Does Google Know All? Google's ways of encouraging my on-line participation.

For the past couple of months I have had quite a busy off-line work/life situation.  Sad to say, I've had little time to tinker with code, write blog posts, keep up with my tech journals (the short stack is now growing into a little pile), and attend to the people I follow on the web.

I'm not totally off the grid.  

While walking my dog, I check Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, peek at my email. To be social, I quickly retweet, "like",  comment, or post a pic from time-to-time.  

Things just aren't the same.

Google noticed.

I hadn't been checking my Analytics account, and Google let me know.   I hadn't been nurturing my blog as in the past, and I guess this was a cause for concern.  I was amused that Google was prepared to delve deeper with short survey!

Yes, Google, I have been neglecting you.

Although I regularly check Facebook, I ignored the Google Plus world.  So today, I decided to take a few steps to get back on track.

I saw that a number of people had added me to their circles.  I added a few back.  

I noticed that many people shared similar interests in technology, and sighed, longing for the days when I was taking interesting graduate computer courses and happily working on innovative projects.....

I perked up when I noticed that Google Plus had a "recommended communities" feature.

I was curious.  What sort of communities would be in store for me?    Could Google really read my ming?!   :  }

Well, maybe.  Almost.   

And I am thankful.

This was the nudge I needed -  a huge rabbit hole for me to explore:

There were more communities to consider, but scanning through the recommendations, I could see that Google was pretty much on-target regarding the technology interests.    

Google was off a bit regarding my educational and assistive technology interests, which I'd expect to see represented in the array.   

I'm still a school psychologist in my "day" job.   Early retirement is an option for me someday. When I do, I know I will devote more TLC to my NUI/interactive multimedia tech-related passions.  

Google, now you know!



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The New Media Consortium Needs Examples of K-12 Tech. Innovations for the 2011 NMC Horizon Report

The following information was taken from the New Media Consortium website. The deadline is April 1st - sorry for the late notice - it came across my path just today:

"We are pleased to announce that the Advisory Board for the 2010 NMC Horizon Report: K12 Edition has selected the six topics for this year's report:

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less  * Cloud Computing * Mobiles

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years * Game-Based Learning * Open Content

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years * Learning Analytics * Personal Learning Environments

Call for Examples
We are interested in learning about any kind of research, pilot programs, innovative projects, or faculty work happening at your school in any of the six areas listed above. (See the attached 2011 NMC Horizon Report: K12 Edition Preview of the topics for more details.) Our goal is to help readers understand the potential impact of these technologies and their applications on teaching, learning, or creative inquiry.

How to Participate
If you know of examples we could include, please use the brief web form at go.nmc.org/horizon-example-project  to tell us about them. We ask for a title, a URL, and a one- or two-sentence description; you also will need to select which of the six topics your example falls under. The process takes about two minutes. We hope to have your examples by Friday, April 1, but no matter what, we'd love to hear about what you are doing. The url above is always open to pointers to great projects."

For more information:
2011 Horizon Report: K-12 Edition - Preview of Topics (pdf)

Thanks to Liz Dorland for the link!