Introduction
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| Photo by Cattrin |
The tools connect us to an expansive, interconnected web of experts, ideas and resources, and allow us to participate and contribute. A core element of your own PLN, or personal learning network, is your RSS reader (also known as a newsreader or aggregator). Fill it with quality feeds and the expert knowledge, learning and ideas come to you!
Discovery Exercise: Feed Your Reader (3 parts)
PART 1: Find 2-3 Edublogs of interest to you and add them to your reader
You will have to invest a little time, over time, to find the first couple of bloggers whose voices really resonate for you, but once you find a couple of folks you really like, adding others becomes easy. In the "blogosphere," you will find that the voices you value are often connected to one another.
Probably the best way to build your "feed library" is to find one or two bloggers you like and explore their "Blogrolls" (a list of blogs they read/follow linked on their own blogs' sidebars). As you follow their blogs, you will also make new connections through their posts and comments. Again, it just takes a little time, over time -- like tending a garden. And you can always make adjustments as you go.
That said, here are a few places to begin looking for Education-focused blogs
DISCLAIMER: A "highly-ranked" or "award-winning" education blog is not the only indicator of quality or relevance in content. I am just trying to point you to some options to get you started finding feeds. There are, no doubt, many "little" and "niche" bloggers out there with important messages that would resonate for each of you. I hope you will take some time to find those voices and add them to your growing network of learning connections.
- Livemocha: Top 100 Technorati-Ranked Edublogs - http://www.livemocha.com/pages/resources/education-blog-list
This is a list of many "recognizable" names in the Edublogosphere. While it doesn't give a description of each blog, it's a great starting point for exploration. Edublogs Magazine profiles several of them in this 2008 article.
- 2009 Edublog Award Winners and Nominees - http://edublogawards.com/2009/
A fantastic resource for finding valuable education blogs. Check out the winners and nominees, especially in the first seven categories -- click a category under "2009 Nominees," then scroll to the bottom of each page to see the list. You can also explore the winners and nominees for last year by clicking the "2008" link on the right column. - CASTLE Moving Forward Wiki - http://movingforward.wikispaces.com/Education+Blogs+by+Discipline
A list of education blogs by discipline (un-vetted but worth a look). - Support Blogging! Links to School Bloggers - http://supportblogging.com/Links+to+School+Bloggers
An un-vetted but rich list of possibilities. Many recognizable names, some hopefully serendipitous finds. - OEDb: Top 100 Edublogs - http://oedb.org/library/features/top-100-education-blogs
- Alltop Education News - http://education.alltop.com/
An RSS-driven collection of the most recent posts from several dozen education-focused blogs and news sources. Click the title of any article to go to the originating blog or news source.
‡ HELP Tip: To add most blog feeds to Google Reader, just copy and paste the main blog URL (site address) into the Add a Subscription box in your Google Reader. The reader will "sniff" the site for a feed. For more help/info, review the "Thing 5" instructions for adding feeds.
PART 2: Use a "blog search engine" to find 1-2 additional blogs/feeds of interest to you (educational or otherwise) and add them to your reader.
Use a Blog Search Engine to Find Feeds
There are a number of different "blog search" tools on the Web. Our omnipresent friend Google offers two such tools. Use these tools as you would a "regular" search engine to search for blogs or news feeds. Do not spend an inordinate amount of time on these. I just want to you experiment a bit.
- Google Blog Search - http://blogsearch.google.com
Type your terms into the search field and click Search Blogs. Use multiple keywords and phrases (in quotes) just as in a regular Google web search. Adding clarifying terms such as "education" or "elementary" to your main topic may be helpful. - Google Reader "Browse for Feeds" - http://google.com/reader
Perform a "Feed Search" from right inside your Google Reader. Here's a screen shot showing how.
‡ HELP Tip: To add most blog feeds to Google Reader, just copy and paste the main blog URL (site address) into the Add a Subscription box in your Google Reader. The reader will "sniff" the site for a feed. For more info, review the "Thing 5" instructions for adding feeds.
PART 3: (OPTIONAL) Add a "Fun" Feed to Your Reader
¤ NOTE: If there is more than one feed on a page, right-click the specific feed icon or link and select Copy Link Location (or Copy Shortcutin IE) then paste the copied URL into your Google Reader "Add a Subscription" field. Examples here.
Here are a few "fun" feeds to try:
- Daily Dilbert Comic - http://feeds.feedburner.com/tapestrydilbert
- Movie Reviews from Rotten Tomatoes - http://www.rottentomatoes.com/help_desk/syndication_rss.php
- Flickr "Interestingness" Photos Feed - http://feeds.feedburner.com/flickr_interestingness
- Dictionary.com Word of the Day - http://dictionary.reference.com/help/linking/wordoftheday-expert.html
- Read DaVinci's Notebooks one Page at a Time: http://www.interconnected.org/home/more/davinci/
- Family Fun Feeds - http://familyfun.go.com/utilities/global/feature/content-syndication/
- Follow Your Favorite Sports Team - http://sports.yahoo.com/top/rss
- Horoscope - http://www.astrology.com/feeds/
- Weather - http://www.weather.com/weather/rss/subscription
- Answers.com Daily Feeds - http://www.answers.com/main/answers_rss.jsp
- Amazon.com Daily Gold Box Deals - http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox/ref=cs_top_nav_gb27/104-2450860-6665567
- Daily Jigsaw Puzzle - http://www.flashpuzzlezone.com/
- NPR Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle (Podcast) - http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=4473090
Task (3 parts)
PART 1: After completing the discovery exercises above, you should have about 7-10 feeds in your reader. Check your Google Reader at least every other day (preferably daily) for 5-7 days. Practice skimming and scanning. AFTER you have done so, complete PART 2 (Thing 7a) below.
¤ NOTE: You are not required to retain all of the original 5 feeds from Thing 5 if you do not want them (Go to Manage Subscriptions in your Google Reader and click the Trash can next to the feed you want to remove).
¤ IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT YOUR GOOGLE READER: The content in your reader can be overwhelming because it will continue to "pile up" endlessly. BUT -- it's not actually there -- it hurts NOTHING for you to skim and skip items and mark them as "read" just by scrolling past them. You aren't actually deleting anything. In fact, learning to quickly scan and process a lot of news items is an essential part of RSS literacy and information management -- the important ideas will always come back around, and you will also learn to pare down your subscriptions as you go. If you feel compelled to thoroughly read every item, you will remain completely overwhelmed and quickly "quit" your reader. Keep trying -- it gets easier!
PART 2 (Thing 7a): Write a blog post reflecting on your experience and sharing one or more items of interest from your reader. Include links to any posts you refer to. Be sure to include "Thing 7a" as part of your post title. You will be asked to "share an item of interest from your Reader" at two other times during this course (Weeks 6 & 9). Please continue to check your reader at least every other day throughout the course. It's the only way to actually build a reading habit. See note below.
PART 3: Check out the "Thing 7a" posts of at least two classmates (find their blog addresses on the Google spreadsheet). Leave a thoughtful comment if you find something interesting, helpful or provocative. Log into Edublogs first to make commenting easier.
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