Recent Experiences with RSS Aggregators

Breaking News...take a look!  In addition to the required feed subscriptions, four RSS feeds I subscribed to include:  ERIC What Works Clearinghouse, U.S. Department of Education, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and a blog entitled Mathematics and Multimedia:  Celebrating the Beauty of School Mathematics.  Each of the previous sites were subscribed to intentionally to support personal development as an educator and participant in the educational community at large.  The Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) was selected for exposure to current research focused on effective practices in education promoting student improvement.  Second, the United States Department of Education news feed was chosen to increase personal awareness regarding conversations taking place nationally with regard to education.  Next, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) subscription provides news, research, and updates focused on the content area of my teaching certification.  Lastly, the Mathematics and Multimedia blog offered a meeting point for incorporating technology in mathematics curriculum.  Combined, the four previous subscriptions serve as a means of professional development sharing news, research, and resources which will increase awareness, challenge current perspectives regarding effective teaching strategies, and provide examples of lessons and activities to implement.

Here is a screen shot of my RSS page.  Checking RSS feeds on several different occasions, a few different things were observed with respect to the type of subscription.  News and organization sponsored feeds tended to update more frequently.  In some cases, these subscriptions provided multiple updates posted on the same day mere hours apart.  Journal subscriptions in some instances had no new updates since the creation of my RSS page.  Thinking about the work and process to publish in a journal coupled with consideration for the journal distribution schedule, few updates in a short amount of time began to make more sense.  Blogs tended to have unpredictable updates.  In some cases, new entries seemed separated by a consistent number of days; however, not all blogs evidenced a routine posting schedule to accurately anticipate future updates.  With these observations, although perhaps understood and not considered prior, my appreciation of RSS aggregators grew.  As I browsed each subscription and noted the latest post-date, I easily navigated through a wealth of information and continued on to websites, articles, and blog posts of interest and relevance.

Intrigued by a blog post entitled, "Online Learning" Isn't "Learning Online," I proceeded to unpack the writer's contemplation.  Working through a list of ten suggested benefits of online learning, the author of the post wrestled with the question of if online learning increased or bettered student learning.  Not far removed from my reflection and creation of goals related to skill development and technology use to impact student learning, thoughts of the necessity to effectively incorporate technology resided in the forefront of my mind.  The author's statement, "...let's make sure they take advantage of the online piece to let participants develop the connections that will sustain them far beyond the class.  Or, if not, let's call it what it is...online coursework, not learning," elicited my response.  My comment briefly articulated the thought reworking in my mind described above.  I likened my technology dilemma to the questions the author posed about online learning and concluded that our job as educators is to analyze the effectiveness of practices with the ultimate goal of continued improvement to benefit and impact student learning.  I checked back a few days later curious about further commentary.  Much to my surprise, my comment received a response in return.  The response suggested that others outside of the educational setting engage in similar conversation in order to evidence change promoting learning.  The response additionally highlighted a concern that decisions related to technology use might be made with regard to finances.

The exchange described above certainly provided opportunity to both hear and think about the distinction the author was making about online learning and learning online.  Prior to responding to the post itself, I read through the comments left by others.  Here I learned the direction the conversation continued from the posted thoughts.  In addition, I learned of other articles and resources working through a similar thought.  A few days later, I logged in again to check my feeds and read, "The big thing I think we lack is both a state and national plan for how we can really have successful utilization of technology nationwide in education," a statement made by Patrick Plant shared on TechLearning.com.  Immediately, I thought back to the recent blog post and how those two updates might be related.  Through this, I learned discussion surrounding technology implementation occurs in a variety of places, on a variety of levels, and from a variety of perspectives.  Another thing learned from news feeds is the concern regarding quality of education.  NPR shared news on February 17, 2011 about a mother who provided a false address in order to send her children to a better school.  On February 20, 2011 news of a North Carolina school district's previous decision to end current busing policies and an interview with the district's superintendent.  The interview briefly discussed the quality of the large district's schools.  Both instances conveyed a general concern from different stakeholders about the quality of education students receive.  The NCTM feed communicated information pertaining to upcoming conference dates and registration deadlines as well as resources for the classroom.

Largely, the subscriptions and feeds will increase personal awareness regarding current happenings on a broad scale in education.  Moreover, awareness of conversations taking place serves as encouragement to participate and engage colleagues in the conversation locally.  Several subscriptions offered resources to enhance classroom activities in the form of suggestions or new technology.  Reviewing feeds could introduce a new classroom technology or approach to implement in the classroom.  Also, monitoring feeds will keep me connected to relevant research.  Undoubtedly, this research will influence classroom activities, lessons, technology integration, and perspective on how students learn and how best to support and facilitate student learning.  RSS aggregators themselves could impact the classroom by connecting students to relevant resources also.  Since pages can be shared, students could benefit for research projects or keeping current with events of the world. 

Safe and Secure.

Recently, I viewed PC Maintenance and Security tutorials shared by Atomic Learning from the following categories:  blocking and killing spyware & adware, tips for safer web browsing, and making e-mail safer.  All three categories contained short tutorials defining specific terms, providing websites to download free software, or demonstrating specific functions of a particular program to either perform system maintenance or increase computer security.  
A few notable things gleaned from the tutorials:

1. Spyware Blaster, a software program which can be downloaded for free, possesses the ability to take a snapshot which captures an image of computer settings at the time of the shot.  An enticing feature of Spyware Blaster:  its ability to restore a computer system to a previously captured snapshot.  The restore feature proves useful in the event of infection by spyware; although, to benefit from this feature one must take preventative measures to capture snapshots.
2. Sandboxie, another software program free for download, provides security while using the internet.  Websites visited are read but no temporary files are written back to the computer's hard drive increasing security from unwanted malware.  The computer operator can run a  variety of programs through Sandboxie as well as view the contents trapped by Sandboxie with the option of restoring or deleting.
3. Phishing scams often appear official having an institution's logo and information; the customer greeting is one thing to note.  Generic greetings should lend suspicion, especially when asked to confirm an account by providing a user name and password. 

Surprisingly, not all anti-spyware identifies and eliminates the same spyware like anti-virus software.  This leads to the recommendation of using multiple types of anti-spyware.  Another surprising discovery is that programs such as DSL offer capabilities to boot on a public computer from a pen drive.  This eliminates a web history saved to the computer used to browse the internet.  Lastly, programs, such as Mail2Web.com, with the ability to access e-mail without images and html code was surprising.

Taking Care of Business...

Collect.  Process.  Organize.  Review.  Do.  Thank you, David Allen.  To begin this process of efficiency and productivity, I defaulted to the convenient and familiar paper, pen, and planner.  Simply collecting proved equally as challenging as only processing, and solely organizing.  As I read the article linked above, I identified some strategies I currently use yet implement differently.  I noticed my tendency to blend the collect, process, and organize steps whereas the article above suggests distinction and separation.  Thinking through that a moment more, I notice my guilt of blending all five steps seeking to accomplish the tasks on a list immediately and wonder how much more efficient this system might be by separating the steps.  

Processing seemed most helpful as I am easily distracted from current projects by incoming tasks equally as eager to accomplish them.  This process certainly has potential to help accomplish tasks more efficiently and eliminate mental clutter since the process merged all my lists into one central location.  Creating an inbox proved especially helpful with scheduling appointments for students on my caseload.  Students often come to my office during passing time to ask for an appointment.  Instead of scribbling a name down on the nearest paper in front of me, my students wrote down the request and put it in my inbox.  This also provided the opportunity to determine priority and rework my schedule accordingly.  I am willing to continue to try this process with the mindset that trying it once won't provide enough perspective to gauge its effectiveness.

Why Hello, Social Networks!

Who needs "friends"?  We all do!  Connections, communities, resources, friends-call them what you will-social networks provide a wealth of opportunity to interact with others without geographical restraint.  Professionally, my social networks offer links to current publications, organizations, and people both related to and involved in the field of education.  Shared newsfeeds and research will assist in staying updated on ideas and conversations taking place in the educational realm; the people themselves will serve as an integral part of both processing and challenging new information and ideas.  I anticipate my social networks serving as a form of ongoing, self-directed professional development which will challenge my current ideas about education.  Additionally, social networks provide an avenue for discussion among others from a variety of experience levels and interest areas.  Personally, social networks enable continued interactions with friends and family residing in a variety of locations.  Similarly, social networks certainly offer personal benefits to students by connecting them to their friends.  Additionally, social networks establish a medium by which students can grow from interaction on a global level with students in other cities, states, and countries broadening perspectives.  Student, adult, professional, or personal, like any community or resource, social networks require an investment of time and a level of engagement to be beneficial and develop connections.

The Difference: Traditional Web Pages and Blogs

It's almost as if blogs enhanced the function of information sharing from a traditional web 1.0 web page with personality and relatability.  Blogs, likened to a teacher of a content area whose personality (in the broadest sense of the word) fosters the relationship between student and subject matter, create an atmosphere.  A stretch?  Perhaps.  Blogs provide any user the power to create and publish content to the internet and subsequently like coffee houses of the internet create an inviting platform for diaglogue and conversation. Posted ideas and thoughts, even if underdeveloped, receive feedback and challenges in the form of comments.  Contributors offer both the authors and readers of posts opportunity to refine their ideas through engaging with not only the content but also a network of people.  This environment begs participation and returns connections, networks, and community.  Blogs and traditional web pages represent the distinction between talking with and talking to.