Week 3: Overwhelmed

I am feeling a little overwhelmed with all the different online bits and pieces I have started using. I feel like they are developing a life of their own and I am struggling to keep track/control of it all. Whenever, I get stressed or overwhelmed I get organised and if there is one thing I am good at it is wasting time getting organised.

Organisation strategies:
- Cleaned up my incoming feeds, emails etc by trying to make sure there is only ONE way I am getting the info ie. email OR rss
- Set up smart folders in mobileme mail so mail is filtered into relevant folders as it comes in
- Set up lists on twitter so I am not struggling with hundreds of tweets about hundreds of topics

Evernote:
For those who are serious organisation freaks check out Evernote. This is a fantastic tool to keep all your information (from pdfs, websites, powerpoints, photos, diagrams, webclips) in one place and searchable. It also syncs from your home computer to an internet account which you can then access anywhere. I have found it an invaluable teaching tool and have it open and ready in all tutorials. Then when the students are discussing eg. umbilical cords I can pull up relevant photos, diagrams etc on the spot using search words. Having it all there makes teaching student led and responsive (and never fails to impress - ha ha). I also use it for all areas of life - I have everything in my Evernote account. OK advert over.

Activities for week 3:
I have done these and in summary here are my thoughts:
1. Did you know: wow the face of communication has changed so much in less than a generation
2. Nancy White - communities and networks: I still find this a little confusing
3. Building online communities: found this extremely useful and set up an email group based on this info
4. Seven key skills of workshop facilitation: I know I need to work on this as I am a bit of a tangent follower
Laureen Hudson re. online presence for midwives - fantastic!

What else I have been up to:
Thinking about communities and reflecting on a number of interactions with nursing students this week led me to set up a yahoo email group. The group is for USC Midwifery students past, present and future. There are around 100 nursing students who are planning to become midwives and they are thirsty for midwifery. This results is nursing lectures and tutorials being diverted by these keen students which is probably annoying for the nursing students who do not want to be midwives. Basically this group is for them to get together, chat midwifery and access the knowledge and experience of current midwifery students and past students. I am hoping the current and past students will field most of the questions and in turn this will build confidence in their own expertise.
I have also moved my midwifery blog to wordpress. Although it is more difficult to use it is more adaptable and faster than my original iweb version.
I met face to face today (shock horror) with a FO2010 fellow student Jillian Clarke. It was lovely to discuss the course and midwifery off line for a change.

I can't make the web conference this week but I will try to keep up with the activities etc and check out the recording.