Google+Reader-++Personlize+Your+PD

toc  GOOGLE READER- PERSONALIZE YOUR PD You'll learning something great every day! Google Reader is an "aggregator" that can help you read "feeds" or subscriptions from websites or blogs that allow RSS feeds. Instead of going to your favorite websites to see if they've been updated, Google Reader brings updates to you. The 3.5 minute video below explains this idea and begins to explain how to use Google Reader.

media type="youtube" key="0klgLsSxGsU&hl=en" height="246" width="294" Google Reader was recently voted as one of the top 100 most important web applications, and one of the 10 most important "browsing" applications. [|Click here to see an article on Google Reader.]

**Structure of the Course:**
The idea of this "course" is to teach you how to use Google Reader to bring your personal learning to you. It is structured to break down important skills for using this powerful tool and spreading them over an extended period of time. The idea is to pace your learning through manageable "chunks" of information and to slowly build your skills. The activities for each week might take 30 minutes to an hour to accomplish and should not overwhelm you. If this pace is too slow, you can speed up your learning by simply starting on the next week's activity. If the pace is too fast, simply keep working at that week's skill until you feel comfortable moving to the next one. You can pick your own pace or go back to review something you may need more help with.

**WEEKS 1 THROUGH 10: INTRODUCTION** The first 10 weeks or skills are all centered on your personal learning. To their credit, teachers usually go into a professional development opportunity thinking, "How am I going to use this in my classes?". Ideally the ultimate goal of any PD is to impact student learning. But first the teacher must learn themselves. So...for the first few weeks don't worry about your students. Take the opportunity to learn these skills for yourself. It may feel a bit decadent or selfish, but enjoy it. We'll get to the classroom aspect of things later.  **WEEKS 11 THROUGH 20: INCREASING SKILL AND EXPERIMENTATION** The next 10 weeks or skills are about getting good at using Google Reader. Now that you have the basic skills, enjoy a few weeks of just playing with it. Take the time to further explore the functions and reflect on how it is helping you as an individual learn and be exposed to new ideas. At this time, begin to reach out and share what you've learned--but with your colleagues and friends first. Ideally you'll engage in a rewarding professional conversation that you may not have had without the learning you've done using Google Reader. Don't worry, we'll get to using this learning your classroom and your student's eventually.

**WEEKS 21 THROUGH 30: EXPERIMENTATION / APPLICATION IN CLASSES** Now that you've been at this a while and have become comfortable with using Google Reader and all it can do we are finally ready to unleash your learning on the students.

In this final stage you might want to plan another project--possibly for next school year. The last few weeks will be kind of a "winding down" period in which you'll reflect some more on how your learning has changed. I will also ask you to consider how this program was structured and how it can be improved to help others learn this powerful tool.
 * WEEKS 31 THROUGH 40: CONTINUED PRACTICE AND REFLECTION **

Now that you have the basic idea, you can start working through the "agenda" below on your own. Again, feel free to work at your own pace.  //**If you have any questions or concerns along the way you can contact me at: mike_maloy@bcsd.org. **//

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1. Go to [|Google Reader] and set up an account. Find the "Create an account" button and follow the easy directions on the page. 2. Go to some of your favorite websites and look for the RSS logo. Only sites that have RSS can be read in Google Reader.  **ASSIGNMENT:** Find about 5 to 10 websites that you want to subscribe to. These are sites that you would normally visit to see if they are updated. [|Here is excellent resource to find educational blogs.] It lists blogs for and by: students, teachers, parents, professors, principals, administrators, librarians, and more. Once you have a few subscriptions, you can now log in to your Google Reader account and see the new posts. You no longer have to go to each site or blog to see new postings. Enjoy your reading.


 * HELPFUL HINT #1: ** You can select the order in which you read your posts by choosing different options in the "View settings" window. In the screen shot below you can see the options: Sort by newest; sort by oldest; sort by auto.

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 * HELPFUL HINT #2: **This video offers a quick recap.

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<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 2: Managing "Feeds"
<span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0)"> Hopefully you have a few subscriptions that you enjoy reading. Up Now you can organize and sort them to give your subscriptions some order. hink of this as creating folders of files on your desktop. To the right you can see a picture of my Reader account with my folders. The number in parentheses next to each folder tells me how many new posts I have in each category. This allows me to go directly to those topics that I want to read first. If I click on the folder I can read all the new posts in that category. This is similar to deciding which section of your newspaper you want to read first.

1. Find the "Manage subscriptions" on the bottom left of your screen, below your list of subscriptions. 2. A new screen will pop up with all of your subscriptions listed. To the right of each subscription you will see three options. You can **rename** the post, **unsubscribe** by clicking on the trash can icon, **add to a folder.** 3. When you click on **add a folder**, a drop down menu with "new folder" will appear. Click on "new folder" and a text box will appear for you to name your folder. As you repeat this process with each new subscription you will see each of your folders, and the "new folder" option will always be at the bottom.
 * __How to set up folders:__**

<span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace"><span style="font-size: 110%; color: rgb(26, 78, 14)"><span style="color: rgb(6, 101, 17)"><span style="color: rgb(4, 139, 9); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">  **ASSIGNMENT:** Create folders that make sense to you and will help keep your posts organized.


 * <span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">HELPFUL HINT: ** Watch the video below to help you through this process.

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<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 3: Starring and Sharing
Much like reading a magazine or newspaper, as you read your subscriptions you might find that you gloss over certain feeds but others stick out as being of more interest to you. Think about when you "dog ear" a page in a good book or put a post it note in a journal to remind yourself that the article was of interest. In Google Reader you can "star" the feeds that you want to set apart as special. Perhaps you will go back to read them when you have a little more time to reflect on what you're reading.

"Starring" a feed is incredibly easy. As each feed which appears in the reader section of your Google Reader page will have an empty star next to the title of the post. If you like that post and want to set it part, simply click on the empty star and it will turn yellow. That post is now "starred". Pretty easy!

Now if you click on "Starred Items" you can see all the articles you have saved for yourself. **See below.**

Want to take it a step further? What if the post so impresses you that you want to share it with a friend? This is also remarkably easy to do. When you get to the bottom of a post you'll see a icon and the word "Share". Simply click on the icon and it will turn orange and the word will change to "Unshare".

It's as easy as clicking!

By following the above directions you have now created a "public page". Only share those items that you want made public. Here is the text about public pages from the Google Reader Help Page. [|To read more click here.]

<span style="color: rgb(55, 0, 255)">The easiest way to make a public page is to start sharing items in your reading list. When you're reading an article that you want to include in your public page, just click the **Share** link at the bottom of the article in Google Reader. The icon will turn orange to indicate that it's being shared. <span style="color: rgb(55, 0, 255)">To see the public page containing your shared items, click the **Shared items** link. You'll see a list of everything you've chosen to share, along with a link to the page where they are displayed. That's the link you'll give to people who want to read your shared items.
 * <span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(55, 0, 255)">How do I create a public page? **

<span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace">**ASSIGNMENT:** Now that we are in Week 3 you should be getting quite a few new items each day. As you read through them "star" the ones you want to save for later or "share" the ones you want others to see. **REMEMBER**: When you share an item it is public. Only share those items you really want others to see. HELPFUL HINT: ** Check out this video on sharing. It's about 2.5 minutes long.
 * <span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">

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<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 4: Go Directly to a Feed
One of the few drawbacks I've seen with Google Reader is that you can't see the comments people leave for a post. Oftentimes the most post generates really interesting conversation and debates amongst the post's readers. Reading the comments is also an excellent way to be introduced to other people who are thinking about the same issues as you are and are engaging in discourse. A well known edu-blogger, Clay Burrell, shares his frustration that Google Reader displays only the main post, but not the comments in his post [|"Aggregators as Couches, Comments as Salons"]. I completely agree with Clay's opinion that the real learning often takes place in the comment section.

To go to an individual post to see if there are any comments, all you need to do is click on the title of the post. This will take you directly to the site so you can see if any comments have been left. For example, look at the screen shot below. Dangerously Irrelevant is the name of the blog and "Compare and Contrast--Video games as education tools" is the name of the post. If you click on "[|Compare and Contrast--Video games as education tools]" you can go to directly to this post. If you go to the comments section you will see that the first comment was written by gentleman from Scotland. The post was written by Scott McLeod who lives in Iowa. This pretty clearly demonstrates the power of these tools. You can get feedback on your ideas from like minded people from all over the world. Pretty cool.



<span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace">**ASSIGNMENT:** If you read a post that you find interesting, perhaps one you are thinking of "starring" or "sharing", click on the title of the post to view the comments on the home site. Maybe you'll agree with Clay Burrell that the comments are even more interesting than the original post. HELPFUL HINT: ** If you read a comment that you find to be particularly insightful or that mirrors your own thinking, consider "following" the commenter. There is almost always a link to the commenter's own blog. Usually all you need to do is click on the commenter's name. Try it out. It gets addicting! [[Google Reader- Personlize Your PD#topofpage|Top of Page]] <span style="color: rgb(208, 144, 144)">••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
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<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 5: Reflection Week #1
<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)"> You've made it through four weeks of this "course". So far you've learned how to:
 * set up a Google Reader Account
 * manage your subscriptions and create folders
 * "star" and "share" posts that interest you
 * follow a Google Reader feed back to its original site to see the comments.

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<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 6: <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Tagging Feeds
<span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace"> <span style="color: rgb(208, 144, 144)"> Okay, here we are in week six. If you're like me you may have gone a bit overboard and have lots and lots of subscriptions by now. If that's the case you are getting more information each day than you can probably keep up with or keep organized. Folders are a good way to organize your subscriptions, but if you want to get even more granular and organize individual posts you might want to consider "tagging" your feeds. You can create your own organizational schema by assigning a post a "tag" which is meaningful to you. It's essentially assigning a "key word" to the post. Here's how you do it.

At the bottom of each post you'll see a series of options. You've seen this before when you were learning about "sharing" feeds. A few icons to the right is an option that says "Edit tags". This may or may not be followed by some suggested tags. You can add your own tag by clicking on the "Edit tag" button. As soon as you do a text box will appear. Simply type in your new tag and hit save. Your new tag will appear at the bottom of your list of folders. This allows you to assign the same tag to posts from different folders.



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<span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace">**ASSIGNMENT:** If you want to further organize your posts add a meaningful tag to them. This will offer you a more "granular" organization scheme. <span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace"> **<span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">HELPFUL HINT: **The video below is helpful in explaining "tagging". <span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">

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<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 7: <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Search Function
If you've reached Week 7 I'm guessing that you're enjoying working with Google Reader. This week I'll share with you what I consider to be one of the coolest tools in Google Reader...the "Search" feature. Look for the search box at the top of your Google Reader page.

When you type a "query" into the text box you will **NOT** be searching the internet, but your **Google Reader subscriptions**. Using the drop down menu to the right of the text box you can limit your search to specific areas. In addition to "all items" you can also search: 1) your starred items, 2) your shared items, 3) your friend's share items, or 4) any one of the folders you've created.

Now here's the really cool thing...Google Reader will even search the **//archived//** posts from your subscriptions!

For example: One of the most popular edubloggers out there is Will Richardson. He has been posting on his blog [|Weblogg-ed] for over 5 years and has literally thousands of posts. So, let's imagine you subscribe to Will's blog today. If you put a search in the text box, Google Reader won't only look for information from recent posts, say those from today or even this week, but will search Will's archives. You've may have been a subscriber for only 10 minutes, but you now have access to his posts from over five years. Imagine if you had 10, 15, 20 subscriptions to bloggers who were half as prolific as Will. You would still have access to thousands and thousands of posts--and Google Reader will search them for you. How cool is that?

I've also found this feature very useful for tracking down "starred" items. Sometimes I star items because I don't have the time to read them immediately. When I find the time, I may not remember what I've starred. It often happens that I remember starring a post on a certain **topic**, but can't remember when the post appeared, which blog it was on, or who wrote it. No big deal. If I can get the guess the topic closely enough and limit my search to "starred items" its likely I'll find the lost post in a few seconds.

One last advantage of this feature. If you have subscribed to a blog or website I'm assuming you like the information you find there. By searching for a topic via your Google Reader subscriptions rather than the internet you have in effect "filtered" your search. Rather than asking the entire universe about a topic, what you are really asking is, "what do the writers I subscribe to think about this subject?" Chances are they have thought about it, and have done the work of making links and connections to others who are thinking about that topic. Not bad.

<span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace">**ASSIGNMENT:** Do a search of your Google Reader subscriptions on a topic you want to learn more about. Pay attention to the quality of your search returns. Consider if that was a more effective search than searching the entire internet. Did you find what you were looking for? <span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace"> **<span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">HELPFUL HINT: ** You can modify how you see your search results. The default setting is the "Search results" mode. You will see three lines from the post that contains your search term in bold print. This view will take you directly to the relevant sentences within a post. In "Expanded View" you will see the entire post and your search terms will be highlighted. This has its advantages as you can determine how much of the post deals with your search topic. Is your search term mentioned in a single sentence, or is it the majority of the post? The last option is "List View". In this option you will see the name of the blog and the name and date of the post that contains your search. In this mode you may only see the search term if it is in the title of the post. The advantage of this mode is you can see many entries. Choose the mode that best suits your needs. Watch this helpful video, its a little more than 2 minutes long.

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<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 8: <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Top Recommendations
This week's lesson is quick and easy and will take you just a few minutes. Google Reader has a Top Recommendations feature. This is similar to functions used by Amazon or Itunes when they offer you suggestion based on what other customers have liked. "Customers who have bought this item have also enjoyed...." To find this function you must be in the "Home" section of your reader. Simply click on "Home" on the top left of your screen. On the far right you'll see a greenish box labeled Top Recommendations with a few suggestions. If you click "View all >>", you can see even more options, and Google Reader offers you a little explanation as to how it selected the items it is suggesting. See the second screen shot below.



FYI: This is such an easy skill you may be wondering why we didn't cover it earlier. I think Google Reader does a better job of making more accurate recommendations if you have a lot of subscriptions. If you only have a few subscriptions Google Reader doesn't have as much data to go on to access your interests.

<span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace">**ASSIGNMENT:** Look over Google Reader's recommendations. If one or two look good subscribe to them. You're building your own library of resources!<span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace">

**<span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">HELPFUL HINT: ** At this point you may have quite a few subscriptions and may be inundated with new information each day. Don't let this stress you out. Don't feel you need to "keep up" with all this new information. Remember, this is all to help you. If you feel this is stressing you out then it's not helping. I went through this stage of feeling overwhelmed and wrote about it in my blog. [|Check it out.] [[Google Reader- Personlize Your PD#topofpage|Top of Page]] <span style="color: rgb(208, 144, 144)">••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 9: <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Trends Function
The Trends function is pretty cool. It gives you a statistical breakdown of your Google Reader activity. It can tell you, amongst other things:
 * when you read your subscriptions,
 * how many you star and share,
 * how frequently authors of particular blogs post new information....

The screen shot below is pretty self explanatory.

The one thing I would like to stress here is that you aren't probably won't be reading all of your feeds or posts carefully. For example, let's take a look at the statistics above. I can assure that I did not read 1,167 posts in their entirety. I most like skipped over a huge majority of them. I tend to glance at a post and if it doesn't capture my interest in a few seconds, I simply move on. Those that look interesting but need a second look get "starred". In the last 30 days I "starred" 39 items. That's **3.34%** of the the total posts that came through my account. Those that are of high interest to me might get "shared" quickly. That's even fewer posts...only **2.83%**. You may look at that and think, so the other 97.17% wasn't important? Not necessarily important enough to share with someone. I prefer to look at it this way. In 30 days I found 33 items that I was excited enough about to share them with whomever cared to listen. And I know I would not have likely to have seen or been exposed to many of those ideas without Google Reader. If I were to write a slogan for Google Reader it might be, "You'll learning something great everyday!"

<span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace">**ASSIGNMENT:** Use the trend data to analyze your use of Google Reader. Are there feeds are frequently updated but you don't read or star much? Maybe you can get rid of that subscription. Are there feeds that you absolutely love that aren't updated much? Maybe you can leave a comment for the author and tell them how much you enjoy their posts. This might encourage them to write more, and I guarantee it will make their day! The data might even help you identify when you're reading the most. What's the best time of day for you to check your feeds? <span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace"> **<span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">HELPFUL HINT: **Check out the video below. Again, its about 2.5 minutes long. <span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive"> media type="youtube" key="d8RQ7lFOhy0&hl=en" height="220" width="263" Top of Page <span style="color: rgb(208, 144, 144)">••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

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Wow. Now we're a quarter of the way through this "course". In the last four weeks we've addressed how to:
 * tag feeds to give you more control in your organization of information
 * search your subscriptions for topics of interest to you.
 * use the "Top Recommendations" function,
 * use the Trends function

Now is a great time to do some more reflecting. Please leave a comment in the [|Reflection Week #2 Discussion] and answer some questions.

<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 11: GR Shortcuts
There are quite a few keyboard shortcuts you can use to navigate around Google Reader without having to taking the laborious action of moving your mouse or using a touch pad. I don't use these much, but you might find them helpful. [|This page from Google]explains it much better than I can, so I'll "farm it out" to that site. It has a nice video tutorial with a nice little soundtrack. <span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace"> <span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace"> **<span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">HELPFUL HINT: ** Here's the video with the nice soundtrack. It's about 1.5 minutes long. media type="youtube" key="tMKOz865pFA&hl=en" height="190" width="227"
 * ASSIGNMENT:** Find a cool shortcut that you like and remember it. One that I actually use a bit is "m". If you click this it leaves the post "unread" so it will still be there next time you log into your account. This cool little feature actually inspired its own post. [|Check it out].

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<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 12: <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">GR Help Page
Last week I referred you to Google Reader's Help page to describe the various shortcuts that are available. The Help page is very well structured and is worth checking out. It has two main sections. One are the [|"canned" help topics] that Google itself attempts to answer. Another section is available for [|users to be able to ask questions of other users.] This is a little harder to sort through.

<span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace">**ASSIGNMENT:** I hope my explanations thus far have been helpful, but I wouldn't be insulted if you check out the help page and see if Google can do a better job. Actually, if there's a section of mine that needs work, please let me know. <span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace"> **<span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">HELPFUL HINT: ** There's an "experimental" way to read your feeds when you are off-line. It requires installing some addtional Google software and following some easy directions. I've tried it and it works. All your archived posts are synchronized to your computer. You do lose some of the functionality such as the ability to search your feeds. I imagine this might be helpful if you had to do research or wanted to do your reading while you were out of wireless range. Pretty cool.

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<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 13: <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Add a Friend
A good way to share your subscriptions and to see other's shared items is to add a friend. The process for doing this is explained in a Google Reader [|Help Page]. In order to be able to do this you need to be communicating with someone using Gmail Chat or Google Talk. I am sad to admit I don't have any friends of either Gmail or Google Talk, so I haven't really used this function much.

<span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace">**ASSIGNMENT:** Download [|Google Talk]. Try and find my account and ask me to join you. I will. Maybe we can figure this one together. <span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace"> **<span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">HELPFUL HINT: **I promise you I'll say "yes" if you invite me to chat in Gmail or Google Talk. Top of Page <span style="color: rgb(208, 144, 144)">••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 14: <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">E-mail a Post
So far we have focused squarely on your own learning. Now we'll look at how you can start to spread what you've learned to others beyond using the "share" function. One of the easy thing to do is to e-mail a post to a friend or group of people. As you know at the bottom of each post there are several options available to you. So far we've dealt with starring, sharing, and tagging. You can also e-mail posts. When you click the Email icon a larger screen will appear. See below. This function has some advantages and disadvantages to consider. **Disadvantages**: > <span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace"> <span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace"> **<span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">HELPFUL HINT: **Although the e-mail feature is immediate, it may be beneficial to open Lotus Notes and e-mail the information from there.<span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace"> <span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive"> Top of Page <span style="color: rgb(208, 144, 144)">••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
 * Advantages**:
 * This is an immediate way to share information with a specific person or group of people.
 * The entire post, rather than just a link to the post, is automatically included in the e-mail.
 * You have some space to comment on why you are sending the post
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">The e-mail will be sent via Gmail (Google's e-mail service) not Lotus Notes. You therefore need to know the person's entire e-mail address if you don't have it in your Gmail address book. (You can't just type in a name. You need the @bcsd.org information as well.)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">If you are entering multiple people you will have to type in the As it mentions in the e-mail function, you only have 1,000 characters to compose an e-mail. If your message is simply "thought you might like this" or "we should talk about this" that won't be a problem. If you want to add more (maybe trying to explain how the post relates to some past conversation), then 1,000 characters might be limiting.
 * Even if you click on "send me a copy of this e-mail", the message will be sent to your Gmail account, not your Lotus Notes account. You may end up tracking conversations in multiple programs.
 * ASSIGNMENT:** Find a post that you think a colleague or group of colleagues might enjoy and e-mail it. It is interesting to see the response you'll get. Does the recipient respond with a message? Does the post generate some discussion?

<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 15: <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Reflection Week #3
Time for some more feedback. In weeks 13 and 14 you were encouraged to "reach out" to others. How did that go? Please leave a comment in the [|Reflection Week #3 Discussion] and answer some questions. Top of Page <span style="color: rgb(208, 144, 144)">•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">

<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 16: Updating Feeds
No new skills or learning this week. But, it may be an ideal time to take some time and manage your subscriptions. <span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace"><span style="font-size: 80%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"> <span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive"> <span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace">**ASSIGNMENT:** Ask yourself: 1) Do I really read all my subscriptions? Can I get rid of a few? 2) Are all of my subscriptions in folders that are useful to me? 3) Are there any tags that would be more useful. <span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive"> Top of Page <span style="color: rgb(208, 144, 144)">••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 17: E-Mail Signature
A great way to increase the visits to your "Shared Page" (or your your blog, your twitter account, etc...) is to include it in the signature line of you're e-mail. If you've shared it, you must want people to see it. By adding a link to your signature page you can increase the potential traffic to your shared page. **REMEMBER**: When you share an item it is public. Only share those items you really want others to see. I've added links to many of my on line resources to my e-mail signature. See below.



<span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace">**ASSIGNMENT:**

**<span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">HELPFUL HINT: **Top of Page <span style="color: rgb(208, 144, 144)">••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 18: E-Mail a Post #2
<span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace">**ASSIGNMENT:**

**<span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">HELPFUL HINT: ** Top of Page <span style="color: rgb(208, 144, 144)">••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 19: Use a New Idea
<span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace">**ASSIGNMENT:**

**<span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">HELPFUL HINT: ** Top of Page <span style="color: rgb(208, 144, 144)">••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 20: <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Reflection Week #4
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<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 21: Help A Friend
<span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace">**ASSIGNMENT:**

**<span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">HELPFUL HINT: ** Top of Page <span style="color: rgb(208, 144, 144)">••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 22: Good RSS Feeds
<span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace">**ASSIGNMENT:**

**<span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">HELPFUL HINT: ** Top of Page

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<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 23: <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Use a New Idea
<span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace">**ASSIGNMENT:**

**<span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">HELPFUL HINT: ** Top of Page <span style="color: rgb(208, 144, 144)">••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 24: Share a Resource
<span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(12, 110, 18); font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace">**ASSIGNMENT:**

**<span style="color: rgb(255, 64, 0); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">HELPFUL HINT: ** Top of Page <span style="color: rgb(208, 144, 144)">••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 25: <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Reflection Week #5
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<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Weeks 26 to 29: Project 1
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<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 30: <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Reflection Week #6
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<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 31 to 34: <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Project 2
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<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 35: <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Reflection Week #7
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<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 36: Week 1-10 Recap
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<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 37: Week 11-20 Recap
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<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 38: <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 21-30 Recap
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<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 39: <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 31-40 Recap
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<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 18)">Week 40: Reflection Week #8
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