Twitter reflections and lighthouses

Twitter Opinions Revised?
While I had been a bit worried about how the class would react to twitter based on their reading posts, it seems like the talk by guest speaker A might have put into perspective what it can be good for after all. I have been using twitter for fun for a few years now and have found it a great resource mainly because interesting information tends to come to you instead of you always having to seek it all actively on your own. Mind you, it is not always the information is exactly what you need or want right at that, but sometimes it still useful or file away-able until it can be used.

Being Overwhelmed
Even though I have used twitter for a while, I have never used a twitter client. I knew the existed, but sometime you just want to learn the one thing before you dive in to something more complicated. So even though I was comfortable with twitter, I am really not comfortable with either of the client sites we checked out - HootSuite or TweetDeck. While I can see the appeal of having access to multiple twitter accounts at once or being able to see what is happening with a trend or group compared to your regular feed or feed of certain friends, it really was an overwhelming experience in class. In part the interface was a bit overwhelming and confusing to figure out, especially while trying to listen in class. Maybe because I have a system already set up in twitter for dealing with this, but I am not sold yet. I plan on spending a few hours with it this week, but I am not sure my opinion will change much.

Listing vs Following
One thing we didn't cover in class was the making of lists. Lists are a way of organizing groups of people. One of the benefits of lists if it is a way of following someone without having to actually follow them - I like this because I can have lists organized around important things, like vacation destinations, which may be of interest some of the time, but is not something I want to be showing up in my feed all the time. I tend to make lists of people instead of following them, only because it lets me to focus on it when I want to, but not having it cluttering up my stuff all the time.

Product Review Project
So at the end of class, we all got a playing card, and that determined which product we got to review for our product review assignment and who our partner(s) are. I will be working with Mindy and we will be working on reviewing Toon Boom Studio (http://www.toonboom.com/edu/k12.php#studio), an intro animation software to allow students to create interesting presentations and keep them engaged in class. I am really looking forward to working with it this week and (hopefully) getting to use it in the classroom. I am lover of tech and am always looking for interesting ways to incorporate it into the classroom, so I am hoping this is something that I can use at a later date.

Technology is not always a computer
I am up north this weekend and went on a tour of a lighthouse on Charity Island and they were talking about the Dalen Light, which revolutionize the way that lighthouses worked by creating an automatic valve for releasing acetylene gas at night to light the lighthouse. (the inventor, Nils Gustaf Dalen, won the Nobel prize for this invention in 1912). I think sometime we may forget that technology doesn't have to be computers or online, sometimes it is something very physical and in front of you that can make life work better. Goodness knows I forget about that sometimes, and I am glad the world reminds me, mostly in unexpected ways in unexpected places.