Keeping my shift together

Okay that was a bad pun, but I'm tired and sick of thinking.
As I have read on other people's blogs, I am happy to know that I am not alone in the boat of being completely overwhelmed by how much reading we have to try to accomplish between the two classes. This is a complete struggle to stay afloat. Reading about 145 pages in a week on top of other activities for one class alone is a little more than I can really handle right now. That doesn't take into account the second class which requires about 200 pages to read and other activities. I don't feel bad anymore about complaining to say this is ridiculous! I realize it's a shift getting back into grad school again, but when my daughter gets here I am going to sink.

Anyway... this week has been interesting trying to find a good message design. My wife says I am probably over thinking it, but I have found what I hope can be a reasonable image to use. I've been searching all over at work, and I came to realize for a training department, we don't necessarily have good message designs. I found a watercolor painting book that features awesome visuals and good layout of directions. I am excited to get it scanned if for no other reason than to take one more check off on the list for the week.

In terms of the week's tools, I have used Skype many times before, and find it to be a great collaborative tool. I was more impressed with last week's ooVoo if only because I tried it shortly after freezing up multiple times on Skype while trying to see video of my nephew in Indiana. Kindling is also an interesting concept. I brought it up at work with mixed interest, but I think the potential is there to benefit our group, especially given how spread out and isolated we can all be. Conference calls and weekl meetings don't always cut it. I studied and used Audacity quite a bit recently in preparation for an interview, so I have some background on it. I think it is a good tool to use, but it can also be very complicated, especially for an introductory podcast user. Personally I love Garage Band a million times more. It is so much easier to use, comes installed with iLife '08, and makes podcasting a breeze. ClassSpot seems like a good idea, but it was hard to tell as it was not as easy to play with. It does require self discipline from students though to make it effective.

Thats all for now, off to dream about all the readings I should be doing!