Week 6: Thing #14 Technorati

I had a chance to explore Technorati during our RSS Feeds assignment. Out of all of the online tools I used, Technorati was by far the best. I liked the support they offer, including the advance options to narrow your search. I created an account and claimed this blog! After watching Technorati tour, I checked out the "What's Popular" section and found a video highlighting President Obama's "Open for Questions" an online town hall forum to encourage direct dialogue between the President and the American public. I think the idea is innovative and effective. The questions President Obama addresses are the top questions from each category that received the most online votes. I didn't have time to watch the entire video, but was able to read the transcript and scroll down to his response concerning education. I like his attempts to maintain close contact with the American people and the internet is a great way to do it.

Then I started searching the blogsphere! Unfortunately, Technorati does not have Education as one of its dedicated channels, so I typed in "arts education" and came up with 13,088 results!! I narrowed my search by limiting it to blogs (not posts), English only and a lot of authority. What I found most helpful was the window located on the right sidebar called "Tags" which lists the other tags used by people who also searched under the tag "arts education." I found very relevant blogs in a short time this way. I also liked searching the blogs that were listed within those blogs I tagged as my favorites. Once you find like-minded people, you can find links to blogs and other internet resources on their blogs that you would bookmark yourself.

Here are the blogs I listed as my Favorites so far:

• Storynory: Free Audio Stories for Kids
• Creating Lifelong Learners
• Artful Innovation
• Teaching Online Journalism

Here are the indirect weblinks I found searching "Digital Storytelling" on Technorati. With my new Delicious Firefox plug-in, I instantly bookmarked all of these in my Delicious account with tags! I'm starting a Digital Storytelling after-school club tomorrow, so today technology has been my friend!

• DigiTales: Storymaking Files
  
• Digital Storytelling in the Classroom
• Online Tools for Digital Storytelling
• Jashon Ohler: Art, Storytelling, Education & Technology
• Center for Digital Storytelling
• Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling
• BBC/Wales: Guide to Digital Storytelling
• Primary Source Learning
• Scott County Student Digital Stories
  

One question: I was able to find the 100 Most Popular Tags on Technorati, but not a list of all of the tags. Any advice?

Week 4, Thing #8 & 9: RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds were a mystery to me and seemed intimidating. After working through this tutorial, I regret not having explored it earlier. I didn't realize that I already receive a RSS feed through ASDN who sends me their Smartbriefs by e-mail. The concept of a RSS aggregator was completely new to me. I joined Bloglines as my RSS aggregator and found their tools to locate feeds, blogs and podcasts only marginally helpful. Instead, the links and resources provided on our Raven About Web 2.0 tutorial were much more relevant and led to other interesting links. I particularly found the Edublog Awards packed with great blogs to subscribe to. Instead of using Bloglines as my gathering place for librarian-related feeds, I decided to use my own blog to collect feeds most relevant to me as a librarian. I love adding more gadgets to my blog and watching it grow as my own knowledge of these tools grow. I can already see the benefit of having these feeds at your fingertips to provide instant professional development, as well as keep teachers abreast of new technology and ways to utilize them.

Here are my thoughts on the other search tools:

• Blogdigger.com: Wish they had a Help feature to better understand what capabilities they offer for entering search items. For example, can you use Boolean Operators? When I searched "school library," I didn't come up with anything too interesting.
  
• Topix.net: Very discouraging. Searched "arts education" and collected stories totally unrelated to even arts or schools. The third result from my search was "Conn. man is cited for owning an endangered ape." Don't see the connection!
  
• Syndic8.com: This one offered tags and categories to help narrow your search, as well as links to learn how to navigate your way through the website. Much more satisfying and fruitful.
  
• Technorati: Wow! Well worth waiting for! This one trumps them all. Plenty of support to help the novice find what he or she is looking for. Not only do they provide suggestions to help narrow down your search, but they organize your results by blog, video, photos, etc. It's very well organized and easy to navigate. I also liked that you could limit your search "a lot of authority.