Topic 8 Exercise 2

The avalanche of applications self-interview

1. Am I getting ‘snowed in’ by the avalanche of new tools and services?I did have that feeling a couple of weeks ago but since then I have regrouped and tried to categorised the new tools and services into groups so that I know when and which one to use for the best results!! I have used some of these new tools in the assignments that I am i the process of submitting. It is still a matter of having time to go back and do further research to really nut out how to use them. I would like to use Skype more but still haven’t been back!!
2. In Facebook, where do you draw the line between the workgroups with students and work colleagues and keeping in touch with friends and relatives?I only joined Facebook because of this topic; I had been living in ignorant bliss!!! Initially I found a couple of friends and then they suggested others to find. I accepted my nephew (who is 9yrs old) thinking that all was good. A mate who is also a mother of two young boys politely suggested that I should do something about my nephew as there might be content on my Facebook that would be unsuitable for such a young person. This was my wakeup call to Facebook. I had a colleague that mixed his personal and school life on Facebook, there hasn’t been any negative repercussions yet. I am having trouble with people wanting to be my friend and I don’t want to be theirs! Awful I know but if I considered them quality people when I went to school with them I would have kept in contact. My biggest drama is how to ‘reject’ these people without ‘rejecting them’ so I have some people still waiting to be accepted!!! Opps. I will utilise Facebook for the services that it offers (ease to communicate with others) and will keep it as a personal tool. It is a blocked site at school which makes it hard to integrate into my subjects anyway.
3. Do I separate tools like “horses for courses” and use twitter to keep track of other developers.....?I do separate tools and utilise my favourites. I am still getting used to using some of the new ones and will hopefully get to play with Google Wave (as it seems to be the next big thing). I use conversations with my students and use work related social networking forums to keep my finger on the pulse of what is developing in ICT and the ways that others are implementing it into their classrooms.

4. Comment on the self-interview experience
The self-interview experience is like evaluating your opinions on the topic. It can be manipulated to suit the user in regards to how challenging the questions are, what is an acceptable length and how in depth an answer should be. The user can also dictate the direction of questioning to allow for the task to become off task!!!