Plug Me In

RSS, Pageflakes and You!!

One of the most challenging struggles that digital junkies face in today’s world is keeping up with the massive amount of content being generated online. Thousands of new posts are made on thousands of new (and old!) websites every day. Even if you spent thousands of hours sitting in front of your computer, you’d probably lose track of what was happening on your favorite sites.

The solution? Get yourself a really good RSS feed reader!

What’s an RSS feed reader? Check out this Commoncraft tutorial to learn more:

http://www.blip.tv/file/205570/

Plug Me In members are going to be experimenting a bit with a feed reader known as Pageflakes. Pageflakes is actually a pretty neat feed reader that I’m sure you’re going to like. It will become the first website that you visit each day, and it is bound to save you tons of time. Instead of having to go to nineteen different websites, you’ll head to Pageflakes to see what’s new.

Here’s a set of directions about how to create and manage your Pageflakes page:

Handout_Pageflakes

Specifically, you’ll be following websites that teach you something new about the region of the world that you are studying in Social Studies. Here are a bunch of web feeds that you may want to start with:

 Pageflakes_Seeds

Rock on, Bam Bam Bigelow

1 comment November 4th, 2007

Handy-Dandy Trailfire Template

One of the neatest–and easiest—tools to use online is Trailfire, which allows users to create annotated collections of websites that viewers can navigate through in order from beginning to end.  By creating trails, you can introduce others to the information that you are studying and the ideas that are shaping your thinking. 

Trailfire is a great way to begin organizing the thousands of websites that you stumble across every day while exploring your world.  It can be used by teachers to guide students through research projects or by students as products for projects.  Check out this sample trail, which introduces users to the key elements of staying safe while online:

http://www.trailfire.com/plugmein/trails/47114

Once you’re ready to create your own trail, this template might be helpful as you’re planning:

Trailfire Planning Template

If you create any trails, be sure to leave us a comment with the address!  We’d love to check out what it is that you find interesting online. 

Rock on,

Bam Bam Bigelow

Add comment October 29th, 2007