Journal #2 Affinity group

I  joined several affinity groups.  Some of them are paid for by my district and others are introduced to me during the Professional Learning Communities meetings.

1.  My Big Campus (district paid) www.mybigcampus.com
This affinity group allows me to add teachers within my district and we can share our lesson plans and ideas.  It also has a video bank component called Power My Learning Connect.  It contains educational videos that we can download and play in the classroom.  My district blocks YouTube and some websites (like digg.com) so this video bank allows me to show "district approved" videos.

2.  Edmodo (Free) www.edmodo.com
I was introduced to Edmodo not to long ago. I have created a class in Edmodo and know the basic function of this group.  I found it's easy to add students into my class but I'm not a fan of entering codes.

3. Graphite (Free) www.graphite.com
Graphite is a website contained educational websites and apps. Teachers select and create their own "board". Teachers can upload lesson plan boards to Graphite and share it with other teachers.  It also categorize each websites or apps. by  the subject matter.

* Pinterest (Free) (not an affinity group) www.pintreest.com
I know a lot of people familiar with Pinterest and probably using it for personal reasons.  Do you know you can create "educational boards" on Pinterest?  It is actually very effective among my students because most students already know how to use it.

Question#1:
Will the affinity group really benefit teachers?

For teachers who like and enjoy technology the affinity group is great for them!  Not only affinity group narrows down the websites by subject matters and it also works like social network which keep teachers connected and get up-to-day information.
On the other hand, for not so technology savvy teachers, the affinity group is very intimidating and time consuming.  I noticed that a lot of teachers at my school who wanted to learn new technology but don't have the time.


Question#2:
Are Digg and RSS providing good information to subscribers?

In some ways, yes, but I have to say no to Digg Reader.  The website provides too much information that I don't know where to start! Sometimes, it is a good idea to have information on hand, but when there's too much information; it may not be a good thing.
I appreciated that Digg Reader provides very specific information regarding the areas that I'm interested in but it is just too much for me.