Post #2

I think thus far I have been most intrigued with the RSS feed capability. I was shown this once at my school by the Tech trainer, but, sad to say, without a corresponding hand-out, someone like me became lost hardly out of the gate. I understand upon reading Richardson what a truly interesting tool this can be, what with being able to be so selective about discerning the inflow of information that you want to access. As a skill subset, I think Richardson is right when he says increasingly students will find themselves at a disadvantage if they are unable to spot relevant and interesting information. I do not know if I would be able to do what Richardson recommended regarding collecting student work in my aggregator using their RSS feeds. Regrettably I will probably only utilize the RSS feed in a basic way because, even now with this course, I am struggling to stay on top of everything. I am sure, though, that I could arrange a "feed" to (from?) the New York Times. I think I could do that and use it. I still can't get over that so much of all this calls for so much computer availability for our students. I also can't figure out if I need to go to "Bloglines" or simply learn how to use this with my blog already. So much information! It's good to know there are examples mentioned by Richardson. But for now I need to stay focused on the class assignments.

Already blogging in classroom

Having read the Richardson text, I see now that I have been blogging within a class web page made possible by the online course managment system software my employer bought. Each computer lab session my students have, they sign in and log on to my page. There I greet them with a very brief greeting-type message that I change with each class time we are in there. Then, they go a page where they pull up my name, check the date, and read my assignment for them for that day. Often I will have inserted links into the assignment page for speedier referencing. I have also sometimes attached a file from Word, or even a PowerPoint. So, no paper! Then, as with the truer "blogging", I post a message on the forum. They read it and respond to it. It is usually a thought-provoking query, but I do not expect quantity of answer, so much as quality. Author Richardson underscores this as well. The students get to view one another's responses. I hope with my understanding of the class assigned readings that I can refine this process, that I can more fully develop a truer web enhanced learning environment strategy from the outset of our computer lab instruction.

Summatime!!!!!!!!!!!!

How cool is it to be off for the summer? Yes, we are in class, but isn't it nice that we will actually use this stuff? I can't wait to learn how to add links to other web pages.