Thimg #14 Technorati and How Tags Work

I did a blog search on Technorati using “School Library Learning 2.0” and came across the blog Library Byte by Byte's most recent posting (how fun to see a familiar blog among the many unknowns!), which was an outstanding podcast. This particular podcast is a prime example how one of our 2.0 tools can be used with students for reader's advisory!

Overall, Technorati was a bit overwhelming to me until I used the advanced search tool, which helped to narrow the results and get rid of many of the irrelevant blogs. The Technorati video produced by the (very young!) leadership made some interesting point about creating a community of 50 million people that is the vehicle for expressing the raw, uncut human experience from individuals who have not been edited. I guess the question that stands out most in my mind is how hard it might be to sift through the blah, blah, blah to reach the meaty, authoritative stuff. Or did I miss something?

Tagging is akin to using keywords for indexing information in an article. I like the way the author of the article decides what is important in the text. However, because it is up to the author to do the tagging, bloggers need to take the time to follow through. One of the articles on tagging cites the formation of online social groups when people using the same tags discover “similarities of interests and points of view.” Once again, here is a way for educators/students to find common ground and share/contribute/interact/collaborate with other educators/students around the world.

Thing #9: Useful Library-Related Blogs and News Feeds

I’m bloggy-eyed after trying out the various blog search tools and looking at a myriad of blogs. No wonder someone created the invaluable RSS readers! No one person could possibly keep track of all that is posted daily on each blog to which they subscribe without organizational tools to put it all in one spot and alert the user to new posts. However, the important part of all of this is finding blogs and newsfeeds that are just right for you. I liked Cool Cat Teacher’s advice about how to select your “circle of wise:” people you know, blogs listed on their blogrolls, people/organizations who inspire you, and blogs you come across on your own (whose authors exhibit the "mindset of the lifelong learner/pioneers in the field") using the blog/newsfeed search tools.

Edublogs’ list of award winners was straightforward and the easiest to use, but limiting. Bloglines was another easy-to-use site once I figured out that I needed to search using “Search for feeds.” I like the clean look of Bloglines and I liked the results I got when searching for various topics related to education, libraries, and technology. One of my favorites is Technorati. I liked Technorati’s tag layout, the well done tutorial, and was pleasantly surprised with the quality and number of the pertinent search results. The most confusing was Topix. It’s just too much of a good thing. I will have to check back with Suprglu because it was not working when I tried the link.