UPDATE: Apologies for the double post below. I was playing with Diigo, which does auto Daily Links to the blog, and running to soccer practice, and, you get the idea. Anyway, I’ll leave this up since it’s generated some comments…
Weblogg-ed » What’s Your Process? Annotated
Seriously. I want to know. What do you do when you read a couple of sentences in a post or article that really resonate? How do you capture and organize those snippets? What tools do you use? How often do you recall those sentences, access them? How do you search for them? Is your process working?
Reading, “cataloging”, remembering to go back, finding, re-reading, understanding, sharing, contemplating uses, and then possibly applying…
aka: learning
This is a process that I would guess few are really good at doing completely or consistently. We all have our moments of brilliance, I’m sure, but ultimately, I doubt there is an answer out there that will “knock your socks off”. You know as well as anyone, Will, what tools are available to us. While most are useful, I dare say, none are the “be all, end all”.
What would the perfect solution look like? That might be the question to consider.
Is it even necessary to systematically “capture and organize” those snippets? Or does that just feed our need for consuming without purpose. It would seem that if it was such a great “snippet” we would have internalized it and applied it readily. If it wasn’t worth incorporating into our mindset and actions immediately, then maybe its really not worth warehousing.
I’ve been in information overload for over a year now. I’ve only recently discovered RSS, blogs, del.icio.us, etc and I’m still figuring out how to use them to organize myself. I’m overwhelmed trying to keep up, but I’m hooked on all the information so easy to access.
I’ve always recorded everything that jumps out at me, whether with pen and paper or a computer. My key to not going crazy is to prioritize. I’ve realized that I can’t learn it all at the same time, so I (sadly) push some really cool stuff to a well labelled space where, hopefully, I’ll find it when I have the time. Really important information is printed out, or written up, and posted in my various workspaces either on the desktop or on a wall behind the computer screen. I revisit my personal archives from time to time, but there are only so many hours in a day…
Nothing really earth-shattering or technological about my comment, I know, but it’s working (sort of). If you know of a program/website/etc that can prioritize all this information I someday hope to fit into my brain, I’d love to know of it.
I used to copy & paste things into documents to look at later, or email URLs to myself so I wouldn’t forget them — and that’d serve as a reminder to read or revisit a site later. Lately I’ve been Furling content I’d like to preserve, and adding RSS feeds to my Bloglines account.
I agree with Erin that info overload is a problem, but I resigned myself to the reality that there are probably plenty of things I’m “missing” out there that I’d enjoy reading or using — but there are only just so many hours in each day, and I’ve got some A-list priorities that nothing can get in the way of: teaching my class, dealing with student and parents when necessary outside the classroom, and making sure I have quality time for my family. Technology can’t do any of those things for me, and I’d drive myself nuts trying to do it all, find it all, know & leverage it all. So I just don’t worry about it.
One last note, and I’m working on a post on my blog about this: I pretty much expect technology to be intuitive these days. I don’t have time to read manuals or dig through FAQ pages. If it’s not virtually transparent, I’ll go find something else. The same goes with other online sources — if I don’t immediately see/sense the utility, I dump it.
jdg
Google Notebook.
I put the posts in DevonThink, where I can sort them by topic and search for key words later.
Diigo.com has some features you might be interested in. I have not had time to try it much, but the home page says it allows you to…
Highlight, Clip and Sticky-Note for any webpage
â—Š Just as you would on paper -> Write on any webpage!
â—Š Make them private or public -> Interact on any webpage!
Share your online findings with your friends and colleagues
â—Š Complete with highlights and sticky notes
â—Š As lists, as blogs, as albums, as feeds, or via email in groups
Diigo makes it easy to:
â—Š Collect and compile your research findings
â—Š Allow groups to collaborate on research or web design
â—Š Make wishlists, do comparison shopping, or plan vacations
As a newcomer to these blogs, I find myself completley overwhelmed. I was wondering if there is a directory of blogs that would help sort them into categories, such as grade levels, lesson plan help, good teaching sites, etc.?
This is the low-tech part of my life. I keep pads of post-its on my desk. When I read something the engages me online, I jot it on the post it. Put it on my desk or monitor. The ides evenutally either becomes internalized and I toss it, or I never use it and I toss it.
Either way, the writing helps the looking helps the thinking.
Barry
I am also in the process of learning a lot about Web 2.0. The more I read the more I realize that it offers wonderful opportunities for students, but my district is pretty scared of words like wiki and blog. In fact, most blogs are automatically blocked regardless of their content. Has anybody had success in getting frighted network administrators to loosen the strings a bit? I can definitely say that I am adding items to sites, listening to podcasts, trying my hand at responding online, but I don’t have things organized right now. I can’t even find the items on my network drive, quickly enough anyway.
It all depends on how much time I have, but if I do see something I think is blog-worthy, I try to write about it ASAP.
If I can’t put it on the blog, then it usually goes into one of several data collection piles, including two Filemaker databases (which work surprisingly well) or an e-mail folder (I usually don’t get back to these).
I just wanted to second Dennis’s comment about Diigo. I’ve played around with Google Notebook, but the tagging feature of Diigo is what really makes the difference for me.
I immediately go to my blog to enter a new post and write. I may not publish right away, but I write those resonating thoughts done. I should use Scribefire more for this. Unfortunately, the only thing resonating this morning is coffee….a well….
I use Microsoft OneNote, an awesome addition to the MS Office 2007 package. When you copy and paste your blurb into OneNote it automatically puts a Hyper link Underneath it!
I love my Google notebook too. And iGoogle – I post quick notes in my sticky note and clip big stuff into my notebooks which are easy to organize and access. Just about everything in my school district is blocked and I will be crushed if the district blocks iGoogle.