Twitter, RSS, Google, Delicious, and Nings - Oh My!

As I'm thinking back on everything we did today, I feel a little overwhelmed and wondering how I'm going to keep up with rss feeds and nings in the future, but with delicious I saw some light at the end of the tunnel with organizing all of my sites. I'll definitely need some more time to process all of it.

This morning I enjoyed learning about all of the Google Apps. I really liked the versatility of some of them, and how they can be used to address different learners in your classroom. I can see myself using the news time lines, fast flip, and image swirl in Google Labs in the future as a school librarian, especially for current events and social studies projects. It's definitely important for information to be presented to students in a variety of ways--in words, images, videos, and sounds--so each child has an opportunity for success and understanding what they are looking at. Another feature in Google that was new to me was Google Lit Trips. This provides real life contexts to literature students are reading, by giving them a virtual tour of the setting in a book using Google Earth and is a great opportunity for collaboration with classroom teachers.

When we talk about building our own PLN, I can definitely see twitter playing a big (and addicting) role in furthering connections and networks, as well as nings and rss feeds. They are an instant and accessible way to keep up with your professional circle, and to see what new things they find interesting and useful. I am still wondering about appropriate ways to use twitter with your younger students in the media center.