I recently read an article titled "RSS Ideas for Educators" by Quentin D'Souza. The article gave a detailed explanation of RSS, what it is, and how it started. In addition to the explanation, the author instructs you how to start a Bloglines account step by step.

The article goes on to list specific ideas for educators to implement RSS within the classroom. I encourage you to locate and read this article as well. I searched Google Scholar for RSS in education. Good luck!

Katie

I just finished reading an article about blogs in the classroom titled "Blogging to Learn" by Anne Bartlett-Bragg. At the end of the article were many references to education blogs that were exemplary. At the top of the list was the author of our class text, Will Richardson. Here is the link: http://weblogg-ed.com/.

I hope you enjoy the blog as much as I do!

Common Craft Election Video

Throughout my Internet K-12 course, I have truly enjoyed watching Common Craft videos in Plain English. They make every concept so simple and easy to understand. When I opened up my browser today there was a YouTube video on my homepage. It happened to be the Common Craft Electing a US President in Plain English.

I watched this video, and I must say it was the first time I truly understood how the election process works. I think this is a perfect video to share with your students during election time. The explanation of the election process makes you realize how important your single vote really is. I encourage you to watch this video and share it with your students as well.

Here is the video:

Social Bookmarking

I am currently enrolled in an Internet K-12 Instruction course. Last week, we focused on social bookmarking. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this application, it allows you to save your favorite websites and access them from any computer. Better yet, it allows you to search other members bookmarks and add them to your list. And it's free! I have an account with del.icio.us, but there are other sites out there. Try searching "social bookmarking" to find the application that best fits your needs.

I don't know about you, but when I find another user with the same interests as me, I find it addicting to look through all of their wonderful resources! I have a del.icio.us account with several resources for teaching if you are interested. You can also access it at the top left corner of my blog homepage.

Personally, I find it useful to bundle my tags into specific categories such as teaching, math, reading/writing, personl, etc. This way, when I need a resource for a certain topic it is easy to find.

It is also beneficial to add networks to your account. This way you have easy access to all of their resources too!

Now that we know about del.icio.us, how can we use it in the classroom? The first advantage of using an application such as del.icio.us that comes to my mind is safety. We all know we cannot keep an eye on everything a student is doing on the computer. But what if you want them to search for info on the web for a project or paper? Del.icio.us allows you to pre-pick sites that are student friendly and invite your students to access those sites. Create a separate account for you and your students to ensure safe searching!

If social bookmarking is new to you, I encourage you to try it out. I would love to hear your thoughts!

Check out this Common Craft video for a quick lesson on social bookmarking.