Thing 5

Okay, this may be a stupid question, and maybe I just wasn't paying attention, but do posts from the blogs I just signed up for get sent to my email automatically like a listserv, or do I have to go to my bloglines account and look at them? I suppose I'll find out soon enough, but that's my question about RSS feeds. From a rereading, I see that I go to bloglines to read them, it just organizes everything for me.

I'd like to hear the answer to Erika Hansinger's question about whether there' s a way to add these RSS feeds to my blog. Having all of it in one place would save a little time.

To answer your question about how this would help in my personal or professional life, it's a great way to quickly get information I want about a topic. Although like anything else, sometimes the information posted will be relevant to something I'm looking for or working on, and sometimes it will be info to be tucked away for future use. Or it may set me off in a whole new direction.

Thing 4

I liked the video by Common Craft on RSS. Very amusing. Enjoyed going to the three bloglines accounts you named and poking around their chosen blogs. Found some interesting stuff - an article warning about the problems with having laptops in the classroom (on a college level) and one on using cellphones to an educational advantage. Went to Bloglines, set up my account and signed up for some of their suggested blogs. That gave me 11 Feeds.

I want to add some of the blogs I saw on the three blogline accounts and I can think of other topics I could look for blogs on, but am wondering if I'm going to be overwhelmed with information. I suppose I can always delete some, or just ignore the posts like I do emails that seem irrelevant or unimportant.

I guess I'll just wait and see how it plays out. Common Craft suggested RSS feeds can save a lot of time, but all of this technology is addictive and I have a feeling there will be a lot of time spent anyway. :)

Thing 3

I enjoyed looking at the educational blogs, and learned a lot about different ways blogs can be used other than just for entertainment. I can see using a blog to try and connect to the students in my high school (I'm a librarian). I haven't figured out what approach to take with a blog and would like it to be something that the students willingly participated in (I have no way to force them anyway), but I think that a school blog by definition is unattractive to the students because it smacks of schoolwork. How to overcome that?
I don't have the advantage of building relationships with students through constant contact like a teacher in a classroom. My relationships are more hit or miss and take longer to build, but I'd like to find a way through the use of technology to engage the students, teach them more skills to be savvy Web 2.0 users and make a difference in their lives.