down to as much as possible. I only want the essential, valuable, and most influential. For that to happen I have to define what I'll allow into each bucket. Here is what I'm thinking so far for my biggest 3 buckets:
Facebook
This is only personal stuff. When I check Facebook, I only want to see stuff from my friends and family. I'm going to try to keep all teaching and tech stuff out.
Google Reader
This is only for blogs and sites that have content that I absolutely can't miss. I have teacher blogs, tech blogs, and friends' blogs here. Some bloggers like @joe_bower and @johntspencer I will also follow on Twitter in addition to subscribing to their blogs.
Twitter
This is to follow educators and teachers that I enjoy reading and conversing with. It will also be for websites and blogs that I enjoy, but don't mind missing out on a few posts. I like reading several teachers' blogs, but I don't need to subscribe to all of them. I can catch their updates on Twitter. The best content usually has a way of being retweeting.
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I would enjoy some feedback as to how you are managing these tools to keep up without drowning.
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vshioshvili/388221237/
I feel the same way Justin. There is so much out there that you become fearful of missing out on something. It's taken me a couple months to realize that Twitter and Facebook and my feeds will all still be there if I happen to have other things to do. In one of my own posts, I mentioned a little bit about this. There is too much going on in our lives to try to do everything; we have to prioritize. I hope to find more opportunities to disconnect this summer before it's too late. There is so much that I want to accomplish, but I often find myself tweeting or commenting that I don't get much of anything else done. The elusive "balance." That's the million-dollar how-to blog post.As for Facebook, I essentially use it the same way you do--communicate with family and close friends. Twitter is my daily stream of updates (not that my life is that important), but it mostly consists of techie stuff, education, and the occasional "life happens" moment or funny (to me) thought. I hate to admit this about my reader though, I hardly ever read blogs that I subscribe to from my reader. I typically feel the same way you do, "The best content usually has a way of being retweeting." That said, I generally get my blog updates from retweets.Great reflective post. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI agree as well. I deliberately deleted most of my Facebook "friends", cleaned up my RSS feed and look at who I follow on Twitter regularly. The best posts get retweeted and I am not super interested in someone that tweets over and over where they are, or all personal comments. I do think it can get overwhelming at time and I fear that I am going to miss out on something, however, life has to be lived as well. Besides, I think I have so many ideas for the new year that I am worried I can't get to them all. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of you. I'm drowning in information. I'm obsessed with following tweets. There are so many interesting links, blogs, new tools. My August resolution is to trim down my Twitter feeds, and instead, experiment with a few new tools, plan how to use them in my classroom. Good luck all!!
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