Week 1 Blogging and Organizing Blogs with RSS and Feedly

Blogging and Organizing Blogs with RSS and Feedly

Feedly Link: http://feedly.com/#welcome



This week in EDU 5312, we primarily learned about how to organize a blog.  However, I want to back-up and talk about blogging in general.  While setting-up a blog takes awhile to do, having a blog can be a wonderful tool for the educator.  It can act as an online journal for a teacher to help her keep track of what she is learning, tools she has discovered, and what has worked and not worked in the classroom.  I had also not really thought about the benefits of having a blog vs. having a website.  One of the biggest benefits of having a blog is that two-way communication is possible and encouraged.  The blogger can receive online comments from those who read her blog and she can receive both positive and negative feedback that can be important for improving in the classroom.  Here is a link to a tutorial for setting-up a blog:http://youtu.be/w7yr2nzqweI

For the educator who is constantly trying to learn and improve, it is a good idea to read and follow several other blogs.  While the educator can keep track of all of the blog addresses and add them to "favorites" or "bookmarks," there is an even better idea.  The educator who wants to learn, but doesn't want to take valuable time to go to each blog and check-it for valuable information each day, there is a shortcut!  RSS is a format that can be used to keep track of web content.  In fact, the changing content of each blog that is followed is delivered to one location so that it can quickly and easily be read.  The teacher will know that they are up-to-date without having to visit each of the sites.  I was surprised by how easy this was to do.  In fact, it was more difficult to figure out which sites to follow than it was to use the RSS format.  Thirdly, using Feedly and RSS is a great way for the educator to share what SHE is learning.  As I document the things I am learning on my blog, others can add my blog to their feed and follow me.  We now have another level of communication.  Teachers are often isolated in their classrooms and having a blog and using Feedly and RSS to organize my interests will keep me connected to the outside world and to other educators who I can collaborate with. "Feedly" is one of the most popular, if not the most popular feed reader.  It allows people to organize and read all of their favorite blogs but to access them from one spot.  Here is a tutorial for using Feedly: