I’m a big fan of work blogs, despite my lack of posts here (I’ve been busy but it’s still a lame excuse) and the chronic paranoia that someone will dislike what I’ve written and try to have me fired. Actually, of all the things there are to be paranoid about, that one doesn’t rank too highly. I think it’s important to reflect on one’s work on a regular basis, so here we go. I’m reflecting on my world of 2.0 apps over the past academic year.

 Blogging may have not gone so well, but I’ve certainly kept up with other people’s blogs. My bloglines directory (which I’ve recently copied over to my Google Reader as well) has doubled in size – you can check it here: http://www.bloglines.com/public/jomeyertons. I’ve also become a bigger-than-ever fan of podcasting and vodcasting. My iTunes directory is chock full of great educational blogs, perhaps my notably those from the TED Talks, which recently gave rise to the very cool new eol.org site (that’s the encyclopedea of life site). I dived right into Google Docs to collaborate on projects with others at work, and persuaded at least two professors to give it a try as well. It’s truly cool stuff – for home users, the calendar can’t be beat. One of my colleagues uses Google Calendar to text message himself when something important comes due. I now use a Xythos product to store, share and collaborate via the web with my students and co-workers, and a number of faculty members are doing the same. CuteOverload is my favorite goofy feel-good site, and they like everyone else make great use of YouTube. I still use Citeulike and Del.i.cious for research needs, and I occasionally dabble in one of the many other new tools available in 2.0 application directories such as Pandora (http://www.pandora.com/) which allows me to find music I like based on entries I choose. Cool stuff, all of this – and I’m nowhere near done exploring!

In my long career as an educational technology professional, I’ve used many generations of computers. I started with dumb terminals and Mag Card II typewriters, and progressed through a series of DECs, Wangs, and other now long-dead systems on into the shiny new world of Apple. But Apple quickly gave way to Windows, and now the two are vying for dominance against a world that is going more and more toward mobile devices like smart phones.

All this time, Apple users have remained shielded from the inner-workings of the computer, so that the system was easier to use and users didn’t have to understand file directory structures. Now that Apple has gone to a Unix OS, this is no longer quite so true, but still, users have been shield from much of the information (and thus the capabilities) that Windows users have long since grown accustomed to.  I train faculty and I train students, and many faculty prefer Macs to Windows while the inverse is true for students. Yet the students are more savvy than the faculty. Some attribute this solely to the digital immigrant vs. the digital native theory, but I can’t help wonder whether or not there is some IQ-building that occurs on the Windows side that Apple users never experience?

It’s just so much easier to grok a world you are more familiar with.