So many options, so little time

I've spent most of my time this week delving into the many online applications mentioned in this week's assignments. Each has potential to organize, liven up, and/or simplify our lives. Some were familiar to me and many were applications I had not heard mentioned before. Delicious is one that I was familiar with but had never attempted to use and now I wonder why. So many times before, I would jot down a website that I wanted to explore only to forget where I had jotted it down. Now any sites I bookmark are handy when I have the time to explore or am looking for a specific site. Besides the ones that I bookmark, Delicious offers a "hotlist" on its home page which helps to keep me informed as to any current topics of interest or importance. This is a great way to keep organized and I don't know why I waited so long to discover it.
I spent a fun afternoon learning the basics of Flickr and I can see why this image and video hosting website offers so much to anyone, whether it be an individual sharing personal photography or an educator looking for ways to liven up lesson plans and keep their students excited about all they can do online. I decided for my first attempt at a collection of images to use photos of the Songbirds, my school chorus. Parents are always sharing photos of our many performances and I also have collected photos taken at our weekly practices that parents may enjoy. So I chose a variety and enjoyed organizing, tagging, and mapping the photos. I added some annotations for fun. This wasn't a project that would use this feature to its full potential but I added a few to practice this feature.
Animoto is another application using images, this time taking the submitted photos and creating a video of them. I love this and can't wait to introduce this to my students.
Some of the teachers I work with had mentioned using SurveyMonkey in their classrooms. I can see how this would be useful to me as a tool to collect responses from my colleagues to survey questions that I create myself. This could help me make informed decisions as to how to manage the library or computer lab. In addition, it can be used by students to create their own questions to surveys relating to lessons we are engaged in. I already have plans to use Survey Monkey in my upper classes.
I can see the value in all of the sites I have visited this week. Each would add to my organization or lesson planning. I am hoping to incorporate as many as I can into my school routine. The more of these that I introduce to myself, my colleagues, and my students, the better informed and prepared we will all be as we attempt to keep up with the rest of the globe in the 21st Century educational arena.