RSS - Really Something Special

After I set up my Google Page as my homepage earlier in the course, I started looking for a couple of RSS feeds to add to the page - it is such a terrific way to have a quick scan of the news when I don't have a leisurely amount of time to sift through a 'real' newspaper. I have now 4 RSS feeds on my page - The Age, The Australian, Google News and the RSS feed from the Centre for Public Christianity.

I wonder how long it will be before the big media companies start charging a subscription for these free feeds - surely it must reduce their income if people are gearing more towards these RSS options than buying a hard copy of the news.
I am sure that the Discovery Centre at our school will be actively looking at ways to use RSS feeds to access many articles on various topics. The potential for this is wonderful from an educational perspective!

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

So I've been on Facebook now for about 2 years and had always heard about this other mysterious site called MySpace which, my teenage son convinced me, was only for cool teenagers (like himself...) and definitely for uncool parents like me. In addition it supposedly far more complicated than Facebook and probably a bit above digital immigrants like the Baby Boomer/Gen X'er like me.

Well thanks to the Week 6 tasks I am now not only signed up on MySpace - only to find it quite simple to navigate around - but have also discovered LinkedIn - more of a professionally oriented social networking site. It might be a good way to connect with Deputy Principals/ other Execs in schools elsewhere. The potential of these sites is exciting in allowing people to connect when previously this would have been virtually impossible.

FLICKR

How many high quality photos are there on Flickr? I started wandering through some of the Photo galleries and found that there was an amazing assortment of artistic and creative stills and videos reflecting a whole range of interests and panoramas. I'm not sure when I'll get to sort my hundreds (thousands) of digital images on my computer at home and upload some of them onto Flickr to share with others - sounds like a holiday project if you ask me :)

LIBRARY THING

Having been an avid reader for many years it was interesting to join up to Library Thing, add some of my favourite books and then see how many reviews there are - those who loved the same novels and I do and those without any taste whatsoever.... I'll have to explore this site a bit more and maybe make some connections with others who share the same love of Russian and French classic literature!!

IMAGE GENERATOR SOFTWARE

I enjoyed learning about Shape Collage, Cool Text and Jelly Muffin software!


Myspace Picture Generator>



Image by Cool Text: Free Logos and Buttons - Create An Image Just Like This



Image by Cool Text: Free Graphics Generator - Edit Image

VIRTUAL WORLDS

Well I finally got a chance to have a look at some websites I have heard about about for some time - Second Life and World of Warcraft. Was I impressed? Yes and No -
 'Yes' because I am amazed at the ingenuity and creativity of those who have the skill and perseverance to put together these virtual worlds and attract millions into their cyber-view of reality
'No' because I can see how quickly a virtual world can become an escape - a parallel universe for those (particularly the young adults) who may not have matured to the point of having a solid grasp of the real world. My concern is that the easy access to a world which you can create yourself is the it may further alienate some from living a REAL life with all its attendant joys and struggles. Would I encourage my students, and even more pointedly, my own children, to get involved in these programs? Absolutely not - I would rather they were engrossed with the real world, making a difference in the lives of real people with real issues.

iGoogle

So iGoogle seems like the easy, user-friendly equivalent of Pageflakes; without the cantankerous, on-again, off-again problems I was having with PF. I have a gripe, however.... Why is it that gadgets like a beautiful photo of nature have to come with a cartoon figure of a suggestively dressed young woman??? Not happy, Jan :( Apart from that, it seems pretty simple to add/subtract a wide variety of functions - especially news stories, puzzles etc

To make up for the ridiculous advertising that comes up on the iGoogle page at times, here is a  beautiful nature photo with no advertising whatsoever :)  ENJOY