Training yourself, learning curve, time management

Hello 2.0 Gang,

Thanks for all your great suggestions. Here's a general question that I'm anxious to receive replies.

There are hundreds of different great free sites for animation, digital filmaking, blogging, digital storytelling. I'm so excited but also overwhelmed with the possibilities.

So how much time do you all spend on playing and teaching yourself a new program before rolling it out? Between grading, parent calls, classroom time, general lesson planning, meetings, where do you guys find the time to teach yourself all these programs?

I'm getting so many wonderful reccomendations It can be quite time consuming to explore so many sites and pick the "best" for a particular use.

 I really want to introduce blogging, animation, slide shows and websites before the end of June. Last week, after exploring an reccomended animation site, for a few hours, I thought up a simple lesson idea and introduced it to the class. I then monitored students and when I saw someone doing something new, I had them come up to my computer and demonstrate it to the class on lcd.

A fake it till you make it philosophy.

Curious to learn how other people search and select from several sites, how much time you spend mastering the basics before rolling it out to class. I teach ninth graders. Do you all think you should be an 'expert" on the program before attempting to teach to others?

Have a good day,

Eric