Feed Readers and Blogs

 Before this assignment, I didn’t know what a feed reader even was. After reading through the bloggingwizard’s post about the 6 best free RSS feed readers I decided to go with feedly. https://feedly.com/i/welcome  I chose feedly because I loved the way it presented the blog information. You have the option of creating different blog folders for your different interests. There is a menu on the left side that presents the folders and the blogs that are in that folder. Adding blogs is super easy and each blog that you add even offers other suggestions like it underneath. When you click on the folder the most recent information from all blogs in that folder are presented with the first picture from the blog on the side. When you click on blog posts all of the information from the blog is presented in a tab that pulls out on the side without ever leaving the site. When you click on the blog individually, it will show all the recent posts from that specific blog, and clicking on the top will take you to that blog’s website. There is even a place to see information from all the blogs regardless of folder, but it’s presented in rows of text to give more space. It was also super easy to sign up to.

Feeder was also easy to sign up for, but the setup is a bit different. The whole blog post is presented on the side so you could explore more as you’re reading, but you don’t get to see the information fully without leaving the sight. They have a really neat toggle between a simplified version of the blog and the full website version. A lot of the folder organization applies to them too. They are also really explicit about explaining all of the features of their feed reader as soon as you get in. It’s a little more hidden on the feedly website, but it’s also there.

Newsblur wasn’t as easy to sign up to. They don’t have a Google sign-up option which I really enjoy using. The blogs are all presented on the left side and there doesn’t seem to be a way to organize them by type. The information is all presented simply without many features from the original site beside the picture and paragraph organization. The posts move from one to the other as you go down.

Goodnews is another feed reader that I enjoyed, but the focus is definitely on news. There are so many sources and so many ways to organize them. There are also different topics that can be created and different ways to expose the information.

 

The first five blogs that I decided to follow were:

1.      https://msyinglingreads.blogspot.com/ I chose to follow Ms. Yingling Reads because I was interested in the book reviews that are aimed at books for middle school kids. I also enjoy that she shares the strengths, weaknesses, and what she really thinks after summarizing each story. There is even a reading challenge that she hosts each year where members of the blog can commit to reading a certain number of books each year.

 

2.      https://edtechvision.org/ I chose to follow this blog because I wanted to get a better look at technology that could be used in the library and in an educational setting. There are so many tools that are showcased and she even talks about the best ways to use them in a classroom. She gives pointers on the features that each tool has that make them easier to use.

 

3.      http://greatkidbooks.blogspot.com/ I chose to follow this blog because it’s for book reviews, but with an age range that is a bit more expanded 4-14. Mary Ann Scheuer is a high school librarian in California that shares book reviews, literature award lists, the age recommended for each book and list, and personal anecdotes that share the importance of books in her own life. I really enjoyed that there is a link under each of the books that allows you to buy, preview, and even check out of your local library using WorldCat.

 

4.      http://www.noshelfrequired.com/ I chose to follow this blog because it talks about technology in so many unique ways. There are different tabs that will allow you to easily find information on news, issues, reports or papers, and resources related to digital content in education and libraries.

 

5.      https://www.librarypatch.com/ I chose to follow this blog because it shares information about being a school librarian at the elementary level. One of the most recent posts also mentioned struggling with maker spaces and finally getting them right and that captured my attention.