Netvibes Update

Before this assignment, I’d used Google Reader intermittently, but still preferred to go to individual websites to get my news. I’ve since realized that an RSS feed is a much more efficient way to keep track of information, but I still miss the pictures on the websites.  That said, the feed is keeping me from being overwhelmed by the sheer number of sites I’m keeping track of.  After adding the five required feeds, I added six other feeds.  I tried to add Minnesota’s education radio feed, but so far there haven’t been any new stories.

 For this assignment, I tried to choose a variety of different websites.  Freetech4teachers and blogs.learnnc.org/instructify/, for example, are essentially lists of freeware services with ideas about how to integrate them into the classroom. While they’re useful, I also wanted more philosophical blogs like teachpaperles.blogspot.com, which advocates for a completely paperless classroom. This has been my favorite feed thus far because it forces teachers to think creatively.  I also chose web20classroom.blogspot.com and edtechpower.blogspot.com/because I liked the writers. The writer for web20 has got very strong opinions about education, which force me to reflect on my own beliefs about teaching. In contrast, one of the top posts on edtechpower was “On being different” which discussed the writers experiences being a female teacher at an all-boys school.  She said she often felt like an ambassador for her gender similar to how I feel like a representative for America to my students. Finally, I added a link to the British Council's website, www.teachingenglish.org.uk/rss.xml.  I have an affinity for them after working at a former British Council.  They also have great videos for learning English.

One thing I noticed straight away was that some sites, for example the newsfeeds, were updated much more frequently than others.  Rather than getting overwhelmed by those feeds, I moved them over to a different page.  I also noticed that many blogs had multiple writers which gave them many different voices and ideas, while other blogs were more personal and centered around one teacher’s experiences.  I commented on a few blogs, which I blogged about earlier.

I’ve already learned so much from following these sites.  I learned about Qwiki (a new narrated, illustrated Wikipedia), Voicethread (just google it; it’s awesome), new teaching laws in various states, the Educon conference, LiveMocha (where language learners meet to exchange languages) and much much more!! In addition, I’ve seen many real life examples of web 2.0 being integrated into classrooms. It’s wonderful to see that so many other teachers are interested in the same things that I am.  I’ve also been able to pass along the information that I’ve learned to other teachers, such as on MACUL Space where I told another teacher about epals.com.  

In short, while it can be overwhelming at times, Netvibes, or any other RSS feed, is a great way to keep up-to-date.  In fact, our school has been looking for a way to document our professional development. I've suggested setting up a Netvibes site for our school so that teachers can easily show what they're reading and how they've used it in their classrooms.  So far, enthusiasm's been low, but hopefully once everyone sees how well this cuts down on paperwork, they'll be more excited. Wish me luck!!

This is my Netvibes page: