Thing 5: Educate yourself


Add at least three other news feeds, blogs, or Web page updates to your account. There are several ways you can locate RSS feeds:

When visiting your favorite websites, look for the RSS indicator. Often a feed icon will be displayed somewhere in the navigation of the site. The orange square above is one type of RSS feed icon. Here are some other RSS feed icons.

Do a blog search in Google. This search limits results only to blog postings. This can lead you to bloggers talking about what you are interested in.

Other Search tools that can help you find feeds:
Feedster - One of the largest collections of RSS feeds, Feedster lets you search for feeds in three categories: news, blogs & podcasts
Topix.net - This search tool allows you to locate recent newsfeed items based upon keyword or phrase searching. The tool focuses specifically on news and media outlet RSS feeds for information, not weblogs.
Syndic8.com - Syndic8 is an open directory of RSS feeds that contains thousands of RSS feeds that users have submitted.
Technorati - Technorati is a popular blog finding tool that lets you search for blogs. Since RSS feeds are inherent to all blogging tools, Technorati Blog Search can help you find RSS feeds for topic specific blogs you may be interested in. Additonal Resource: Technorati Tutorial on finding and adding your blog

Find some education or technology blogs, headlines, or other resources. Share those you find useful via a blog post.

Some places to start: edubloggers and interesting rss feeds dealing with education:
*Kathy Schrock's List of Education/Technology Bloggers
*Support Blogging
*Top 100 Education blogs (OEDb)
*CNN's education RSS feed
*Classroom 2.0
*Infinite Thinking
*The Edublog Awards
*International Edublogger directory

Discovery Exercise:

  1. Explore some of the search tools noted above that can help you locate some news feeds.
  2. Add at least three other news feeds, blogs or Web Page updates to your account (aside from the feeds from the other participants). Be sure to also add the feed for this project! (There won't be any more reminder e-mails to the entire staff, so this is the best way to keep up!)
  3. Create a blog post about your experience. Don't know what to blog about? Here some questions to think about ...
  • What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?
  • How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your school or personal life?
  • How can teachers use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?
  • Which tool for finding feeds was easiest to use?
  • What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds?
  • Did you find any great sources we should all add to our feed reader?

Challenge (optional):

  1. Make it public! Add your blogroll (the list of sites you subscribe to via RSS) on your blog! On blogger, it's easy through the layout tab… and then adding a page element!

  2. If you've been doing this for a while, check out Todd's blog about Google Reader... and then try out the "stars and notes" for yourself!

Are you bummed that there are only two Things this week? Keep learning and check out some of the challenges from the past few Things! (Sitemeter is a fun way to keep track of who is visiting your site!)

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Discovery is so much fun!

Have you ever thought, ”Gosh, I wish I had time to learn more about blogs, wikis, or (enter your Web 2.0 tool here)?” Well, this is your chance to take the time to focus on your personal and professional development around Web 2.0 tools. It’s fun to explore these tools and figure out ways to use them in school, with your personal Web sites, or in other ways.

SWC's 23 Things is a twist on the Library Learning 2.0 program developed by Helene Blowers at the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenberg County and adopted or adapted by many other libraries (including Minnesota Libraries with 23 Things on a Stick) and organizations since then.Learning 2.0 is online learning program that encourages staff to learn more about emerging technologies on the web that are changing the way people, society and schools access information and communicate with each other.

Over the course of the next nine weeks, this website will highlight “23 Things” and discovery exercises to help staff become familiar with blogging, RSS news feeds, tagging, wikis, podcasting, online applications, and video and image hosting sites.To familiarize yourself with this project, be sure to read the About page. The FAQs should answer most of your questions about this program. If not, then please add your question to the FAQ page as a comment.So fasten your seat belts, grab your mouse and get ready for a discovery adventure… and remember, it's OK to play with technology and have fun!