I must admit that I haven't really been keeping up reading everyone elses' blogs. My apologies to my lovely 618 colleagues.
However, as I was perusing through the blogs, Krissy's blog post (http://khorton12.blogspot.com/) from weeks and weeks ago caught my eye. On her post titled "Google Reader and RSS Feeds" Krissy talks about being less than convinced to use Google Reader in her classroom. Honey, I'm blessing this post all the way!!! I had totally forgotten my frustration with that tool until I read your post. When Dr. Jones had us explore Google Reader as a tool to use for our research in writing our genre pieces - I had serious high hopes. I'd heard about RSS feeds before but I'd never used them. When Dr. Jones explained Google Reader as a collection tool to organize and keep track of blogs that you want to follow or websites that update often, I thought it was a great idea. I have a few websites that I visit often - but sometimes I forget. Like http://1000awesomethings.com/ which I used to follow religiously, but then I forgot all about it and now it's ending and I'm SUPER disappointed. Anyhow... Then I actually sat down and tried to use Google Reader. To no avail. Just like Krissy, I struggled becuase many of the sites were incompatible with Google Reader, and I was totally overwhelmed that first day when I had thousands of updates. The idea works, but it fails to help me in realistic function.
So what would I use in my classroom? I think that if I was looking at a particular website every day with my class I would just go right to that site. For example, I like to look at Scott Hetsko's video updates on http://rochesterhomepage.net/weather when I'm teaching my Weather unit. But I think that it is just an extra step to have to go through Google Reader. It's just too much for a classroom to go to multiple websites everyday. Especially in an upper grades classroom. There just isn't enough time. My other thought was that students could use Google Reader for research. But I just don't think that works. I think that it would be easier for students to create a continuous bibliography or references list that they can look back to if need be.
I feel like such a Debby Downer on Google Reader. I just can't find way that it could be a reasonable tool in a classroom.
Don't worry Michelle, you are not alone. I think it will also be interesting to see what improvements Google makes to the Reader program in the future to allow their users to follow additional types of sites more easily as well as to better filter how the updates are reported to the user.
ReplyDeleteEven Hicks says the time to use this feature is when the individual is conducting a specific type of research. It isn't as useful to use everyday -- unless the user is truly a news/information "junkie" and needs to be sure to follow a wide range of sites at any given moment.