I've been considering what my next blog topic would be, and have it narrowed down to 2 that, at first glance, seem related: Social Bookmarking and Social Networking. As I explored these applications, I find they are very different, but both interesting.
I'm one of the few people in my world without a on-line social network, unless countless emails, class management systems, and these blogs count. But I don't have a facebook or Myspace page, and know almost nothing about them- I really should learn, just to keep up with my students and my sons.
I also learned of social bookmarking in one of our readings, which seems related (well, it's social and on the web, right?) but very, very different. As I think of how I use the web, I think that a social bookmarking working knowledge could be very helpful. I am starting to collect files of URLs, interesting resources that I may want to return to. I collect folders of pdf articles, too, but they are getting harder to organize and find when I need them. Social bookmarking seems like a good way to keep track of resources, learn of new ones I'd like, and share them without forwarding them in an email all the time. So I'll start investigating social bookmarks in this blog.
I'll start by looking at wikipedia for a definition,so I can figure out where to start. Mehkta's wiki blog must be rubbing off... I start with wikipedia often now!
It says :
"In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public, and can be saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups, shared only inside certain networks, or another combination of public and private domains. The allowed people can usually view these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, or via a search engine."
This sounds pretty useful for me, and since I need to blog about it, I'll probably learn how to start a bookmarking page of my own, since I learn best by doing, and my blogmates can help me through the process.
If I master this concept, I may move one on to social networking before the end of the semester... fat chance!
Friday, October 24, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
RSS summary
This is likely my last RSS blog post, so I’ll summarize what I’ve covered here. I started out completely clueless about RSS feeds and readers, and sought out sites to help explain them, and what is RSS?
Then I discovered the video tutorials re: RSS (thanks to Mehkta), and learned about the theory and purpose of RSS through the first one. Next, I found in the Commoncraft series, a simple tutorial that enabled me to make my own RSS reader. So I did, as well as igoogle, a personal portal. I used both for a week or two, and found that the personal portal worked better for me.
Last week I got an ipod, and learned how a podcast feed is similar to an RSS feed. My understanding of this feature is still really simplistic, and I did not venture into the cyberworld to learn the XML rich site syndicate language, but I have learned enough to apply the technology to my world. I feel I’ve learned quite a bit in less than 2 months, and I hope you’ve learned something, too.
The next step would be to learn about the best Readers, and the advantages of having an off-line reader as well as the more traditional on-line type I have. A more techie article/blog explains about Speeddemon, which is both. To be honest, though, it’s beyond my understanding or interest (for now anyway, but I never thought I wanted an RSS reader or an ipod either…).
Then I discovered the video tutorials re: RSS (thanks to Mehkta), and learned about the theory and purpose of RSS through the first one. Next, I found in the Commoncraft series, a simple tutorial that enabled me to make my own RSS reader. So I did, as well as igoogle, a personal portal. I used both for a week or two, and found that the personal portal worked better for me.
Last week I got an ipod, and learned how a podcast feed is similar to an RSS feed. My understanding of this feature is still really simplistic, and I did not venture into the cyberworld to learn the XML rich site syndicate language, but I have learned enough to apply the technology to my world. I feel I’ve learned quite a bit in less than 2 months, and I hope you’ve learned something, too.
The next step would be to learn about the best Readers, and the advantages of having an off-line reader as well as the more traditional on-line type I have. A more techie article/blog explains about Speeddemon, which is both. To be honest, though, it’s beyond my understanding or interest (for now anyway, but I never thought I wanted an RSS reader or an ipod either…).
Saturday, October 11, 2008
a new RSS reader...
I received a gift his week that has expanded my understanding of RSS feeds/readers: my very own ipod! It ‘s like my very first bicycle- it’s exciting and offers amazing possibilities, but I can’t take advantage of all it offers until I know how to use it… and it is a steep learning curve for this “digital immigrant”(Marc Prensky coined a term I use a lot these days).
What I’ve learned (by trial and error, so please correct me if I’m wrong) is that to subscribe to a podcast is the same process as subscribing to any RSS feed. The difference is the reader. Instead of using an RSS reader such as Google reader, the podcast is “fed” each week to iTunes. From iTunes I can “sync” (I think that’s a download) it into my ipod for listening whenever I want. So iTunes is another type of RSS reader, it seems. I don’t see the red RSS symbol anywhere in this process, but the “subscribe” command seems to be synonymous. I tried to find verification of this revolutionary discovery, and didn’t have much luck searching “podcast how-to’s” in google or youtube, so I’m asking my blog buddies- is iTunes an RSS reader?
For example, I want to listen to NPR's "Wait Wait, don't tell me"every week, but never catch it on the radio. I go to the podcast section of the itunes store, and choose it. There are recent episodes listed (which I could download), as well as a "subscribe" box. If I click the "subscribe" box, a text box tells me I will receive the most recent episode, and the newest episode each week will be sent to my podcast library in itunes. Itunes then stores the show for me until I put it into my MP3 player to listen, or I can listen to it directly from my computer. That's just the way the NYT feeds news to Google reader for me everyday. The difference is the name of the RSS Reader, and the format of the information- one is all visual text, the other is all audio. If I had a screen on my ipod, I could subscribe to TV shows, and have a video RSS feed as well. Until this week, I didn't realize the different applications of the RSS technology- it's not just for PC viewing, but for more personal mobile devices, too. How cool is that??
It’s fun to be learning how to use all these new ICTs- I’d never take the time to do this if I weren’t forced to explore them in this class. Some ICTs will be an everyday tool for me, and others I may not ever use again, but at least I know what they are, just in case. Hopefully, like riding a bike, I won’t forget how to use blogs, RSS feeds, IM, wikis, etc. once I’ve practiced a little.
What I’ve learned (by trial and error, so please correct me if I’m wrong) is that to subscribe to a podcast is the same process as subscribing to any RSS feed. The difference is the reader. Instead of using an RSS reader such as Google reader, the podcast is “fed” each week to iTunes. From iTunes I can “sync” (I think that’s a download) it into my ipod for listening whenever I want. So iTunes is another type of RSS reader, it seems. I don’t see the red RSS symbol anywhere in this process, but the “subscribe” command seems to be synonymous. I tried to find verification of this revolutionary discovery, and didn’t have much luck searching “podcast how-to’s” in google or youtube, so I’m asking my blog buddies- is iTunes an RSS reader?
For example, I want to listen to NPR's "Wait Wait, don't tell me"every week, but never catch it on the radio. I go to the podcast section of the itunes store, and choose it. There are recent episodes listed (which I could download), as well as a "subscribe" box. If I click the "subscribe" box, a text box tells me I will receive the most recent episode, and the newest episode each week will be sent to my podcast library in itunes. Itunes then stores the show for me until I put it into my MP3 player to listen, or I can listen to it directly from my computer. That's just the way the NYT feeds news to Google reader for me everyday. The difference is the name of the RSS Reader, and the format of the information- one is all visual text, the other is all audio. If I had a screen on my ipod, I could subscribe to TV shows, and have a video RSS feed as well. Until this week, I didn't realize the different applications of the RSS technology- it's not just for PC viewing, but for more personal mobile devices, too. How cool is that??
It’s fun to be learning how to use all these new ICTs- I’d never take the time to do this if I weren’t forced to explore them in this class. Some ICTs will be an everyday tool for me, and others I may not ever use again, but at least I know what they are, just in case. Hopefully, like riding a bike, I won’t forget how to use blogs, RSS feeds, IM, wikis, etc. once I’ve practiced a little.
Friday, October 3, 2008
My RSS journey..
Blogging is becoming more fun and interesting. I have learned more about them through our collaborative project, and found this video that explained them clearly: http://www.commoncraft.com/ . I have found that Lee LeFevre’s Commoncraft videos are very helpful. The concepts are clear because the visuals are so simple in them.
But that’s not the topic of the day. The topic is RSS feeds, and what most folks need. I did make myself an RSS reader (Google Reader), as well as an igoogle homepage. Whenever I see the RSS symbol, I click it and get a screen that asks whether I’d like the site “fed” to my google reader or igoogle homepage. I choose my igoogle page, and it is immediately visible when I open my web browser. This is my personal portal, which is not the same as an RSS reader. As Yin explained (thanks again!), “It does not indicate how many new postings or articles have been written since the last time you visited the site. This is what a RSS news reader does, it is smaller in scale than a personal portal but it assembles a reading list and monitors how many postings you have yet to catch up with.”
The personal portal function is revolutionary for me. I got to my blog with one click instead of half a dozen. This is an example of how financial traders use the igoogle homepage for receiving RSS feeds, and is pretty much what I’m doing now (with other blogs, sites): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMpsaSGZs1A
It does not keep tabs or tallies on what’s new, but it does feed continually, so that you see new content as it arrives. If you’re checking the site throughout the day, it works really well to help stay up to date. I tried to create a link between igoogle and google reader, but was told “information temporarily unavailable”- that message remained for many days, until I deleted the link. I found an explanation for that problem at Techlondon (and it has an RSS feed ): http://www.techlondon.co.uk/2007/10/manage-rss-feeds-using-igoogle-and.html .This site also explains some of the advantages of igoogle, so I’ll stick with it, for now. It’s great how much more energy I have to spend on-line now that I’m not searching for everything.
But that’s not the topic of the day. The topic is RSS feeds, and what most folks need. I did make myself an RSS reader (Google Reader), as well as an igoogle homepage. Whenever I see the RSS symbol, I click it and get a screen that asks whether I’d like the site “fed” to my google reader or igoogle homepage. I choose my igoogle page, and it is immediately visible when I open my web browser. This is my personal portal, which is not the same as an RSS reader. As Yin explained (thanks again!), “It does not indicate how many new postings or articles have been written since the last time you visited the site. This is what a RSS news reader does, it is smaller in scale than a personal portal but it assembles a reading list and monitors how many postings you have yet to catch up with.”
The personal portal function is revolutionary for me. I got to my blog with one click instead of half a dozen. This is an example of how financial traders use the igoogle homepage for receiving RSS feeds, and is pretty much what I’m doing now (with other blogs, sites): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMpsaSGZs1A
It does not keep tabs or tallies on what’s new, but it does feed continually, so that you see new content as it arrives. If you’re checking the site throughout the day, it works really well to help stay up to date. I tried to create a link between igoogle and google reader, but was told “information temporarily unavailable”- that message remained for many days, until I deleted the link. I found an explanation for that problem at Techlondon (and it has an RSS feed ): http://www.techlondon.co.uk/2007/10/manage-rss-feeds-using-igoogle-and.html .This site also explains some of the advantages of igoogle, so I’ll stick with it, for now. It’s great how much more energy I have to spend on-line now that I’m not searching for everything.
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