Social Networking

I use Facebook to see what's happening in my friend’s lives, and I'll read their posts pretty much on a daily basis. Most of the time I'll use Twitter on my iPhone to post status updates and photos to Facebook because of ease of use, but for now I've decided to unlink the two services. I'm Facebook friends with my direct manager and I think there's some potential to share things with #maet that I rather not share with my employer. I'll probably establish another twitter profile to post to Facebook.
Twitter is more valuable for me for professional use as a source. I have several saved searches like #edapp, #sschat, and now #maet that I pay attention to and I find a lot of great resources that way. MaculSpace on Ning, although it hasn't been very active recently, is another great source for me. My computer lab position was posted on MaculSpace, and I started the Scratchrs group a couple of years ago.
Many students use facebook daily and some serious abuses occur, but ignoring it and banning it from the schools isn’t the answer in my opinion. Making mistakes is part of the process, and at the very least I think we should look at it as an opportunity to teach about privacy and model good digital citizenship. I've been paying attention to my daughter's Facebook posts as she maintains contact with a couple of friend who have recently moved. Inspired by this, I found a Facebook group for the elementary school I attended in Augsburg, Germany in the 1970s, and I've enjoyed reading and sharing memories with people who had the same experience as children in that era.
I'm poor at maintaining my networks in the digital realm. When it comes to social networks, professional and personal, I'll follow conversations or use them as PLNs, but I rarely share. They're more of a fun technical challenge to me. For example, A few years ago I spent the night sending out tweets to see how many services (Tumblr, Ning, Posterous, Facebook, etc) I could post a status update to with a single click. I plan to change this habit and utilize social networks to their fullest potential with the help of this class and my future CEP classes.

Getting Things Done Reflection

I've been using the Getting Things Done method for about a year. Pocket Informant, an iphone app, introduced the method to me, and I bought the book. I collect and process my information in several ways. The items in the physical inbox on my desk can go into Google Calendar, Toodledo, A-Z files, Programming Files, or the trash. I process my email inbox in a similar fashion except that I have name folders inside my A-Z Folders and I have no Programming Files. I sync Google Calendar/Contacts and Toodledo with Pocket Informant. I use an app called VoCal to record audio reminders, and the app Use Your Own Handwriting for note taking. Items in Vocal and Use Your Own Handwriting that are left at the end of the day are typically dumped into calendar, tasks, or contacts. In the morning I take a screen shot of my Calendar and integrated tasks, and I place that on my iPhone's lock screen.

I already have this in place so this assignment was easy to complete. When I started using GTD last year, I was looking for a way to manage the development of upcoming programs and summer camps, and my task list wasn't that heavy so it was easy for me to implement at that time. Right now, I utilize 4 contexts (@Home, @out, @Sloan*Longway, and @MSU), a series of tags, and colors to filter and prioritize my tasks. When it comes to Task Action categories I tend to use Planning, Delegated, Waiting, and Hold but not Next Action. This method really helps me because of the way it allows me to capture and manage my tasks.

The GTD method really helped me streamline my organizational process, but I'll admit my in-boxes are a bit backed-up right now. My place of work has what we consider to be a blockbuster exhibit opening on Saturday and we've been extremely busy. I've been using VoCal a lot over the past two weeks. What's important is that everything is taken down, I'm not having the "Oh, I need to remember..." thought popping up in my head every 5 minutes, and that it works for me. I'll definitely continue to use it because of the way it helps me capture my tasks and the peace of mind it gives me.

Here is a picture of my Lock Screen

Here is a picture of my Home Screen.

A Picture of Pocket Informant's Calendar Day view.

Google Doc Embed

Free Of Formatting Constraints

In the early days of the Internet web pages were static. Form and content were inseparably linked by a list of HTML tags, and only people who understood HTML could create, edit, upload, or share content on the web.  XML, RSS, and the newer languages of the Internet separate form and content. This makes it possible for anyone to create, edit, upload, or share content on the web with the click of a button even if they don't realize they're using XML or RSS.  Blogging is an  example of user generated content made possible by XML and RSS. Services like YouTube and Flickr wouldn't exist without the newer Internet languages. As the recent PIPA and SOPA congressional battles over copyrighted materials on the internet demonstrate, our ideas over topics like privacy, ownership, and even relationships are changing because of what is now possible on the Internet.  The way we think teaching will change because of the internet.  I think I can adapt the idea that users are free of formatting constraints in my efforts to differentiate instruction.