Blogs, Blogging for PD, and RSS: The How and Why

Introduction
I am going to borrow the question Greg Schwartz asks in his article at WebJunction, Blogs for Libraries, “Why should librarians care about blogging?” and change it slightly to “Why should educators and librarians care about blogging and RSS feeds?”

To answer this question Greg Schwartz gives 6 reasons why we should care:
• Reason # 1- Writing a blog [and having an RSS feed] keeps you current.
• Reason # 2- Blogs [and RSS] are an advocacy tool.
• Reason # 3 – Blogs [and RSS] build community.
• Reason # 4 – You are unique.
• Reason # 5 – Do it for you.
• Reason # 6- Lastly, it’s easy, so no excuses.

Learning about Blogs, blogging for PD and RSS
This is a new kind format of expression for me never having blogged before. Using Blogger, the online blogging software, was quite easy to use it was the actual writing of the blogs that I found difficult. Why did I find them difficult? Was it the new, wider audience?

As I reflected on my use of a blog for writing and communication I went back to the notebook I kept for this course. In the notebook tried to keep notes, passwords and my thoughts and feeling on some of the new tools I was being introduced to and trying to learn. On January 23 I wrote the following:

“Spent way too many hours putting first blog up. Tried to keep in mind audience. Wow! Who would have thought blogging would be so much work? Will all my blogs take this long?”

As it turned out, yes each and every blog I have written so far has taken me a copious amount of hours to produce. It has been a real challenge to write the blogs although I am grateful for the format Joanne has laid out for us. Grateful because I have a familiar format to use each time I blog. The familiar format helped me, I think by simply being familiar when there was so much new learning taking place for me.

Blogs, blogging and RSS feeds are all quite new to me. I think every teacher and administrator should subscribe to feeds and blogs as part of their professional development. The amount of interesting and relevant topics to just about any topic one could think of is out there in the blogosphere. Connecting with others who have similar interests, professions, and questions allows you to become part of that professional learning.

A simple matter of signing up for an iGoogle page allows you to make iGoogle your homepage and customize it with what you deem is important. I had been using RSS feeds for about a year without really thinking about them or actually realizing I was using them.

Davies and Merchant (2009) describes the purpose of an aggregator “as an easy means of easily accessing information from across many websites in less time than it takes to visit each one” (p. 124). Rather than you visiting a number of websites to see if there is anything new on them, these new posts come to directly to you. It is then a matter of you scrolling through the post headlines and deciding what you will read.

It is extremely easy to subscribe to a blog through an RSS. Almost every web site has a way of subscribing to it. Simply looking for the RSS icon or one of the other little software specific icons for subscribing and then clicking on it allows you to subscribe to the website.

For my Google Reader, clicking on the RSS icon opens up a page that asks you if you wish to add it to your Google Reader or would you like to add it to your iGoogle page. This is a nice little feature with iGoogle.

You can add the website you would like to get feeds from to your list of feeds all in one little window or box, or you can add the website to your iGoogle page in its own separate little window or box.

Within a matter of seconds you can subscribe to any number of websites and have them all available at your fingertips for easy browsing and reading. RSS feeds or aggregator is a wonderful tool that anybody, no matter how new they are to technology can use to access websites to aid in their professional development.

Personal Use of Blogs and RSS
This course has provided me with some wonderful tools for my professional life. The only blog I have subscribed to for my personal use is Ryan McMahn’s blog.

Ryan McMahan is a Native Comedian originally from Ontario, Canada, but has been working out of Winnipeg, Manitoba for about five years. I have seen him live and also used to listen to him on the NCI.fm radio station when he had his own segment called Cabin Fever.

His comedy is refreshing, bold and nothing is sacred in his routine. The only problem with subscribing to his blog is he does not blog all that much and I am beginning to wonder if I could be using my iGoogle page space for something else.

Perhaps I will add him to my Google Reader and then if he does add a new post it will still be available to me and I could use the space on my iGoogle page for something else.

It was interesting to see my colleague’s iGoogle page and to see how she had customized hers. Many of her feeds were inspirational quotes.

When I told my brother about iGoogle and Google Reader and how much simpler it would be for him to get the feeds from the sites he went to often he was not interested. It may be that it was something new to him and at this time he was not that interested in trying something new. Although, I may try to convince him again to give RSS feeds a try.

I have been using RSS feeds for a couple of years but only for work. Up until recently I subscribed to a technology RSS feed, which is science and technology news from Google News, and then I was also subscribing to the Google News Canada feed.

I wasn’t aware of the GoogleReader up until this course started. It is a great little space saver for your homepage. It allows you to list as many feeds as you can manage all in one little window.

“As you can manage” is the key. You can come back to your Google Reader and find an enormous amount of items listed in it and at times all these postings can become overwhelming or unmanageable.

Try not to feel too guilty about not reading each and every one of them. Find the ones that catch your attention and only read those ones. Don’t worry, in the next few hours there will be more for you to read!

Teaching and Learning with Blogs, Blogging for PD and RSS
Blogs, according to Davies and Merchant (2009), “...are now a well-established and widely recognized form of digital communication and that they should be taken seriously in educational settings” (p.34).

Even for teachers who are new to technology and Davies and Merchant (2009) state that, “There remain many who still have no idea what a blog is...”(p.27) the software is easy to use and provides another avenue to motivate, engage and to provide connectivity within the classroom and eventually to a global audience.

To interest and motivate teachers and learners in the possibilities of blogs and how they could be used in an educational setting one can take a look at any number of blogs ranging from classroom blogs in Kindergarten through to blogs being used in high school.

Blogging software such as Blogmeister and Kidzblog are blogging tools set up specifically for educational purposes and offer teachers and students to become familiar with the nuances of blogging in a safe, secure environment.

Beginning bloggers can “get a sense of what online participation is actually like through commenting and responding to comments, on their own and through other people’s blogs.” (Davies & Merchant, 2009 p. 34). Through blogs students and teachers can write for and interact with a more wider audience than just the teacher.

Dean Shareski in his article, Why Audience Matters, makes a powerful statement when he says, “When students now see themselves as teachers to others then we have truly harnessed the power of the audience.”

Blogs are not only a valuable tool for teachers and students but they can be a powerful tool for libraries of all kinds including school libraries, public libraries, academic libraries and special libraries. Darlene Fichter in her article, Why and How to Use Blogs to Promote your Library’ s Services, states, “You don’t have to know anything about HTML or how to link from one page to another, let alone upload filters with FTP programs to a Web server.”

Unfamiliar with blogging software and what is right for you? Top Ten Reviews has a great review of blogging software including Blogger, WordPress and TypePad. Or check out Edublogs.

According to Greg Schwartz, libraries are using blogs for a variety of purposes:
• Some provide up-to-date information on local events, fulfilling their role as a news and information source for their community.
• Others provide library news (both local and national), advocating for the importance of library support.
• Still others are using blogs to provide announcements of new library acquisitions, promoting the services that they work so hard to provide.
• And then there are those who are doing all these things at once!

Schwartz goes onto say, “Blogs are perfect for this kind of information dissemination as the system of dated entries makes it easy for viewers to identify new content.” Once you add the ability for others to add your blog as an RSS feed to their pages then you have an ideal tool for getting your information out to your community and patrons.

Conclusion

Davies and Merchant (2009) state, “A genuine and interested audience is more likely to inspire and engage writers” (p. 30). What a motivating thought for us as educators. Blogging provides that opportunity for our students to write for others rather than just for the teacher and provides that opportunity for us, as educators to expand our professional development to a bit of new learning and a new perspective every day by subscribing to blogs through an RSS feed.

References
Davies, J. , & Merchant, G.(2009). Web 2.0 for schools: Learning and social participation.
New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.