I have found two tools to be invaluable in managing the flow of information that comes into my world on a minute-by-minute basis. The first tool is Gmail which has been my primary email provider for 10 years. I utilize it in a couple of ways - the first, I treat my inbox as a To-Do list. If an email comes in that requires me to "do" something, it stays in my inbox until it is dealt with - added a calendar, a response sent, a paper finished, etc. Once this is done, the email gets archived.
Secondly, GMail is great for allowing me to filter and categorize my messages - social media messages go to one place, daily deals go to another, emails from family members rise to the top, etc. This is accomplished not through the labels and filters but instead through GMails own system of tabs and "smart" messages. Google knows who I talk to the most, and includes those emails as "important". It tends to know when I have to respond, and marks that as important as well. Less important emails still arrive, and are still dealt with, but in a more streamlined fashion.
Within my classroom I try to encourage my students to manage their inboxes in a similar way. Most email providers allow for some sort of filtering or folder structure and depending on the student's choice of provider, I try to ensure that they understand the basics of email management.
The second tool that is so useful for my stream of information is HootSuite. HootSuite allows me to monitor multiple Twitter chats at once and respond intelligently across all channels. I can keep my education chats separate from my camera chats, I can ensure that I see various direct messages and mentions in tweets, and I can coordinate the flow of information across devices - a search on one device will appear on others. Because of this I can seamlessly move from device to device while still keeping up with what's "going on" in Twitter.
As students become more involved in class Twitter discussions I encourage them to utilize HootSuite on their computers and phones. An advantage, of course, is that it is web based and thus accessible from all locations. Another major advantage is that it will aggregate Facebook and other social networks into a single location.
I'm not a fan of Diigo, one of the other possible tools we could evaluate. It has a fantastic purpose - shared bookmarks with tags - but I just don't find myself bookmarking THAT many things. Even when I do, Google Chrome will sync my bookmarks to any computer I sign in to, in a simpler manner than Diigo. While the collaborative bookmarking tools could be great to use a classroom, I still find myself attached to a simple Google Doc for sharing links, or one of the tools built into whatever LMS I'm using. Perhaps it's a matter of "too many features", but Diigo just doesn't feel worth the time.
Secondly, GMail is great for allowing me to filter and categorize my messages - social media messages go to one place, daily deals go to another, emails from family members rise to the top, etc. This is accomplished not through the labels and filters but instead through GMails own system of tabs and "smart" messages. Google knows who I talk to the most, and includes those emails as "important". It tends to know when I have to respond, and marks that as important as well. Less important emails still arrive, and are still dealt with, but in a more streamlined fashion.
Within my classroom I try to encourage my students to manage their inboxes in a similar way. Most email providers allow for some sort of filtering or folder structure and depending on the student's choice of provider, I try to ensure that they understand the basics of email management.
The second tool that is so useful for my stream of information is HootSuite. HootSuite allows me to monitor multiple Twitter chats at once and respond intelligently across all channels. I can keep my education chats separate from my camera chats, I can ensure that I see various direct messages and mentions in tweets, and I can coordinate the flow of information across devices - a search on one device will appear on others. Because of this I can seamlessly move from device to device while still keeping up with what's "going on" in Twitter.
As students become more involved in class Twitter discussions I encourage them to utilize HootSuite on their computers and phones. An advantage, of course, is that it is web based and thus accessible from all locations. Another major advantage is that it will aggregate Facebook and other social networks into a single location.
I'm not a fan of Diigo, one of the other possible tools we could evaluate. It has a fantastic purpose - shared bookmarks with tags - but I just don't find myself bookmarking THAT many things. Even when I do, Google Chrome will sync my bookmarks to any computer I sign in to, in a simpler manner than Diigo. While the collaborative bookmarking tools could be great to use a classroom, I still find myself attached to a simple Google Doc for sharing links, or one of the tools built into whatever LMS I'm using. Perhaps it's a matter of "too many features", but Diigo just doesn't feel worth the time.