RSS Control Station 4

Overall my experience with the RSS Control Station went well. It is valuable to further my knowledge of all the resources that are available to me through Google.
As I stated in my prior posting, it is nice for Google Reader to do the work for me. Thus far, I have subscribed to 11 different blogs and Google Readers goes to each one of these blogs every time to sign in to check and see if the author(s) of the blog posted something new. I can read each on of the blogs from my reader and even can link directly to the blog if I want to get more information.
There were several different things I could do with my subscriptions in Google Reader. One of these advantages has to deal with organization. I was able to create folders on my Google Reader to help maintain some type of order with the blogs and associate blogs for educational purposes and others for leisure.
Using Google Reader for educational uses would not be difficult at all. In higher education Google Reader could be used for keeping up with campus news, sports, changes to policy, and any other uses a college or university sees fit.
In K-12 Google Reader could be used by each one of your students in a classroom. Especially, useful in Reading classes when the teacher would like to include literature circles. On days when the student has reading to do at home or outside the classroom the student can post his notes on or reflections to their blog. The teacher to subscribe to the blog to see how the student is doing on their readings and also students could subscribe to each others blogs.

iGoogle is a great tool I could use on a personal level. I enjoyed the many features associated with the website. The different gadgets found throughout the website is particularly useful. I find myself going over seas at least once a year and the currency converter is a great tool to use just for that. The podcast player is another great tool because I can use the RSS functions in my podcast player to subscribe to different podcast. iGoogle also provides a direct link to my gmail and twitter accounts through the use of the gadgets that they have.
Overall I just love to use this site. A one stop shop as I called it before.
The RSS Control Station assignment I particularly enjoyed because of the iGoogle page. They have gadgets for just about everything that you could think of.

RSS Control Station 3

In my first posting on the RSS Control Station (the original) I discussed iGoogle and Google Reader. Also in the posting I made mention about a posting in edublogs about social networking. It is amazing all the different opportunities technology allows a user to have. In the aspect of social networking a user is able to share, store, and sort diverse forms of media and information through websites, photos, videos, or people.
Steve Hargadon had a really great posting called Moving Toward Web 2.0 in K-12 Education. This posting is really significant because of all this discussion on shifting our educational practices. One change that is frequently discussed is the modification from teacher-centered instruction to student-centered learning. This can be done in various ways including authenticity, engagement, or collaboration. This article makes references to these strategies as well.
Just another reason why I enjoy the components associated with Google Reader. Google Reader will go to the blogs and let me know about the new postings. Saving me time and energy. Oh…and this is all apart of Social Networking as well.

RSS Control Station 2

For a class that I am taking this semester I have to develop a page using the HTML code. This writing is not new to me but I do not have a through background into it either. This iGoogle page I was to create is a great resource. I did a search on HTML in iGoogle and found many different gadgets and resources that I could use to help me write HTML or gain a further understanding into it.



Earlier in the semester I actually signed up for a twitter account. I have known about twitter for well over a year but I am just now starting to adjust to using it. It almost seems that it has evolved because I also finally got into blogging. Well I received the link to download Twitteroo for the PC but the download would not work for me. Well it just so happens that I would able to place a gadget in my iGoogle homepage that provides a direct connection to Twitter. Makes life so much easier.





Gmail is also the email provider that I most widely use. Many of my colleagues, friends, and family members use it as well. iGoogle also has a widget where I can place the gmail chat option on my homepage and allows me to stay in constant contact with everyone.

RSS Control Station

In my Emerging Instructional Technology class at the University of Northern, I was tasked to set up an RSS System through the use of Google Reader and iGoogle. Google Reader is an aggregator that I had set up before but needed to subscribe to a few more blogs which include Weblogg-ed by Will Richardson, stevehargadon.com by Steve Hargadon, and Edublogs by Ewan McIntosh.

I must admit I am really satisfied that I did subscribe to a few of these blogs. I could have always gone online and gained information about open office but to just get the facts from someone, as in the case of Steve Hargadon, I could easily do more research from the background that I received in the blog.
Another example presented by Ewan McIntosh had a really great posting called Danah Boyd on Handheld Social Networking. This article was particularly interesting to me because I am currently doing some research on Social Networking and it was nice to get another perspective on the topic.

But back the reason for this posting. Besides Google Reader I also had the opportunity to use iGoogle. I particularly like this site because of the ability to include widgets or gadgets but also add web feeds. On top of that I am a Gmail user and just to come here, a one stop shop if you will, iGoogle homepage provides a direct link to my Gmail account. On this site I added different tabs to help provide some organization to my web feeds and gadgets. Some of these gadgets I included are a currency converter (I seem to make it overseas at least once a year, podcast player with a library of subscriptions to podcast, and RSS feeds to some websites and blogs.

Pretty interesting stuff I had the opportunity to get familiar with.