We've just finished Week Three at Blogging4Educators about RSS and Tagging. What an amazing week learning about how to aggregate feeds, and I finally got Google Reader set up. Then, the sharing continued as we wrote and tagged posts for the Blogging4Educators challenge. I have learned so much this week not only about technology, but also about the people behind the blogs! What struck me most as I read each post this week was the passion for teaching and learning that comes through in each and every blog.
Through the power of RSS and tagging, I found inspirational blog posts:
"RSS Reminds me of how the Brain Works" by Sibel on Unfolding the Black Box. Sibel's great post so clearly explains the concept of RSS, and likens it to the brain. Carla A shared Sibel's post with the group in our Wiziq session tonight. You've got to read it!
"Thank you, Carla" was posted on Natasa's blog. The feeling she describes of realizing her dream of writing was so inspiring. I'll never forget the feeling of "becoming a loud voice in the blogosphere" -- Thanks, Gladys!!
"Tell us your story" was posted on Teacher's Beliefs by Angela. She asked participants in Blogging4Educators to share their stories of how they became teachers. Really inspiring!
And here are three creative and inspiring blogs:
Waterblog A beautiful art blog by Vicky.
Inspirations A tribute to inspirational people by Dennis O.
Life is a Feast Ana Maria's creative use of images and widgets always inspires!
There were many wonderful blog posts this week as part of the Blogging4Educators challenge. My list includes the ones that inspired me this week, and reminded me why I am staying up until past midnight every night to read, reflect, and comment on blogs!! Comments really do make a difference, so stop by our Pageflakes for all the links to the moderators' participants' blogs, and see what they have to say as they venture into the blogging world.
Good night!
Showing posts with label blogging4educators_weekthree. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging4educators_weekthree. Show all posts
Monday, February 04, 2008
Friday, February 01, 2008
Blogging4Educators Challenge!
Five things you might not know about me ... (Part of the Blogging 4 Educators challenge!)
1. I came to Japan for the first time about 5 or 6 years ago. I attended the Lions Club International convention in Osaka, and stayed in Japan only for one week. At that time, I was studying for my M.A. TESL, and knew that Japan was the place: interesting culture, people, language, food, and all! I took this picture at a temple in the city I now call home.
2. I grew up on a farm in Ohio. One of my favorite things is to eat Buckeyes; no, of course not the poisonous nut from the state tree, but the delicious dessert made of peanut butter and chocolate! (Like Carla R., I'm a chocoholic!) You can hear me talk about it on my chinswing thread, "What is your favorite sweet and what does it reflect about you?"
3. I have a B.A. in French and wrote my senior seminar paper on Albert Camus' The Fall. I studied for a summer semester in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec and for a summer semester in Nice, France.
4. I'm not good at swimming, and don't like beach vacations or being on boats.
5. I love to read! My favorite authors include Margaret Atwood, JoAnne Harris, and Albert Camus. I have just started to read The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing, and I have started a list of books that I want to read. If you have any suggestions of good books to read, please leave them for me in the comments!
Looking forward to checking Technorati to see what co-mods and participants will write as part of this challenge!
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Why is RSS important for the classroom?
In Blogging4Educators week three, we are discussing RSS and tagging. So far, a lot of the reflections on the use of RSS have focused on using a feed reader to keep current on updates to students' blogs.
After reading "The Technology of Reading and Writing in a Digital Space: Why RSS is Crucial for a Blogging Classroom" by David Parry, I realized that using RSS in the above-mentioned way allows students to become better writers. According to Parry, when students know their work is being read by not only the teacher, but also their classmates, and when they understand that their writing is linked and connected to other articles online, a new form of "authorship" emerges. I think that when student bloggers realize that others are subscribed to their blog feeds, then they have an audience in mind when they're writing; in turn, the student bloggers realize the responsibility they have for providing links and accurate information for those readers.
However, one concept about RSS that I found even more interesting was the section of Parry's article called "Why it [RSS] Matters for Student Writing". I found myself identifying with the following quote:
How many times have teachers assigned research projects on topics which there are plenty of print and online sources, only to hear that students are having trouble locating sources? It isn't that a lack of sources on the topic exist, but it just may be that students become overwhelmed by the volume of information available to them online, and cannot identify the most important or relevant online sources. Parry explains how RSS can come to the rescue, and help students to develop their reading skills.
Parry's practical suggestion would be a great way to teach students how to identify the related online resources, to subscribe to their RSS feeds, and to evaluate the selected articles for relevance to their research. In this way, I can see how RSS could be useful for the blogging classroom, and the non-blogging classroom as well!
After reading "The Technology of Reading and Writing in a Digital Space: Why RSS is Crucial for a Blogging Classroom" by David Parry, I realized that using RSS in the above-mentioned way allows students to become better writers. According to Parry, when students know their work is being read by not only the teacher, but also their classmates, and when they understand that their writing is linked and connected to other articles online, a new form of "authorship" emerges. I think that when student bloggers realize that others are subscribed to their blog feeds, then they have an audience in mind when they're writing; in turn, the student bloggers realize the responsibility they have for providing links and accurate information for those readers.
However, one concept about RSS that I found even more interesting was the section of Parry's article called "Why it [RSS] Matters for Student Writing". I found myself identifying with the following quote:
The amount of information on the web is overwhelming to say the least. I could spend the rest of my life reading Wikipedia and would probably never finish. While this is also true of a large library (say here at the University at Albany) as well, the tools one uses to navigate the library, a static electronic database easily searchable by author, title, or book, is clearly inadequate for the web.
How many times have teachers assigned research projects on topics which there are plenty of print and online sources, only to hear that students are having trouble locating sources? It isn't that a lack of sources on the topic exist, but it just may be that students become overwhelmed by the volume of information available to them online, and cannot identify the most important or relevant online sources. Parry explains how RSS can come to the rescue, and help students to develop their reading skills.
For example, if you were teaching a class on the Holocaust you could require that students subscribe to feeds that related to the recent trials of Holocaust deniers in Germany, and to the situation in Darfur. In this way students would get regular updates and could read the most relevant content without getting lost in a quagmire of information.
Parry's practical suggestion would be a great way to teach students how to identify the related online resources, to subscribe to their RSS feeds, and to evaluate the selected articles for relevance to their research. In this way, I can see how RSS could be useful for the blogging classroom, and the non-blogging classroom as well!
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