While I sometimes feel that technology is getting overwhelming, I admit to using and enjoying much of it. It's a matter of finding what is useful to you, in your personal and professional life, and using it to make your leisure time and work experience better. ing It's alright not to use everything. While exploring Flickr and all the adjunct sites, I had this feeling that I'd have to quit my day job just to find the time to use all of it. As with our jobs, there is always so much more that we could be doing than we have time for. The trick is not to get so overwhelmed that you freeze and don't do anything.
Since our family is scattered all over the U.S. (California, North Carolina, Arizona & Florida - yes, we stayed in the frozen north while the kids left), the use of e-mail, webcams, skype, smugmug (Flickr-like photo posting site) and even You-Tube have made it easier for all of us to feel more in touch.
In the library, of course technology is now a given. While making a magazine cover today, I realized that could make use of that idea with my 6th grade students. We just started a new research project on inventors & inventions. Those who finish early could make a magazine cover with their inventor's photo and feature headlines pertaining to his/her inventions or discoveries. It would be a good incentive to keep everyone working at a good pace. I can also imagine them creating a blog for their inventor.
Right now my biggest problem is that I've lost my staff due to budget cuts , so implementing new and ambitious projects is difficult. I could possibly collaborate with the computer lab and thus get some added time and assistance. I've felt a great deal of frustration in the past few years as I've had to downsize my research projects, especially the technology aspects, just to get the basic job of running the library done. At this time of expanding technology and emphasis on literacy, cutting back on library services is counterproductive. I suspect many of you have experienced the same.
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I just found your question on my blog asking how to blog from Flickr. First, make sure the picture you want to send is "public." While in Flickr, double click on the picture. Just above the picture, in very small font, you will see a number of options available to you. Click on "Blog This" and follow the instructions from there. I forget how I set it up in the beginning - I think I had to paste in the URL from my blog. Good luck!
Oh my gosh! You are absolutely in my head as far as technology - and staff cuts - go. There is just not enough time in the day to figure it all out and then make it work for our students. Add outdated equipment to the equation and you do end up "freezing" (literally and figuratively) as you so eloquently put it on a cold New England day. I agree that teaming with someone will be part of the solution. Two heads and all that ... we seem to be proof of that in this course.
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