What Technology Could I Not Live Without?

Yesterday, I found Fredonia’s first podcast, Paperless University Myth or Reality the discussion started off asking the panelist, “what technology could you not live without?”

This got me thinking.

While it would be a close call between my blog, rss, or my bloglines, I think I would choose bloglines. Through my bloglines account I follow about 125 sites give or take 10. I regularly roll through my subscriptions weeding out sites that aren’t providing relevant information and adding new ones that have caught my eye. It is through this service that I learn what others interested in educational technology are thinking, doing, and plotting. It is through bloglines that I also get my daily dose of news, sports, and dilbert. The wealth of knowledge and thinking inspired by the posts delivered to me as they happen is awesome.

Well on the other hand bloglines is only the tool that delivers information to me, it is my blog where I work through the ideas to form a new understanding. The public nature of a blog forces me to take a position. The social nature of a blog allows others to challenge my position. This in turn forces rethinking and clarification. Perhaps, I should chose my blog as the tech I can’t live without.

But, it is RSS working behind the scenes that delivers content to my bloglines and my blog content to the aggregators of others.

Well then I reject the question. There is not one technology that I can live without. It is a combination of several.