Google Reader-Reading Blogs: Step Seven

Reading
Don't tell anyone...I follow my own blog on Google Reader. It is just to see how it looks when I update with new posts...but is it really? I am usually pleased to read the new post, and if I'm not it is simple to edit and update.

It was easy to find blogs to add to my list. Colleagues who read blogs willingly suggest those they follow and my TLDL instructors have offered suggestions too.  I follow some book reviewers, a number of podcasters and the blogs of my group members in TLDL Web 2.0. Presently, Joyce Valenza, Buffy Hamilton, Will Richardson, Dean Shareski, Doug Johnson, Judy O'Connell are some of my favourites.
Adding a new subscription is as easy as copying the URL from a chosen site and pasting it in the Subscribe box, clicking on the RSS button on a blog and pasting the code in the box, or searching using the Subscribe box and key words. Selection based on content and the average number of posts per week seems to make a difference. Google Reader keeps me in touch with the educational and educational technology writing of quite a few professionals in the field. I follow Google news feeds using the search terms: teacher, web 2.0 and Web 2.0, education.
Google Reader allows users to organize their feeds in folders. I have created four.

My remaining subscriptions appear alphabetically. I will need to use more files as my collection of feeds grows.
The number of unread posts is indicated beside the title of the feed or the folder. Once the updates have been read the number disappears. I enjoy finding bold numbers beside my feeds, skimming through the reading list and watching the numbers get smaller and smaller until they disappear. I have even used the Reader Play feed setting which is similar to a slide show of the feeds.No matter which setting I use I always find something I want to read more carefully.
Being Read
Clustrmaps keeps track of visitors to my blog. I am astonished to see that because I have connected Clustrmaps to Twitter the Twitter logo appears on my map when I am mentioned in a tweet.

As amazing as it seems the above chart shows the country totals of viewers of my blog between November 9 and November 16. Add my blog to your Reader and see your dot appear and help raise the numbers.

RSS Feeds: Step Six

I first heard about RSS feeds when in 2010 I read Richardson (2009) Blogs,Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. It has taken me most of the intervening time to get my head around Blogs (I've got four and I'm introducing blogging to eight classes using Weebly campus accounts), Wikis (all of our grade 6 classes regularly use wikis for Space projects and some are using wikis for literature circles) and Podcasts (grade 8 water issues this month!). 
RSS, what's that? I read and reread Richardson(2009), but for some reason, this "new killer app for educators" (p. 71) evaded my understanding. Even learning RSS means Real Simple Syndication didn't help. It has been like a blind spot, a dead zone, a black hole in my cyber universe. 

I am not sure when it began to make sense. It might have been reading Trexler(2010) who listed "Feed Creation (RSS or Atom) - method of allowing readers to subscribe to the blog"(p.107) or it could have been as I played with Blogger and added and removed feed and subscription gadgets from my layout or maybe it was that time when using Google Reader I subscribed to feeds so I could follow and keep track of updates to new blogs I wanted to read regularly.

 

I think I get it now.

RSS feeds allow us to collect and organize web resources that may be updated regularly. The feed can be added to a site or blog or aggregator so new items appear in one place. I have added feeds for a few of my favourite blogs to Steps to Web 2.0.

 

 Sites and blogs may offer an RSS feed button to readers who wish to follow the blog or podcast. Muldoon (2008) provides links to a huge variety of RSS feed buttons to download.

I inadvertently found that some browsers have the capability of saving and filing subscriptions in a similar fashion to bookmarks.

"RSS is a powerful, flexible tool that has changed my information gathering habits."(Richardson, 2009, p.83) Right again!

Blogger: Sixth of 6 Web 2.0 Tools

I will use Blogger.com to create an online blog for sharing the results of my investigations into Web 2.0 tools. I will subscribe to a variety of blogs using RSS feeds and Google Reader. Although “social networks and blogs continue to dominate Americans’ time online” (Nielsen, 2011, p. 1) I have only been blogging for a year with my total number of posts being less than fifty. I have six blogs that I have initiated and feel that in order to take full advantage of this tool a better understanding is necessary. “We often talk about the many changes happening in education and how we, as leaders, need to model the change.  We want students to take the risks ... and to create content for the digital world.  We can help by modelling all of this”. (Kennedy, 2011, para. 2) Kennedy goes on to write about the power, the fear and the reality of sharing stories on blogs. (para. 4) If there ever was a platform to share my passion for my role as a teacher-librarian it is a blog. The assigned project has reinvigorated my interest in blogging and my colleague/co-writer and I hope to have our first posts published this week on our blog Paths to the future: 21^st century school libraries.   I hope to “settle into the rhythm of posting” and “come to understand the true mental work that is blogging”, (Richardson, 2009, p. 44) as I post regularly to my blog. I will use RSS feeds to access links to other sites and offer subscriptions to readers who want to follow my blog. I have begun to use Google reader for my personal professional development by accessing professional opinion and intelligent responses to issues in education. I follow the blogs of some educators, teacher-librarians and specialists in educational technology and I am interested in setting up an RSS feed for news and a blog search to regularly access posts relevant to Web 2.0 and teachers. I will include blogs I follow as part of the Steps to Web 2.0 blog.