Thing #8

I have seen the orange RSS symbol before, but have never known its purpose. I always thought it was a logo or something for the people who write software -- like those mysterious codes that pop up when there is a major computer error. Who'd have thought the little orange box would actually be user friendly?!

My account is with Google Reader. I like how it saves time by displaying updates from a variety of sources all in one place. I also like how it can be displayed on the iGoogle home page. Google was very helpful during the reader set up, because it automatically brought in blogs I was already following and feeds from my iGoogle home page.

At first, it was hard for me to subscribe to new blogs. "Oops! Try later!" messages kept popping up. I finally logged completely out and back in again; then, all of the connections worked . . . no more "Oops!"

This technology will enable me to follow entries made by co-members of my grade level's grant blog. It will also expose me to a constant stream of new teaching ideas through subscriptions with professional blogs. Perhaps best of all, my class pet, Teddy, will benefit from my connection to the Guinea Pig Forum. I have never had a guinea pig before and need all of the guinea pig advice I can get!

Teddy . . . the unexpected beneficiary of Thing #8.

School libraries/teachers/administrators can use these readers to monitor student entries made on school blogs. They can also use them to exchange ideas with other educators.

Thing #7

I was surprised how many different services Google has to offer that I never knew existed! Their data storage facilities must be ENORMOUS!

I had a lot of fun setting up an iGoogle home page. I chose a pretty sunset picture with giraffes walking across the Serengeti as the page's theme.

Then, I spent a loooooong time looking through and trying out gadgets. Every time I saw something useful or cute, I'd add it to the page. Wow! Talk about information overload! It was pretty funny looking back at the home page when I was finished. The page was swamped with gadgets! I finally managed to get a grip on myself and narrow them down to 15.

My favorite gadget is "Places to See." The picture changes frequently. I also included some practical links (news, weather, calendar, and to-do list); some research links (Wikipedia and dictionary); and some brain-boosting links ("Word of the Day" and "Spanish Word of the Day"). One of my gadgets shows my most recent e-mails from my Yahoo e-mail account. I love how iGoogle automatically gives you brief summaries of news articles when you slide the cursor over the headlines. You can tell what articles are about without clicking on them and having to wait for them to load onto your computer.

I didn't make a public link to my iGoogle page, since my e-mail is linked to it, but the top of it looks like this:

Some of the themes and gadgets you can choose from on iGoogle look a little inappropriate for children; so if students do make their own home pages, they will have to be closely monitored. I think the weather and calendar gadgets would work well for 2nd graders. They could also use the to-do list option, moon phase calendars, Google safe search, and "Jokes for Kids." There were some games they could use, too, like "Bee Smart Addition" and "Spell It." The "Children's Book of the Day" looked cute, but the books seem more appropriate for older grades.

I had planned to start a Google Notebook, but received a message from Google that said that they have stopped development of the Google Notebook program. They aren't taking any new users. So I set up a Google Alert, instead. Our students raise money for an endangered bird, and I entered an alert to have any recent communication about the bird sent to me. Now, I will be able to keep up with the current status of conservation efforts. At this time, I'm not sure how this Google application could safely work for children. How could you screen all of the information coming in?