Maintaining a Netvibes Page

Mary Anna Thornton

June 14, 2008

CEP810

Screen dump of Netvibes page

My Netvibes journal

I kept a Netvibes journal that recorded my experience checking the Netvibes page regularly. I recorded six journal entries in all. Initially I felt very uncomfortable with this activity. Gradually I adjusted to it, as the journal entries demonstrate.

An excerpt from my first journal entry:

I just set up my Netvibes page and began to browse the feeds. I did that for maybe ten minutes and watched one highly touted student YouTube video on World Domination. While watching the video, I was thinking:

a) How can I ever keep up with the digital world? I’m spending precious time here watching a video of dubious worth by a 10th grader with a southern accent AND

b) Should I shut my blinds so the rest of the office can’t see I’m watching videos while working?

I’ve also discovered that there is a well-known blog on “Digital Ethnography.” There are classes in “Digital Ethnography.” I have never heard of “Digital Ethnography.” (Keep in mind I have a Ph.D. in anthropology and thought I knew all about ethnographies.) Where have I been?? (And, can you get a job doing digital ethnographies? It sounds like much more fun than being a school administrator.)

By the time I’ve scanned six feeds, I’m feeling very anxious. My heart rate has speeded up and I’m breathing a little fast. I have an overwhelming sensation of being so far behind the rest of the world I will never catch up.

An excerpt from a mid-way journal entry

I left a comment on Jon Tanner’s blog. (Jon is a good friend who used to work for me as our school’s educational technology specialist.) It was less intimidating than commenting on a stranger’s blog. Jon was testing out Jott and had made an audio post on his blog using it. I listened to the post and commented that the sound quality of the post was good: even though there were unnaturally long spaces between words, his voice sounded very true-to-life.

On Jon’s site I found an article related to equity in education, good for the pro/con project.

I now find browsing the feeds less anxiety-producing but it still seems like a timewaster. I think if I schedule a time to look at this when I am less productive, say around four, it would work okay. Kind of like reading the paper after work.

Still I feel mainly amazed and confused by everything out there. I assume that feeling will go away if I am just persistent. It’s kind of like learning a new program. At first everything seems frustrating and counterintuitive.

An excerpt from my latest journal entry

I found on the Cool Cat site a listing of the top blog posts, and I found three posts there that I really enjoyed. One was on how technology can help students with learning disabilities. I posted a comment asking for more information on one of the programs she mentioned. Another was on how to comment well, and the third was on being a “newbie” to blogs. These last two were very helpful in terms of my anxiety about reading feeds and adding comments to blogs – it turns out there are a lot of people out there suffering from the same feeling of I’m-hopelessly-behind-and-have-nothing-to-contribute. The posts and comments were very encouraging. I responded to each post with a comment of my own. I enjoyed visiting this site today so I feel maybe like I’ve turned a corner.

How the feeds changed over time and what I learned from them

I asked some of my more tech-savvy educator friends about good feeds to add to my site. As a result, I added too many feeds. Over time I deleted the ones that seemed less interesting. The feeds had new posts each time I checked, so I could always look for something new and interesting on each feed. At this point, I have learned primarily what feeds are, how I can use them productively, and how to interact with blogs. I have not yet learned an enormous amount from the content of the feeds, because the medium is so unfamiliar to me.

Future plans

Continuing to check this page regularly will keep me much better connected to the larger world of education. I am very isolated in the Northwoods of Wisconsin so more connection to other educators would be good for me professionally and personally. My students, and the teachers I supervise, will benefit from the new ideas I glean from these sites, and I will benefit from the stimulation and support from other educators. I plan to focus for the time being on Jon’s site and the Cool Cat site since these two are the least intimidating to me. I believe over time I will become more accustomed to perusing a variety of feeds, will learn how to get the most out of the information available there, and will become more comfortable commenting. Maybe someday I will have my own blog! This project was difficult but very enlightening and useful.