Four & Five

RSS and Bloglines

I love my iGoogle page! Even more after setting up my Bloglines account. I originally set up an iGoogle page for rss feeds, but quickly outgrew the one page. I now have 10 tabs - Education, News/Features, etc. - that each have 12-15 blog feeds. Each page is customizable for appearance (so much fun) and can be scanned in less than 2 minutes for new post titles that might be interesting. When I click on a post, I've set it up to open in a new window and I go directly to the blog, or to the home page for feeds from BBC World News, New York Times, etc. As I've developed my page in the past year or so, I have been surprised and pleased at how well it's organized a huge amount of information into a streamlined format. There is also a great ease in adding new feeds and moving them to the desired tab. I'm frustrated by the lack of identity the feeds have on Bloglines; they are all assimilated into Bloglines' style and format. Because I can scan the latest 3 post titles from 15 blogs all at the same time in iGoogle, I find Bloglines to be time-consuming and a little dull. No one should have to be intimidated by the considerable information out there; it's always gratifying to learn something new and a thrill to connect with others who have your interests. You just have to find the reader that fits your aethestic.

Two & Three

Two: Blogs!

Blogger has a great ease of use, and the video was a perfect introduction the the basics. So once I set up the basic format in Blogger, I immediately wanted to find ways to customize everything! I get many RSS feeds of art, design, cooking, education and other blogs on my iGoogle page, so I've seen many beautiful blogs out there and know that a summer project will be to learn new ways to customize and design blogs. However, there are so many straight-forward options for blog hosting and design that it truly is a way for all voices to be heard. I tried Wordpress, too, and set up a different blog there to be able to compare the set-up process with that of Blogger. Wordpress was easier initially, and offered more customizable templates, but I've found that its Dashboard is not as simple to navigate when editing appearance.

As for the activity itself, it makes one very mindful of the audience, large or small, that lurks just outside the screen! I'm interested in what will happen as this process goes forward; do bloggers eventually become less self-conscious about every little word? Will I find a new risk-taking freedom in putting my thoughts and ideas out there?!

Three: Classroom blogs

The value of a classroom blog is that it creates exactly what most blogs do in the wider world; the sense of community it gives to a group of people who are connected by a common pursuit. I've used Moodle and our school's website class homepage for class conversations and will definitely set up a blog for the same purpose. I'm concerned, however, with privacy issues for younger children. I know I can keep a blog out of search engines. I was happy to see that I can designate readers in the settings of the blog, so the children would just have to log in before reading and commenting. Still, as teachers we don't want this quickly deteriorating into a large-group IM tool! Clarity of thought and of purpose is important for all participants. Perhaps a blog, in addition to offering communication and community, is a good venue for teaching children how to use the internet without giving away too much of their personal information?

Thing 1!

One: Web 2.0
David Warlick's article on a "typical" Web 2.0 school day left me feeling a little ambivalent about all of the technological tools I currently think of so fondly. While some routines he describes are intelligent and constructive, there is an overall saturation of use that devalues each separate tool. Does that make sense? If someone like me, who scans almost 100 blog feeds a day and uses email, Facebook and Twitter, feels a bit breathless and ADD reading the methods described, then what about a 10-year-old with some retrieval and/or processing issues?

Some of the most appealing ideas for me were those that were used among faculty. The routine use of blogging amongst the faculty members is a much more interactive, responsive tool than curriculum mapping for cross-curricular sharing and for giving the curriculum a smooth transition among grade levels. Its success relies on a heartfelt commitment from the faculty as a community. The student blog assignments that challenged students to find another point of view are wonderful and thought-provoking. Actually, all of the ways that students in the article are communicating with each other and with their teachers do exactly what we hope; to directly involve students in the process and immerse them in the ideas. In the end, my hesitation is the quantity of use; for instance, not every discussion needs to be a podcast, nor should it. There should be time in a school day for some quieter reflection that allows students to digest and absorb the vast amount of information we are able to feed them visually and auditorially, thanks to all of the sources we have available to us as teachers.

We have become such a self-conscious society; we believe that every thought and action must be Twittered, status-ed and blogged. There is a lack of a thoughtful approach that includes decision-making about what to include and how best to state it and present it. Instead, people feel it's acceptable to spill their guts without a filter. I would hope that as educators we would not only consistently introduce our students to the vast and ever-growing range of technological tools, but also how to use them in ways that present their thoughts, ideas, research and conclusions with intelligence, and with a discretion that ascribes value to their learning process.

"Pay Attention" was - intentionally I hope! - devoid of any of the richness of information and interaction it promoted! While I love trying new technology tools and know I'll definitely use information venues such as blogs, wikis and podcasts I still feel as I did after reading the article; all of these tools are valuable when used as intelligently and thoughtfully as any other we use when planning curriculum. I have to say that just because my students are familiar and comfortable with cell phones doesn't make me likely to put them at the top of my must-use list! When I think of the richness offered to my students through technology, using cell phones seems to me to be a bit gratuitous as they really don't offer much beyond familiarity. There are just so many other better tools that aren't so fraught with peripheral issues that would result from loosening restrictions on their use in school: cost and the potential lack of availability due to cost, plagiarism worries and privacy concerns because of cameras and the ease with which images can be sent, etc. However, there were more than a few inspiring quotes and ideas in the video, and its lack of a true Web 2.0 presentation doesn't diminish its encouraging message.