Thing 6 - RSS Feeds & Newsreaders

I love the idea of having everything in one centralized spot. I really like netvibes and being able to set up various dashboards that are subject specific where you can log in and have everything truly in one place. My first dashboard is my home page which automatically brings up the weather along with email updates from my various email accounts as well as Facebook updates and local weather. No more going to different sites and remembering various logins. I like the fact that it automactially logs me in and shows me my most recent information from all of these sites when I first get into netvibes. My second dashboasrd is on 2nd grade and specific feeds that I have subscribed to from various 2nd grade teachers who blog regularly about what they do in their classrooms. Again, it is nice to go to once place to explore these resrouces and it is also handy to see the subject lines pop up so I can go to specific content areas or ideas that are of most use at the moment within these specific blogs. I also added news feeds from places like education week as well as TCEA to be able to browse headlines more efficiently. I think libraries can use RSS feed with students by creating a homepage that is school and/or subject specific linked to credible resources which would allow students much easier and faster access to subject area information. It would be a great resource in the elementary classroom as a guide as to credible resources and links. I will say that the netvibe platform gave me some trouble in the beginning when I was setting up dashboards, I somehow kept getting confused with which dashboard I was using or posting links too. I think with more practice and use, however, this is a tool that would be easy to navigate and use. I plan on setting it up as my default internet browser screen on my personal computer.