Last night, about 5.00PM, I opened up Google Reader and there were exactly 400 unread items. It had only been a couple of days since I had cleared Google Reader. I marked some folders as ‘read’ and then scanned through the remaining items and earmarked 46 of the posts for later reading. So 46 posts out of 400 caught my eye. About 10%. Time to rethink the number of blog subscriptions I read.

This morning I opened up Google Reader and deleted about 100 blog subscriptions. I had subscribed to about 240 blogs and various other feeds. I deleted some blogs that seemingly mirrored others and those which had not been updated for several months. Some were easy to delete as I had simply subscribed to them during workshops. I had been wanting to perform this digital surgery for some time

I am going to peruse some of the top 50 P-12 blogs listed by Scott McLeod that I have not subscribed to at this point in time. Shall add them if I feel they serve my needs. I will probably then sift through Google Reader once more.

It was definitely time to rationalise the number of blogs that I read. It was simply taking up too much of my time. Time that should be spent with my wife, listening to music, playing with the cat and performing tasks such as lesson preparation. Important things.

Attempted to remove my Twitter feed from my Jaiku feed. Felt that the Jaiku feeds should be a consistently concrete. Sometimes my tweets are a little flippant. Anyway, upon making the attempt to remove the Twitter feed within the Jaiku settings panel I received the two messages below. Makes me smile.

Who turned up the heat? Not me! Then this…

If I do not own the stream, then who does?

One other thing, Twitter… Please do something about the spammers with a built in ‘Report Spam’ link or a more effective blocking and/or filtering mechanism built into the settings.

Not too sure how this crossed my path but in this sequence of short video clips the Blackboard LMS gets the Bollywood treatment.

http://metamedia.typepad.com/metamedia/2008/04/the-adventures.html

Enjoy.

Mark Pesce’s latest presentation. Thoroughly enjoyed the opening video. Useful. Excellent presentation. Mark is quite in touch.

the human network » Blog Archive » Only Connect (Live Version)

Mark’s blog.

Well, Kevin Lim certainly created waves after he dropped this pebble in the pond yesterday. Myself and others picked up Seesmic following Kevin’s dramatic post and the initial conversation generated 40 plus replies. Kevin has subsequently blogged about the implications of the tool and that Seesmic event here.

Social cyborg and multimediamuse, Kevin Lim, goes Seesmic

Kevin writes about the initial reluctance of some users to adopt the tool, including himself. He goes on to write that, “Haven’t we said the same thing before we took to blogging or even twitter?” He reviews the use of the tool under the following headings.

• New medium, New resistance
• It’s full-on transparency…
• It’s about performancing…
• It’s meme formation at lightspeed…
• It’s a new aesthetic; a brash context…

Kevin also provides a set of links to some of the more interesting characters that appeared in the initial Seesmic thread yesterday. Well worth a look. The excerpts provide an insight into the immediacy, openness and fun of the tool.

I felt a little reluctant blogging about Kevin’s latest post because he blogs on about my Seesmic observations but he provides additional and valuable insights that are well worth your consideration.

I also received an informative comment from Dr Javed Alem where he pointed to a set of Seesmic threads where students recently provided course reflections via Seesmic. Javed writes that he was “…teaching a course titled “infotechtools for engineers” and I tried using different media. Student liked the video medium once they get a hang of it. It is more engaging and more natural when it comes to informal or semi informal conversations.” Javed has provided links to the threads as well as a Voicethread commentary…

http://seesmic.com/videos/XVKgMdijmq

and some student responses…

http://seesmic.com/v/jWStMJYGom

http://seesmic.com/videos/ffBo8Yz4j

http://voicethread.com/share/124542/

Dr Javed Alam, upper left, and a number of his students

It is interesting to see how the different students handled the use of Seesmic. In the main they seem quite confident and relaxed with an air of formality as well.

Their use of the tool in this context contrasts with the threads yesterday where a rather serious conversation on the teaching and learning applications of the tool was seamlessly blended with a parade of sunglasses, hats, wigs, soft-toys and puppets. What does that tell us?

Some of the respondents to Kevin’s Seesmic thread.
That’s me in the psychedelic wig.

I personally feel as though I have come out of the Twitter closet and gone Seesmic. How about you? Will you take the plunge also?

Addendum. Check out the Seesmic WordPress plug-in that facilitates video comments. You still need to enter your normal details, email address, etc in addition to the Seesmic log-in. You can see it in action on Kevin’s post where he is engaged in a conversation with Critter, a Seesmic developer.