Our assignment this week explained how to use an RSS feed reader suggesting either Bloglines or Google Reader. I've been using Google Reader via iGoggle for the past year and am hooked. I like the fact that I can quickly look at the bylines to mark for further reading. I do find that if I do not check in on a daily basis, the feeds pile up to an overwhelming number. I subscribe to the PA Discovery Educator Network blog, Digital Passports, PDE Webinars , TipLine, and Tech LEARNing. In addition, I use the RSS feed feature through Outlook 2007 as well. I like the Google Reader better because I can access my feeds at any Internet accessible computer. Our Moodle site also has an RSS feed feature that teachers can add RSS feeds to their courses. This has proved helpful and is used heavily by the elementary students that access my Tech Tower page. I have a running feed from Storynory which lists five short stories students may listen too. On our Moodle tech site for teachers, I have CNN Education and Book Bites for Kids for teachers to use.
I did not try Bloglines simply because I'm familar with Google Reader and have successfully been using it. If I am able to get a class of teachers together to introduce RSS feeds, I will visit Bloglines to compare. I offered a class on RSS feeds this spring, but had no students register to share. Working through the 23 Things list has given me inspiration to work on an online guidesheet for teachers. I think RSS feeds (teacher identified or as an assignment for students to find valuable feeds to share with the class) would be invaluable to use in the classroom to supplement lessons and text.
One warning to using RSS feeds, however, I lose track of time when checking my blogs because there is always something interesting to learn from them. Therefore, I need to give myself a set time limit to check blogs especially if I'm at work.
On a separate note, I've expanded my use of picture sharing web tools to Picassa. Because I highly doubt many people are following my "tourin web 2.0" blog and because I'm so pleased I was able to successfully use the Picassa picture-sharing tool, I've included a link below to view pictures of our time in Florida. I created a private album at https://exch1.easdpa.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://picasaweb.google.com/tootsaflut/2008Florida?authkey=hcW0leFzR7o. I liked the ease of using Picassa because the site automatically resized the pictures. I can envision many ways teachers could use this tool in the classroom. At the very least, creating a private album would be a wonderful way to share pictures from a recent field trip or class activity with parents.
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