There is an amazing amount of information on blogs that I didn't know existed. It's a little overwhelming to realize how much is available. Thank goodness you gave us a great many search tools to look at. I found teacher and librarian blogs like The Cool Cat Teacher blog very helpful. The Edublog Award winners made me realize these bloggers are just like you and me - just regular teachers and librarians. Vickie Davis's suggestion to "create your circle of wise" made the most sense: read lots of blogs and "find people who inspire you." There are too many blogs and news feeds to keep up with so you must learn how to be selective.
What tools did I find useful? Blogline's Search Tool was one of the easiest. I just searched using the keyword, librarian, and found interesting library issues all over the world. Library Matters blog from an Australian librarian was especially interesting. Syndic8.com had a huge amount of feeds on every conceivable topic; some were very random. I looked at the "most popular feeds" like Slashdot and Boing Boing and realized there are lots of nerds out there in cyberspace! I also learned a little about Fwickis (how to make your own news feeds) from Syndic8.com. I thought I could use Suprglu for school and will explore it further. Topix was my absolute favorite for news because the format was easy to follow, and I could search for any news topic quickly. Feedster was closed for the holidays. I guess they are redoing it for the New Year.
One of the best all-around librarian blogs was A Library By Any Other Name. The blog was nicely arranged and had interesting topics. I loved The Cool Cat Teacher blog because of the great information that made me THINK. However, it was very "busy" looking, and I was, at times, overwhelmed with all the information and links on Vickie Davis's blog. I did subscribe to her feed and look forward to keeping up with The Cool Cat Teacher.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Excellent post! Thanks for your thoughtful comments. I think that you'll find your list of feeds will change all the time. I'm always subscribing to blogs, then unsubscribing when I realize that there isn't really much of interest to me.
Also wanted to let you know that A Library By Any Other Name is written by one of the ladies on Barry Bishop's staff in Spring Branch ISD.
Post a Comment