Thing #22

Yes, I'm out of order! I decided to look at Nings first. I've used photostory and love it, but right now I can't think of anything to create a podcast on so I'm still thinking.

I like the idea of smaller social networks. I've never gotten into facebook or my space. My husband uses it to connect with his friends, but for whatever reason (perhaps I'm too old) I never got into it. Partly I think I didn't want to be connected to all those people. But creating a social network that's smaller sounds great. In my neighborhood we have a coffee group of women that meets once a month. Setting up a ning might be a great way to stay connected during the rest of the month. A few of the women have blogs so they could be there too.

In school we could have a class ning. I haven't decided if I want to do this or not. I'll be away on maternity leave for part of the year. Would this be a good way to stay connected or too much to leave someone else? I'm still pondering that. I also think that it might be useful for students to be able to connect with each other about homework and studying. Maybe even have book clubs this way. Endless possibilities.

I also subscribed to Teacher Lingo. I liked that it had blog offerings (and remember I don't read blogs) and lesson plans. This will be one more place to look for great ideas.

I've got to continue pondering the use of nings, but I will say I like the idea.

Thing #14

Technorati seems like a useful tool. As with most things on the web it has so much stuff that for me it is too much. However, I did find it a useful way to search blogs. The searches in blogs versus in tags gave different results. When I searched School Library Learning 2.0 in tags it showed much more useful information than when I did it just in blogs. I also found this to be true when I searched a topic of interest to me -- nature education. I can see where tags can be a helpful tool in finding the information you want.

I will admit that I am still not an avid blog reader. However, I like the lists that technorati provides. It gives places to start if I do want to look for more blogs. I am used to googling when I want to find information. Technorati offers another way to search for this information. Especially if what you are wanting isn't so much fact as ideas. I am beginning to see the draw to blogs, just not completely ready to submit.

Thing #12

What interested me most about these articles was how much they were basically reminding people to be decent human beings. So much on the internet can become removed from humanity when people are able to be anonymous or simply never really meet each other. I've viewed blogging negatively in that it allowed people to comment without knowing each other or perhaps caring about others. Knowing that there is etiquette involved makes me feel better. I'm glad to know that bloggers believe that others should still be respectful no matter their anonymity.

The one blog I was familiar with before I began the 23 things was a friend who uses her blog to basically rant. To me it was just her outlet, I never considered that as a writer she really does want to have comments.

I'm not sure that I will ever be a blogger or even ever be someone who reads many blogs, my RSS has remained unread; however, now I can see more of the benefits of blogs. I'm going to try again to find a blog on a topic that interests me. There's bound to be one out there!

I read and commented on some blogs from fellow players. I was mainly looking at what people said about Thing #12. There were some who had successfully used Google blog search so I gave it a go. As with most Google searchs there were so many options that I was a tad overwhelmed. Nothing just hit me as what I wanted. Then I asked a friend if he knew any good blogs. He sugggested searching the Chronicle because the columnists have blogs. I happen to love reading Leon Hale, but usually don't because I don't have a subscription and forget to look on-line. Now I have him on my Google Reader. Perhaps I'll use it after all! I also searched the npr website I was hoping to find a blog from the Car Talk guys, but haven't yet. I did find a gardening one though so I am hopeful. I have yet to comment on either of these blogs, but I intend to when I actually have something to say.