Thing 9: I Can Wiki, Too!

As I think I mentioned before, I do love the wiki format. Sometimes I have trouble with formatting--I can't get what I've typed to look the way I want, or make embedded objects look the way I want.

I'm still wondering about the best way to use wikis for my kids when I can't guarantee lab time for them to work, and working at the same time isn't best because they overwrite each other.

Thing 8: Wiki Time

Wikis are amazing. I've been fascinated with them since I found about them when I was researching for grad school last summer. The idea that blew me away at the time was group note-taking. I also love how easy it is to modify wikis. In college I built websites using Netscape navigator, and while Wikispaces doesn't offer me all the same choices, it is a million times easier.
I use a wiki for my tenth graders to post analysis of the books they choose to read.
I don't allow kids to cite Wikipedia because it is usually very difficult to determine authorship. I encourage them to use it as a starting place for research, because many articles include links to credible sources. I worry about kids relying on Wikipedia for the same reason I worry about them relying on only encyclopedias: there's not a lot of depth, and it doesn't really encourage analysis.

Poll the Audience

Hi friends,
I adore my new header, but I'm not sure about the rest of my blog layout. Please share your thoughts on how it is formatted. I'm trying to decide if the two different alignments on the page make me nauseous or not.

Thing 7: Stumble on, Wayne

I will admit it, though it is embarrassing and perhaps even shameful.
I Stumble.
A lot.
When I should be doing other things.
Like grading.
By setting education as one of my interests, I find gems by chance. It helps when I feel like I'm not connecting with the other teachers on my blog roll, or I just need a new idea.

Thing 6: Delicioso

I set up a Del.icio.us account and then lost hours of my life rating, tagging, and filing anything I've ever bookmarked in the history of my life. Well, maybe not everything, but realizing how much time had passed between when I started my account and when I stopped playing, I was startled and a little ashamed.
On the other hand, the packrat in me adores the idea of saving and sharing bookmarks. With any luck, the tagging I've done, and maybe even the links shared by others will actually make bookmarks useful, rather than just stashing and forgetting about them.

Thing 5: Blogrollerific

I got my blog roll up and running, as you can see (I've been surprised at how difficult it is to add a GoogleReader blog roll to Blogger, considering they're both Google products). I tried to narrow the list down to those I find most valuable.
I've been behind on my 23 Things, so I finally added that to by RSS feed reader. Duh.

Thing 4: RSS/NewsReader

Yesterday I set up and account at Bloglines because I already have a GoogleReader account. I think there's a lot available at Bloglines, so much that it kind of freaked me out. I also had trouble figuring out how to link to it here. I will figure it out when I have more playtime, and maybe even an internet connection in my classroom.

I love GoogleReader, it's where I spend most of my online time nowadays. It makes keeping up with friends' blogs so much easier, and with the feeds collapsed, I can do a quick scan of titles to see if the new posts are worth reading, should be deleted, or are something I will come back to later. I've recently become addicted to making notes on websites using GoogleReaders "Note in Reader" button in my toolbar. It's like a mini-reaction blog, without having to log in and all that business. I love having my feeds in different folders, so I can read just what I'm in the mood for, whether it's teacher stuff or just LOLDogs. I also like being able to view only unread entries, or all entries, either for just one blog or an entire folder. One of my favorite things is that it limits some blogs which are totally awesome but have too darn much on the page (like Cool Cat Teacher) to only post text.

One thing that bothers me is that some of my favorite feeds, like Freakonomics, LifeHacker, and, before I cut it, BBC World News, just have too many updates a day. Then it feels like a chore to look through, sometimes. I cut down to just Freakonomics for news, since I get most of my news on MPR anyway, and switched to LifeHacker Top Feeds, which is still a little heavy but not as bad.

I've learned so much about Web 2.0 and teaching from the blogs I read that it totally rocks my world. I'll start working n a blogroll so you can join the love.