Brain Explosion - EARCOS 2008

I'm here at EARCOS and I think my brain is going to explode with all of the things that has been jammed into it in the past 72 hours. These 90 minute sessions are such a tease. They just plant the seed - during the sessions I find myself furiously typing up notes to self - websites to visit when the session's over, rss feeds to add to my netvibes page, nuggets of knowledge I need to bring back to my staff. Each 90 minute session requires at least 4 hours of follow up (not to mention a few coffees, reliable internet, and access to a power source that fits an American plug) to even begin to scratch the surface of this wide, wide web. It's completely overwhelming and exhilarating.

So I already need to call myself out on fronting - netvibes. I just made my page yesterday. I can tell it's going to revolutionize the way I interact with the internet. Can anyone remember doing web searches in altavista? Or listening to music on a walkman? RSS readers (like netvibes or Google reader) will change my daily interaction with the internet so drastically that the memory of blindly googling a topic will elicit nostalgic and slightly amused feelings a la memories of altavista and walkmen.

Top Tech Things I've Learned About (In No Particular Order)
I really feel like my brain is going to burst so I need to offload some of these thoughts into the blog to make space:

1. www.netvibes.com - My RSS reader and new best friend.
   
2. www.zamzar.com - Download any video (YouTube, for example) as any standard movie format. Clutch for teachers dealing with limited bandwidth or spotty internet (i.e. teachers in Cambodia).
3. Google Earth - I was aware of this but hadn't thought about its potential as a teaching tool.
4. www.thethinkingstick.com - I'm going to subscribe to all blogs associated with Jeff Utecht until I'm old and gray.
5. mnemograph.com - Very cool web app for making interactive timelines.

I'll share more links as I get a chance to check them out.