Thing # 5

Really Simple Syndication or RSS was semi-interesting to me. This to me is much like what I use my favorites folders for; however, the RSS has the added benefit of only listing new stories or information about your feed. I chose to set up a Google Reader since I was on a roll with the iGoogle homepage. It was really easy to set up and choose which feeds I wanted to monitor. I chose to monitor some news sites, the science package and the technology package, some library feeds, and a frugal travel feed from the NY Times. I think that being able to go to one location and search for new current even stories regarding science and technology would be a great activity to incorporate into the classroom or the library. Using the reader and the stories to update a "did you know" or "current event" board would be a great way to use the site for educational purposes. Man, I just keep getting all sorts of ideas from these activities! I do like the fact that the reader also allows you to search through the new postings by using keywords. This helps to narrow the results down since even with only a few feeds, the amount of reading could become overwhelming.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of my main goals in this course is to have fun. The feed that I liked the most from this exercise was the frugal traveler feed. I thought it was interesting that there are people who can make their vacations last for months. They have basically adopted the mentality (whether voluntarily or due to economic circumstances) that they will work to live not live to work. They basically work seasonally and make enough money to vacation the rest of the year. My brain doesn't really work this way even though I think it would be fabulous to take extended vacations. I plan to monitor this feed just to get tips and hints on how to vacation for less money :)