Google Reader beats everything so far

A couple of really interesting observations from my wanderings so far...

1.) Building up a skill base in Education Technology is a process. Everyday I am awed by references of people who have been using these "new" applications for years. I immediately feel realllllly behind and guilty that I was not more on top of my game. Then I interact with friends and colleagues whom I respect and mention anything web 2.0 and they immediately consider me some sort of Guru. Weird.

2.) Once I made the decision to jump in, the path has kind of opened up for me little by little. It always seems that I come across something just when I need it. More likely, it was always there and I just didn't pay it any mind until I had a use for it (Hopefully some people are finding this blog "just when they needed it").

So, here I am bookmarking everything in sight in Delicious and I realize that most of it is blog entries. I don't know much about blogs, but I figure if I find a person interesting enough to bookmark, I might like to keep current on their new blog postings. But, I know deep down, that the chances of remembering to keep checking that site for updates is slim to none.

This is the whole point of Google Reader!!!!

All you need is a Google account. Get one even if you don't want to switch over to Gmail (but I highly recommend you do) just to use all of the other cool stuff.

1.) Go to you Gmail inbox and look across the top. Click on Reader.

2.) This is where ALL the blogs you subscribe to are automatically kept up to date. It even indicates which blogs have NEW postings you haven't read yet. Click on the blog title to get a brief description. Click on the headline to get the full post.

This is where it gets REALLY cool...

You can manually subscribe to any blog you know the URL for

OR

This is called an RSS feed. The symbol looks like this:

As you are wandering around on the web, any place you see this symbol you can subscribe to that feed. Simply click on it, choose Google Reader from the list, and it is automatically added to your list. As an example, go the the New York Times and choose blogs from the column on the left. It takes you to over 50 feeds you can subscribe to based on your interests from food to politics. You will start to notice this symbol EVERYWHERE!

Now, I can literally be updated on 30 different blogs (friends, news, ed tech) by simply going to Google Reader after checking my email every day.

Delicious is Delicious

So, it didn't take long following cool people on Twitter to be to be inundated with numerous links to awesome stuff. Being the teacher that I am, my first instinct was to save them somewhere safe in case later I had the urge to share or revisit. Out of habit, I pulled down the bookmark menu and before I could even slide down to "add bookmark" I was struck by the chaos of my list. There were random links for kayak storage racks, algebra worksheets, and poems I had considered for my wedding. Yikes. Cleaning up this mess was going to be a major undertaking.

The next day on Twitter, someone randomly posted about Delicious.com which I vaguely remembered from MACUL (but didn't really retain it because I wasn't ready for it to be meaningful). Delicious is a web based bookmarking site (talk about good timing!). The one huge advantage I saw was the ability to access my bookmarks from ANY computer with internet access. Long gone were the days of having to re-find links at school!!!

So, it was a tedious day (like any cleaning project), but what a sense of peace at the end. I purged outdated materials, created my common "tags" and started labeling. Tags are definitely superior to folders because I can attach multiple tags to a website as needed. As a finishing touch, I marked my favorite tags to be displayed across the top of my browser for easy access.

I am slowly beginning to discover that there is more to Delicious than meets the eye. For example, I can:
1.) see how many other people have also bookmarked the same page (quality check)
2.) import pertinent bookmark lists from people I respect by adding them to my network**
3.) subscribe to popular bookmarks for a specific tag**
4.) send and receive bookmarks with other people**

**Frankly, even though I think these are great features that I will really appreciate one day, I got distracted by another web 2.0 application and haven't really given these a fair shake.

How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live

And if you are still skeptical as to why everyone is making such a fuss about Twitter, check out this article:

How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live

Then check out this real world application...

Math Help From Over 200 People