Searching for Blogs

In my experience, word of mouth has been the most interesting way to discover more blogs(reading one person's blog often leads you to others). Many blogs have a "blogroll" on a sidebar that links to the blogs they enjoy reading.

Google Reader has also recently introduced a new "Top Recommendations" (upper right hand corner - green box) that's made some pretty decent suggestions to me based on what I'm already subscribed to.

Otherwise-- there are two popular ways to finding new blogs to read.

Technorati (this link is to their Advanced Search -- scoot to bottom to search the blog directory). From their "About" page:

Technorati is the recognized authority on what's happening on the World Live
Web, right now. The Live Web is the dynamic and always-updating portion of the
Web. We search, surface, and organize blogs and the other forms of independent,
user-generated content (photos, videos, voting, etc.) increasingly referred to
as “citizen media.”

Google Blog Search -- okay, this is pretty much what it sounds like. From their FAQ page:

Blog Search is Google search technology focused on blogs. Google is a
strong believer in the self-publishing phenomenon represented by blogging, and
we hope Blog Search will help our users to explore the blogging universe more
effectively, and perhaps inspire many to join the revolution themselves. Whether
you're looking for Harry Potter reviews, political commentary, summer salad
recipes or anything else, Blog Search enables you to find out what people are
saying on any subject of your choice.

So there are two possible ways to search out blogs on a subject.

Activities:

1. Search for blogs about education, community colleges or a personal hobby you enjoy using the tools above.
2. Add some blogs to your Bloglines or Google Reader accounts.
3. Post to your own blog info about a blog you think looks interesting

just a little diversion -- dancing on treadmills

I'm actually using this to figure out how to embed YouTube videos on a blog. I've done it with links but I think this is going to be different.

Here's a video from the band Ok Go. I find this video kind of mesmerizing and would sometimes watch it when I came in first thing in the morning to make me smile. I even went on to purchase the album which is pretty dang sweet. They know how to write a good pop song.

Week 3 -- Reading and Finding and Managing Blogs

Since we're already half-way through Week 3, we're going to use this week and next week to do a bunch of separate but connected tasks that will hopefully make sense at the end! The "theme" is blogs -- how to find 'em, manage them and keep up (read 'em).

Activity #1
Sign up for an account with Google Reader or Bloglines
(both are big players in this field and offer a variety of rich functionality -- although I'm using Google Reader these days, I've used and liked both -- if I were going to tip you in a direction I'd suggest Google Reader but that's somewhat because you can then add a "gadget" to your iGoogle desktop which is handy)

These are "news aggregators" or ways to subscribe to blogs (or other websites with regularly published information). Sure, you can visit interesting blogs directly and check with them from time to time in order to see what's new. But that can get overwhelming when there might be lots of different blogs (like our group's!) you want to keep up with. An aggregator allows you to tell it the blogs you want to watch. Then there's one place to see what's new. That's how I know when you guys have posted something! I don't have to check them regularly or individually - it comes to me.

Activity #2
After you've created an account in either Bloglines or Google Reader, subscribe to the Pierce Learning 2.0 blog. Then subscribe to the blogs of our members (all those links on the right). This is a test of your cutting and pasting skills!

Activity #3
Look at this list of blogs I've collected. Add a "Tacoman" blog to your subscriptions and a few more that catch your eye (hint: "Savage Chickens" and stuff in the Education category).

Activity #4
Okay!!!!! Whew! The hard part is over. What you should be doing now is checking your Bloglines/Google Reader regularly. Try reading your "subscriptions" as a daily habit. Even if you're just skimming stuff that's okay -- give the time you can but practice it as a habit. And keep posting to your own blog cause that's giving other people stuff to read in their Google/Bloglines account!

Extra credit:
If you chose Google Reader, add its gadget to your iGoogle page (go to "add stuff" in the top right corner). Then it can just be part of looking at your iGoogle page regularly but all in one place.

Next: finding other blogs to read (or "there is so much more out there than what Lynn's heard of).

Week 2 - Blogs!

The Common Craft Show creates great, brief videos explaining what some of these technologies are all about. Why are blogs such a big deal?

Activity #1: See what they say in this 3 minute video...

Activity #2: Start your own blog!
Create your blog using Google's Blogger.com or Wordpress.com (two of the most well-known). After you've created your blog and written at least one post, reply-all to the last message I sent the group and tell us the address of your blog. The rest of us will check it out and leave comments. From now this is where you will "journal" your learning and tell us about the great stuff you're learning or find. It's time for the community to begin!

Blogs can be used for many different types of communication. I've used one to share my marathon training experience (several people in this group have read it!) and one for an international trip where it was fun to share our experience with friends and family. Many people use them professionally. The library's blog is to share updates on various items of interest -- kind of like an ongoing newsletter.

Yours is starting out as a journal focused on this program. Check out this post (warning: many of these are library-land examples) for ideas about the different roles or "tones" that blogs assume. What's yours going to be?

Activity#3: Read the different blogs that people in this group create. Leave them comments and encouragement!

Unless I just can't help myself, these are your only assignments this week. Next week we'll talk more about the millions and zillions of blogs out there and how to manage reading them (well, some of them). But for now just join the ranks of bloggers....

Week One -- Google me this...

We're all familar with Google as the most recognized internet search engine, the dot.com darling that started in the creators' garage.

But they didn't just rest on their search engine product. They're also creating and collecting (they're always buying something) some of the most innovative web 2.0 tools out there. We're going to use iGoogle as our first playground.

When you posted a comment to this Blog, you had to create a Google account. This blog (by Blogger) is a Google product.

What we're going to use this week is iGoogle (I adore iGoogle). Think of it as your own personalized web page. You get to customize it to be anything you want and no one but you sees it. And as we go along you'll see how much fun it can be to centralize your interests onto one-easy-to-use page. All of the boxes represent "widgits" or "gadgets" -- pieces of web code that is embedded on a web page. We'll see gadget/widgits all over place as we go along. One example is the library's Instant Messaging (or "chat") page. We've embedded code on the page so a person can arrive there and start talking to us. If you have a minute, try it and say hi to us! When we launch a redesigned library page you'll see other instances of gadgets built into the page.

iGoogle is a fun place to start. Some of the gadgets you'll see are created by Google itself but many more are created by individuals who then make them available to everyone else. Facebook is another good example of third-party created applications. That's a piece of this whole "2.0" movement and open source projects.

Steps:

1. Go to the Google homepage - http://www.google.com/
2. Click on iGoogle in the upper right hand corner
3. Create your own iGoogle page
4. Practice dragging the various boxes around to arrange your page
5. Notice that you probably have multiple "tabs" (upper left) and create a new one
6. In the upper right, "select theme" and "add stuff" -- under "add stuff" try different searches based on things you like. Really into weather? -- look at all the "widgets" you can add. Like news? There are tons of different news widgets. Add them to your page.
7. Here are some of my favorite iGoogle gadgets - http://piercelearning.wetpaint.com/page/iGoogle

Extra credit:

1. Send a screen shot of your iGoogle page to me. When looking at your page hit the "print screen" button on your keyboard (that creates an image of what's currently on your screen). Paste it into an email you send to me.

Here's mine.....

Start looking at your page regularly. Make it the "home" page on a computer you use regularly.

Week One -- Welcome!

I'm so glad to welcome you all to the inaugural "Pierce Learning 2.0" program! I'm going to be finding more about what drew you to this program but my basic assumption is that you're interested in knowing more about the new technologies out there -- both for your own information and because you're curious about implications they might have for education and your teaching.


Here's what I'm planning/promising to offer with this program:

1. A fun exploration of the different technology tools. Because these many of these things are social in nature (that's why they're called "social networking" tools) I promise to internact in all of the tools I introduce and any others you find and want to try out.


2. Support as you work through the exercises. We're not going to meet as a group in person but I'll absoutely make house calls or talk you through something on the phone. I also want this group to help each other out.
   
3. To try and offer balance and options. You'll notice that we'll be playing a LOT with different Google products. They're doing a lot of cool stuff. But there's usually another (or many) other freely available technologies that will do the same or similar things. I don't care which things you use -- just that you try!

Here's what I can't promise:

1. A linear experience -- I'm going to do my best to create clear activities but there isn't exactly a logical progression so at times it might be MESSY. That's okay -- that's kind of what some of this stuff is about anyway -- slightly organized chaos.
   
2. Same experience for everyone -- You will bring different experiences to this program. Some of you may be used to reading blogs and others may still be fuzzy on what a blog is. Some of you will LOVE the photo sharing tools and others will find wikis more exciting. You might think some of things we try have no immediate application to your life. That's REALLY okay. You might never find a use for certain things -- sometimes it really is enough to "get it" even if it doesn't rock your world. Other things you won't need until some 6 months later and you find something we played with fits some new need perfectly. You might think some of it DUMB (i.e. Twitter boggles my mind). But that's all good.


3. To be an expert. I'm an enthusiast. But we're not trying to become experts - just active amateurs.

Here's what I want from you:

1. Spirit of Adventure - jump in and try it all


2. Interact with me and the other participants -- that's the fun of "social technologies".


3. Keep up -- I'm going to try and keep the activities realistic to our busy lives. I'll probably have an activity or two that I'd like everyone to try as well as some "extra credit" activities for people with the time and interest to go further. It will be more fun if we're all kind of doing the same stuff at the same time.


4. Keep in mind that we are using very social tools and think about how much personal information will be appropriate to share when you create a blog or upload photos. One of the perks will be creating this learning community and getting to know each other better but beware of sharing "too much information".


5. Give me lots and lots of feedback - you guys are the guinea pigs of this program. Tell me along of the way if I'm giving you too much or too little to do. Tell me if I make too many assumptions about what I'm asking you to do (i.e. I ask you to send me a screen shot and you have no idea what that means). This way, it will be a successful program for you and an even better program this Spring!

Whew!!! That's almost it for now!

Your First Task:

Make a "Comment" at the end of this post. Tell us why you're interested in participating in this program -- what you want to get out of this -- or something fun you did over the break.

• To do this you're going to need to sign up for a Google account (it will prompt you). That will lead perfectly into our next activity!
• If you don't already have a non-Pierce email account, think about getting one. Most things we'll play with will require logging in with an email address. You might find it easier to manage this stuff with a different account. If you don't have one, there are many places to get free ones. Hotmail, Gmail (Google's) and Yahoo's free accounts would all be swell.

Welcome!

I am so excited to get started with the Pierce Learning 2.0 program!

My outcomes for this program are:

• Learn about technologies you've heard of or used briefly.


• Use and play with these technologies for yourself.


• Participate in this cohort to share ideas and insights.


• Consider the application of these technologies to the educational environment.


• Have FUN!
  

Are you ready?