Workflow- Social Media School Teacher
Dharmesh wakes up a little late. After a quick shower, he skips checking email, but goes right to his RSS reader to see updates of where the students worked within the social network. Luckily, Ning (and lots of services) send new activities out via RSS, so they’re easy to track.
It looks like Margarite has added more YouTube videos to the video section, and Franklin has written a blog post about the town’s historic water cooler. Jeremy has already commented that Franklin forgot to cite a source, saving Dharmesh the effort. He eats a breakfast bar, and hops in his car for the commute to work.
On his iPod, Dharmesh listens to last week’s book reports read out by the students. The quality of their work has improved a great deal since switching to the audio requirement. The second report, by Kelly, is a little loud and the audio clips a bit. Dharmesh makes a mental note to show Kelly how to level the audio in Audacity.
At school, the first period media students are all frustrated. They’ve built a media room in FriendFeed, but haven’t figured out what they’re going to use to present their collected information. Dharmesh lets them discuss the benefits of a blog versus just adding a group to Ning. He asks if they’ve tried Scrapblog yet, which makes simple pages in a primarily drag-and-drop interface. They agree to check that out.
Period four is right before lunch. Dharmesh has special permission to mix the two time frames, so he takes his class out on a walk, asking them to snap pictures with their cell phones’ cameras. Only one student doesn’t have a smartphone, and Dharmesh gives him a Flip camera, instructing him to shoot some video of the student’s collecting their photos. Now there’ll be a documentary to go along with the photo walk project.
There’s only one fast computer in the class room. The others are horribly out of date. But Mister McBrian has done a great job of keeping them updated, and their browsers work well enough to be mostly useful. Because the school has opted to use only web apps instead of buying software for each computer, they were able to use some money to improve memory on the machines. It’s not ideal, but classrooms are rarely state of the art for long.
Before the end of the day, Dharmesh has recorded a quick video on the fast computer, giving the next week’s assignments audibly. He’s already sent the assignments as a forum update to their Ning group, so the class doesn’t have to write anything down to remember. It’s already in their RSS feed.
On the commute home, Dharmesh listens to more podcast book reports and thinks about what he can do to raise money to get just a few more good computers into the class room. Before these kids get to fourth grade, he figures, they should know that not all computers take two minutes to load a page. Maybe a fundraiser, he think, as he drives home to meet up with his family for dinner.
What do you think? Make sense? Was it surprising that I have this as a 3rd grade classroom? It’s not inaccurate. My daughter is entering first grade and she knows how to navigate a browser, iTunes, and various websites.
These posts are made for sharing. Feel free to repost all or portions of this (as long as it’s not for profit). If you do post it, please make sure you kindly link back to [chrisbrogan.com] and give me credit. Thanks!
Photo credit, LizMarie
Expand Your Blog Reading
First, I’m forever grateful to those of you who stop by and read [chrisbrogan.com] , and even more thrilled when you’re subscribed for free to get it sent to you. One thing you may or may not know is that I read a LOT of blog posts and information in any given week, and this often sparks my ideas for what I cover here on the site. To that end, I thought I’d give you some ideas in general to expand your blog reading, and then recommend a few (almost random) blogs that I’m reading for you to add to your list.
Part of this involves tools and a purpose. But then, don’t all my suggestions have a bit of goal and a bit of resource to them? Why should reading be any different? And oh, that’s maybe a hint. If you’re not much of a reader, it’s going to be hard for you to be a writer. Sorry, that’s the way it works.
Reading With Purpose
My goals in reading lately fall into four categories:
- Reading what friends write.
- Reading about the “new marketing” industry and the tech industry (fishbowl).
- Reading what people recommend.
- Reading off the wall stuff that inspires new thoughts (outside the bowl).
I do this very purposefully. If all I did was regurgitate what’s in the fishbowl, why would you bother reading me. Second, when reading what people recommend, I find things I might have passed over a first time, but because of someone’s highlighting, I give it extra weight. And finally, I do a little mental curating of all that reading to create something fresh for you. Remember: my goal with writing is to make things that you find useful. I’m not writing for myself, here (except when I am). Your goals might be different. Think about that before you engage in any of these reading ideas.
Reading Tools
I use three tools extensively to perform my blog reading:
The first tool, Google Reader, allows me a few features: one, I can read really fast using keyboard commands to move through the information quickly. Two, I can share information rapidly by hitting Shift-S, and I can annotate it by leaving a note. Three, Google Reader lets me see what other people I’ve added as friends have shared, and thus, I can learn from their interests.
The second and third tools do relatively the same thing: they find me things to read by other means than by sharing or my pre-existing subscriptions. I find that when I surf Twitter for links (easier to do using Summize), I can find some really interesting things that otherwise might have slipped through the cracks.
Some Blogs to Try out
First off, if you haven’t dipped your toes into my Rockstars page, you’re missing out on several folks who belong to this community and who read and contribute here.
Second, here are a few blogs I’ve dropped by recently that might be interesting to add some perspective to your reading:
- Punk Rock HR - First, what a great title. Second, Laurie Ruettimann has a great writing style that I like.
- Annarchy - Great memoir/essay writing style, written by the Chief Content Officer of Marketing Profs.
- Levite Chronicles - My friend Jon Swanson’s blog is required reading, in my opinion. That’s all I’m telling you.
- Dan Kennedy - Recommended to me by Christopher S. Penn.
- Beach Walks with Rox - a long time favorite to sooth me.
There are plenty of blogs to read about social media and tech and the like. I’ve been using Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop more and more as a place to find new things to expand my reading. I give things a few weeks. If they don’t seem to be steady reads for me, I might drop them again. It’s the web. Everything comes around again. Right?
Those are some ideas for expanding your blog reading efforts. Anything I might have missed? What else would you like to know? Who’s someone (not yourself) that you’d like to recommend we all check out? Let’s talk about that in the comments, okay?
Photo credit, mo riza
