I have had accounts on most of the tools we were to access this week for a long time now. Some of them I am very comfortable with and use on a regular basis and some of them I don’t. I am happy to have the “opportunity” to look at them again as part of SMiELT2008.
The main similarity among these tools seems to be the idea of sharing. That is the one of the most important things about them, as far as I am concerned. The other would be conversation, which is its own kind of sharing. Anything that promotes conversation between people is good. I love the opportunity to share ideas with people around the world without leaving my home.
The differences are many. There is the obvious word vs. picture split, with Bloglines on one side and Flickr on the other. VoiceThread is somewhere in the middle, I guess. Another middle ground tool, I guess, would be del.icio.us, I guess. I primarily save articles and blog posts that I find interesting, but I could also save graphics that I wanted to have available.
There is also a difference in terms of formality, I think. Bloglines is more formal than the 43 Trio, for instance. Maybe it has to do with the blogs that I follow with Bloglines more than Bloglines itself, though; I don’t know.
There are some of these tools that I cannot imagine not using and others that I can’t imagine using. There others that I hope to explore during and after this EVO session. But whether I ever use these tools or not, it is always good to know about them.
Moving Along 
Hi Nancy! I saw your comment about RSS in my blog. Thank you! I completely agree with you when you say that although you can´t imagine how to use some of these tools, it´s good to know about them. Have your used voicethread with your students?
Hi Nancy! Thanks for posting on my blog. You gave me hope that getting an audience is possible. You seem quite exerperience at using some of these tools and I enjoyed reading some of your previous blog posts as they give great advice and useful links. Which of the tools we are experimenting with in the class have you found most useful in the ESL classroom?
[…] 26, 2008 by Nancy I got a question earlier today about which of the tools we are using in the Social Media session I have found most […]
I agree with you that sharing and conversing are the good points of social media. Tools I can’t live without are blogs, delicious, and Flickr, while I am just beginning to explore some of the others. Looking forward to discovering more through our interaction and participation in SMiELT.