Got Feeds?

O.K. I'll admit that I've always been curious as to what all of these little icons were for, but I'd never taken the time to try and figure it out before this week. Now that I know that RSS is the new "killer app for educators", I'm glad that Rob had us venture into the land of "Real Simple Syndication". This post is a little bit about that adventure.





After reading about RSS on our class wiki, I thought that I'd jump right in and try all of the examples - bloglines, technorati, google reader. I figured that if I try them all, I'll be able to decide which one I like best. So, after trying to figure out how to use one aggregator too many, I figured out what I liked best about Google Reader. Mostly it was that Will Richardson's chapter walked me through the set up. So, now I am officially receiving RSS Feeds for way too many blogs and news providers than I will ever possibly be able to read. Needless to say, after this week's experience with RSS Feeds, I can relate to Richardson's description, "...the results can be a bit overwhelming. Don't be surprised if at first you think RSS is adding to your information overload instead of easing it." Hopefully, as he said, with a little time and experience, I'll get it.



Actually, the RSS Adventure has been pretty cool. I've tried to do a few different things with it. I've subscribed to all of the blogs in the class, set up my folders and even starred a few posts that I will go back to sometime - like some rainy Saturday (hopefully not anytime soon). Then, I ventured into the "folksonomy" phenomenon, but not too far, because although they say it will be a valuable tool down the road, right now it falls under the "TMI" category - way too much information. Lol.



So, now the question is, what will I be doing with my feeds? This past week my mind has been buzzing with things that I would be trying with this technology if I were still teaching high school. I think that it would be a lot of fun. But, I'm not; so, I'm going to try and figure out how I can use this tool in what I'm doing right now. First of all, I've spent some time trying to include a RSS Feed on my blog. (No success yet, but I'll keep at it.) If I had a blog that was set up for collaborating with the other six trainers in the country, I could post the feeds that were relevant to the projects that we were working on. For example, we have been working on developing a course on negotiating a first contract. With news.google.com, I was able to add a feed to me reader that updates articles on collective bargaining. This could be a great resource for sharing information.



Finally, in addition to all of the things that an educator can actually do with RSS Feeds, I found Richardson's comments regarding the new reading skills that students and educators alike will more than likely develop to be very interesting. In the past, we have tried to teach students how to highlight textbooks and summarize their class reading. This application really seems like it will be a practical and necessary way for students (and educators) to acquire those skills.

Well, I'm back to my original question: "Got Feeds?"

Fun RSS Feed Video - Check it out.

Blogging - Take One

Hello on a rainy Saturday morning. Not that I'm complaining. It's much easier to sit at a computer on the weekend when the sun isn't trying to pull you outside.

Well, I finally made it to Blogger. How did I end up here as opposed to WordPress or some other service? It looked like the easiest one to do, and I thought that "the easiest" would be challenging enough. Also, a lot of the blogs that I checked out were on blogger; so, I thought that I'd join the ranks. I don't know if reading the comparisons and checking out their tutorials really helped me decide, but they did help me get an idea about what I might be able to do once I started blogging.
Here are a couple of the comparisons that I read: (I guess it's no coincidence that #1 seemed to favor Blogger - since it is a Blogger Blog. Lol!)
comparison 1
comparison 2

I am actually very excited about blogging. I've been wanting to do this for a long time. However, I never thought that it would be for a class. I always thought that I'd just try it for fun. I love reading blogs. The only problem is that once I get started, I can't stop. I go from one to the other. I'm finding that with all of this new technology that I am learning about, I'm back to the days when I was a kid and the rare occasions that we'd go out and eat at a restaurant. My eyes were always bigger than my stomach. There's so much I want to try, I just can't fit it all in. At least not right away.

I guess that getting this blog up was as easy as I'd hoped it would be. It will be very nice if by the time I publish this post, the little tools next to my "gadgets" will have disappeared. I can't figure how to get rid of them. I like being able to include a list of blogs that I check out every now and then. That feature on other blogs has been a great way for me to find new blogs that I like to read. Also, being able to have the videos that are posted to the IBEW YouTube channel is great. It's a perfect way to share what's going on within our organization.

What would I like to do with a blog? My number one goal would be to use it as a collaborative workspace for my peers and me. Will Richardson briefly mentions using a blog for "Knowledge Management and Articulation" on page 25. We know that this technology enables teachers and students to share ideas when separated by distance, but I like the fact that it also allows teachers and colleagues to be separated by distance and still work together collaboratively.

In addition to working with the field trainers in my department, I really liked Richardson's description of an online filing cabinet. When working with students (labor leaders, organizers, etc.), the blog can be a great way to archive projects and learning experiences that have taken place that may be of use to others as a "searchable and shareable" resource sometime in the future.

I'm looking forward to seeing what I might be able to do with my new ElectricalOutlet.
Guess what? The sun is now pulling at me.