So I gave a presentation at Professional Development day. While my execution was not up to par, the content was well received and I believe appropriate for the opening presentation. Basically, I provide 5 steps to keeping up with technology.
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You have to love technology. It touches almost every aspect of our lives and it always comes with a learning curve. And right when you get comfortable and life seems manageable, a new technology surfaces offering new capabilities, opportunities and challenges.
This is not to suggest that technology is bad, but it can present challenges. If you are like most people, you may be interested in why 225 million people are on MySpace or why Facebook has a growth rate of over 500%. You may want to know which of the latest cell phones provide the best capabilities and keep you connected via voice, text, email and web. What are the advantages of YouTube over the other 30 online video publishing services?
However, the rapid pace of change coupled with the sheer number of new services can leave you feeling left behind and anxious about how to get started.
I would like to suggest five steps towards approaching the task of keeping up with technology. Note, these same steps can be used to stay current with most subject matter.
1. First and foremost, relax. Do not let technology overwhelm and stress you. There are over 100 million blogs covering thousands of subjects, you cannot read them all. Studies have shown that up to 90% of software features go unused, don’t feel you have to learn them all. Recognize your own limitations and priorities and understand that you are not alone.
2. Stay curious. Embrace your inner child and don’t be afraid to play. It can be more challenging for people over the age of 25 to experiment with technology. We didn’t grow up in the digital age and we like to understand what will happen before we press a button. Don’t be too quick to judge the value of a new service or technology until you have had a chance to experience it. Look for potential and be creative.
3. Use a Start Page service like PageFlakes (http://www.pageflakes.com/), Netvibes (http://www.netvibes.com/) or iGoogle (http://www.google.com/ig) to organize and review information. These services provide capabilities to create your own “home” page and aggregate information and applications into one easy to use location. They list numerous resources which can keep you current on everything from the newest gadgets to the latest entries in social media.
4. Network with your friends and colleagues. We can communicate, share information and engage with more people today than ever before. Take advantage of services like Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/) or Twitter (http://twitter.com/) and build relationships with individuals who share your interests. My personal favorite is Twitter for its portability and casual conversation. Don’t underestimate the power of networking. Your network can become the single most important filter for relevant information.
5. Participate and plan time to explore and learn. Easy to say and hard to do. Work at your own pace and set aside a reasonable amount of time given your individual priorities. Today, I let my network guide me to resources on a daily basis and I review other resources a couple of times each week.