Information is changing, from how we get it, to how we use it. I heard an interesting idea last night on the nightly news: "Left-Wing Bloggers are starting to sway the way congress thinks". Now this statement was not followed up by any proof or instance how. I think that if this is true, we have reached a new milestone in the "Information Revolution". Information is so widely available now to everyone.
A great example: Every morning, I wake up, drive to the school in which I teach, and sit at a computer. First, I look at my school e-mail, then I log on to my http://www.pageflakes.com/ account to read my news feeds. I subscribe to feeds like http://www.metaefficient.com/ that discusses all the new efficient technologies that are available to live a greener lifestyle, http://weblogg-ed.com/ Will Richardson blog in which discusses the read/write web that is changing the worlds idea of learning, and http://news.bbc.co.uk/ in which has all the latest news stories from the UK's perspective. Now I read about 20 other feeds on a daily basis. Yes, I even subscribe to my own blogs feed. This is so I can jump to my blog quickly while I am in my pageflakes account. This all takes me about 10 minutes to actually read every bit of information that I wish to hear about on a daily basis, and it all comes to me with my free subscriptions. I do not watch the news at night or read a paper on the weekends. Why wait for a magazine in the mail. These pieces of information are not instant enough for me.
This is why information is changing. Our kids are already using information in this capacity. E-mail is becoming the new snail-mail. Kids are using IM, Text Messaging, downloading videos to YouTube, creating MySpace accounts, creating Podcasts, and publishing their thoughts on blogs. They have become writers, editors, reporters, photographers, producers, and film directors all on their own. I think that we as teachers should permit these students to use these vehicles to learn in school also. We need to catch up!!
Thursday, June 14, 2007
The "Information Revolution"
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1 comment:
I really liked reading this post! It's nice to read about how you utilize Pageflakes and how the use of RSS feeds has influenced your lifestyle. With regard to your last statement about using these platforms in school, Pageflakes does offer ways for both students and teachers to utilize the interface in and out of the classroom. The link student.pageflakes.com may be of interest to you.
I have also added your blog to our RSS feed gallery. It can be viewed under the link: http://www.pageflakes.com/Community/Content/Feeds.aspx?moduleKey=339557
If you are interested, you can also add a Pageflakes button to your page, providing users with a shortcut to adding the RSS feed for your blog to their own Pageflakes pages. Information can be found under the following link: http://www.pageflakes.com/Pages/webmaster.aspx.
And of course we would appreciate it as well.
Thanks for the support! Please feel free to contact me, should any questions or comments arise regarding Pageflakes.
Stephanie
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