Monday, November 3, 2008

Welcome back to the bloggisphere

Hello all.

After a (another) long hiatus, I am back once again writing a blog posting. I took most of the spring, summer, and now into the fall off from writing. I have been doing much reading and processing of information. Now it is time for me to try and make valuable contributions through writing.

I have been blown away recently by social networking. Just week before last I found out about Ecademy. It is a social network started ten years ago in England. It still has a very large following outside of the US. I have been a member of LinkedIn for over a year. I have grown to like some of its features. One of its biggest drawbacks though is that it is not as easy to connect with people if you do not know them. Ecademy does not have this drawback. You can send a request to connect to anyone in the network with just a few clicks. It is also easier to find people. A drawback to Ecademy, however, is that it does not seem as easy to send messages unless you are willing to pay for the privelage. I am still learning about it though. I will likely post more soon after I have become more familiar with its features.

I have also spent the last several months trying to learn about many of the new Web2.0 tools. The problem is that there are so many tools out there, and so many more released every week, that it is difficult (if not impossible) to keep up. Nevertheless, I am continuing to try. I am now trying to focus on a few different categories of tools rather than all of them. Currently, I am looking mostly at tools in two areas:

  • those which can be used for personal learning and productivity improvement - tools for one's Personal Learning Environment (PLE)

  • those which can be used for group networking and productivity improvement

Even these two areas, with much cross-over between them, comprise a broad breadth of tools. That being stated, they provide something for me to focus on. I hope to write much more about tools in these two areas in the not distant future.

Now for a few questions. What categories of Web2.0 tools do you think are most important? Are there certain tools or types of tools you would like to learn more about? If so, which ones? How are you integrating Web2.0 tools into an overall learning program?

TTFN - JWS

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