Cathy Nelson’s Professional Thoughts

In lurking around the SLJ’s “All Together Now” Netvibes page, I’ve discovered many new blogs by school librarians to follow. Quite obviously some are rather experienced, but many others are very experienced. The new bloggers are using a variety of platforms to test the waters, and I’ve seen many Edublogs, Wordpress, and Blogger blogs. I have always had a strong dislike to the Google Platform known as Blogger or Blogspot.

One reason for this dislike is of this particular platform is it seems to be blocked a lot by k12 schools, more than likely due to the bar that rides across the top and includes a link to the “next blog” which is randomly loaded. The issue here, I imagine, is the chance that the next blog will be significantly less than educational. I initially tried blogger, but when I decided it was risky due to that little feature, moved over to Edublogs, which I’ve grown quite comfortable with, and must say the behind the scenes helpers have been immensely nice and generously helpful with any issues I have had. (thanks Sue!!)

Another issue I had with Google’s Blogger platform was the feed. While it behaved like a blog, allowing comments and feed I could subscribe to in my reader, it lacked a feature I liked in Wordpress and Edublogs–>a comment feed. The comments feed allows one to read blogs in their reader as if they are a conversation. When people asked me what platform they should try, I would suggest first Edublogs, then Wordpress, and then strongly steer them away from Blogger, no matter how easy it was reported as being. Why? No comments feed available. Well, I guess Google got wind of this complaint (surely not from little ol’ unimportant me). They have made the fix and made it possible for Blogger users to add in their subscription feeds to their side bars–both for all posts and all comments. (How? Simply go into the dashboard, find layout, add a page element, and select subscription feeds.)

What does this mean? It means now I can subscribe to their posts and comments, and really feel a part of a conversation happening in a blog. As it was, if I followed a blogger user, I had to leave my aggregator to read comments. Now they will come to me in my reader. W00T.

No, I’m not going back to Blogger. But I will stop steering newbies away from it. I will recommend it AFTER Edublogs, and then only as a last resort. Sorry Google–lose the risky and totally unecessary “next blog” feature. Make that an optional feature instead.

“Blogger-Logo.”
http://www.elertgadget.com/images/blogger-logo.JPG

“Edublogger.”
http://edc.carleton.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/edublogs.jpg

“Wordpress-Logo.”
http://www.breakitdownblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/wordpress-logo.png

The SLJ All Together Now version of 23 Things is now in its 2nd week, and “thing 3″ calls for us to subscribe to a podcast or two and tell why we like it. Yesterday I wrote about Bob Sprankle’s Bit by Bit. Today I thought I’d plug the upcoming K12 Online Conference, which starts its 3rd annual event October 13, 2008 (with an introductory keynote) followed by two weeks of forty presentations (October 20-31, 2008.) I have participated in the last two years, and plan to be there for the 3rd annual conference too. Best, it is ALL online, so I don’t have to go “anywhere” in particular, and even better, it’s totally FREE. It has been promoted as free, flexible and forward thinking. This is last year’s logo, but it really speaks to what the K12Online Conference is all about. Free is self explanatory–it doesn’t cost you a dime in travel, hotels, lodging or any of the other amenities we commonly associate with attending a typical conference. Flexible describes it well, because participants choose when and where they partake of “most” of the offerings–there are a few events that are live, but most of those are even archived. Forward Thinking (Progressive & Practical) is also used in describing the K12Online Conference too, as participants can capture a true vision for forward thinking from great presenters who share fabulous and usefull tried and true tips for engaging learners using 21st century skills. (Gee I sound like a commercial.) But its true! There is something for everyone here, from the true novice beginner to the professional keynoter who alredy knows it all. This year’s theme is “amplifying possibilities.”

I know I will blog about this again nearer to the actual dates of the conference, but for those out there who have decided to participate in “All Together Now” 23 Things, here is a wonderful podcast series that you can go ahead and take advantage of now. Subscribe to the K12 Online Conference and GRAB learning on the go that will NOT disappoint you. Yes, it will be last year’s content, but the content is still wonderful. I think this picture from a set in lynetter’s photostream says it all. This is true especially for podcasts, no matter when, where, or even how we consume them.

Where are the K12 Online feeds? Here

Image Attributions:

“Online Things Can Live Forever.” 1 February 2007. lynetter’s photostream (set “interesting Snippets”). July 29, 2008. <http://farm1.static.flickr.com/166/376632696_3f4d7a3755.jpg?v=0>

K12 Onlince Conference Banner 2008
http://k12online.ning.com/

K12 Online Conference 2007 Image
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2247/1520649674_db1606ee7d_o.jpg