BP1_Google Reader

Greetings, friends in ETC.  I just thought I would take some time off from grading papers and playing Cafe World to complete my class assignment.  I signed up for Google Reader and searched for some feeds that I thought would be valuable to my Action Research Project, or just valuable to my teaching in general.

My first choice for taking education into the 21st century is Edutopia.  This site is full of advice and ideas for all grade levels.  I use so many things I first learned about on Edutopia, including the game I plan to use as the main focus in my Action Research: Lure of the Labyrinth.  (see labyrinth.thinkport.org)

The second site I linked to is TeacherTube.  Similar to YouTube, but not as general and public oriented, this site contains videos created by and for the use of teachers.  Topics are meant to fit into lesson plans within any curriculum area.

Thirdly, I picked Wired.  I subscribed to the print version of this magazine many years ago, and now love to visit the online version.  If you want to know what is cutting edge and upcoming in technology, Wired is the place to look.

Something I found, as a recommended feed by Google Reader,  that goes beyond TeacherTube is Free Technology for Teachers, which includes TeacherTube in its listing, but goes so far beyond, it has to be useful.  I have not explored it extensively, but plan to, and will offer reviews of what I find in later posts.

My next choice for a site to note is NPR (National Public Radio), not only because of the segment they air called All Tech Considered, but because they air news of importance, of interest, and of use in the classroom.  I wake to Morning Edition on NPR daily, and often hear a story that I relay to my students at some point during the day.

I was rather at a loss, dealing both with time and ideas, to come up with an appropriate fifth site suggestion, so I relied on the recommended items button.  I was given a list of the most inappropriate, unrelated items to my search than I could have imagined.  I have no idea what they might have based these results on, but it certainly was not based on my search requests, which I thought it would or should have been.

As a result of my searching I can conclude that this tool may be useful, but only if you are thoughtful and diligent about your search and do not simply accept as unquestionable the results that are returned to you.