always learning

A few weeks ago, Kelly Christopherson posted an interesting thread, Walking the Talk, on the Classroom 2.0 Ning forums asking whether the teachers who promote web 2.0 tools are actually using the tools themselves. My response was:

Absolutely! Doing these type of things myself is the only way that I can truly understand how they will impact my classroom. It is time consuming, and sometimes I think I should just shut-down for a few days, but there is so much emerging every single day that I don’t have time to take a break.

What has really helped me this year is to keep a personal blog. Of course, I have my professional blog, my wiki, my twitter, del.icio.us, ning, facebook, yackpack, skype, etc accounts that I use every day on a professional basis. But, bringing these tools into my personal life has completely changed my perspective.

I know how the students feel when they are asked to write a blog post for school – the pressure of writing something academic and relevant to what you’re learning – the pressure of a professional blog. But, I also know the fun and excitement of experimenting with these tools for my personal enjoyment. I can honestly say that these tools have changed the way I learn, create, and communicate in every aspect of my life.

The only problem I’m facing is how to keep up. There are so many new tools emerging every day, how can we keep track of them all? Or at least, how do we pick the useful from the superfluous? How do you do it?

Which web 2.0 tools are your favorites and how have they helped you – either in your classroom or in your personal life?

Image: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~juggsoc/images/large/other_17.jpg