Cognitive overload!

I have been busy busy busy.  Lurking ain't easy! lol Lurking around Lonely Planet  and its social media tools can feel never-ending.  I've now taken pages of notes but have yet to finish the first draft of my community paper.
I've also been busy (but enjoying it a bit more...a lot more) actively participating in Tripadvisor's online community.

On another note, I've also been busy trying out new tools.  I tried Edublog, Quora, and Wordpress.

Funny story about how I got interested in Wordpress; for the past week I have been on an amazing road-trip. We had just made it to Arches National Park, when I crossed the street towards the visitor's center behind an RV and as I was checking it out (I dream of traveling the country via RV one day) I noticed they had their blog address printed on the back of it, "ourjoyride.wordpress.com".  I immediately got on my phone and checked them out. They are living the dream and blogging along the way!

So, what can I say about the tools I tried this week?

Edublog= I liked how it has a step-by-step guide that you can follow to get started.  It has all the basics of any blog; dashboard, themes, posts publishing, and so on, but also has classroom/teacher specific tools. There's lots and lots to do, including an Edublog teacher challenge.  So far, I've chosen my title and theme.  It doesn't sound like a lot, but there's lots to think about.  I'm hoping to use this Edublog with my classes next school year.  

Easy to follow links depending on what you want to do.

Wordpress= So far, I haven't had too much time to play with this tool, other than the basics of setting it up.  I think I like it better (if not way better than blogger).  I'm planning on using this as my main platform for prdusage #2.  It's easy to click around and figure out what to do.  For some reason I liked the old blogger but I haven't been able to grasp the new one.  In Wordpress, I particularly like the Daily Prompt and Weekly Photo Challenge, they are inspirational and help me get ideas for my own blog.

Quora= This tool was a nice break from reading how to create blogs, making choices, and planning ahead.  It was very distracting and it sucked me right in! I created my profile, selected topics of interest and immediately got active with it. It's like reading a newsfeed personalized for you and all you like to read about.  I definitely see myself using Quora long-term.

I'm tired of clicking and reading...but this cognitive overload is definite sign that I'm learning.  Nothing that's worthwile is ever easy. :)