One tool I’ve only recently started using is Feed Digest. When I don’t get into Google Reader regularly, I still want to know what are the timely topics of the day. I’ve been able to combine multiple unrelated RSS feeds easily in Feed Digest and then show that combined feed in an iGoogle gadget that I see it every time I hit my browser’s home page.

I do need to learn about to filter things better and use RSS in a more efficient way.

It seems that some of the edubloggers out there are almost obsessed with their blogging art. Some teachers are emulating their edublogging heroes yet forgetting that these edubloggers have the time to blog and comment both frequently and widely as they are full time consultants. They have the time to network and blog as often as they do. Teachers that attempt to copy that networking effort will burn out if they fail to manage their time wisely.

I am considering halving the number of blogs I read. It is overkill. Your advice is timely David.

Filtering blogs so that you are fed only the topics that interest you is a good way to begin in reducing the work load. AideRSS is a tool that is worth a look in that respect.

Cheers, John

I search delicious when I’m looking for something before I use another tool like Google. I figure if a real person took the time to tag a resource, it might be quite worthwhile. I just typed voicethread into the box and in addition to the 62 I have tagged (surprised me) there are an additional 1455 entries. Now if only everyone could start getting in the habit of changing the name to something more useful and adding notes we’d really have a system.

I have six people sharing feeds with me in Google Reader. It’s how your post bubbled to the top today. I look at those first. If someone found something really good, they’ll mark it as shared. I won’t miss it in the bigger mix of unread items. Sometimes the feeds are already in my reader, but I haven’t gotten to them yet. Other times, they subscribe to someone I do not.

Thanks for the post.

My tip is to have Google Alert for the things I am currently really interested in and to try not to read all my feeds all the time.

David’s idea of ‘folderising’ so that you only go to certain feeds periodically works for me.

Thanks for the pointers. I constantly wrestle with juggling the components of my life and the sense of information overload is hard to avoid from time-to-time.

I like Jeff Utecht’s comments, however the thing that I still need to address is the anxiety of the week following a “…choice to not connect…”.

With Twitbin, I can limit the Tweets just to the folks I’m following so I don’t see all the excess. It’s been working well for me.

Bonus: Twitter is blocked at my district, but Twitbin lets me see my friends tweets.

I have found it very healthy to disconnect once in awhile. Going on vacation where you do not have a choice does not count. It’s making the active choice to not connect that allows you to reflect and put the network into prospectives.

As for the other 51 weeks….you’ve created a great starter list!

It makes me think to the balance between a wider network of say “international educators” perhaps with interest but no specific programme they are working on together AND a learning community that share learners with a specific goal for those learners on center stage.
on that note better get back to it
Kia Kaha
(maori for be strong)

Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. I choose to receive them as one digest. It is similar to your RSS idea.

I also like the idea of refreshing which blogs you read. I arrange my feeds by folders (must reads, under consideration, last chance, topical, or local friends). I don’t have time to read them all but I do like mixing up who is currently in my must read or under consideration folder (obviously you are!).

Thanks for the reminders.
Colette

On the scanning idea, there are efficient reading techniques (similar to speed reading but not quite the same) that people can try, such as:

* starting at the end, to see what the conclusion is.
* If the piece is well-structured, like a newspaper article, you can get all the info u need from the first paragraph.
* Read only the first sentence in each paragraph.

I know it sounds like there would be no enjoyment reading like this, but if you are ina hurry and are looking for information, as opposed to an enjoyable read, those techniques and others like them definitely work.