Now take another giant leap for mankind and imagine a news aggregator that has your local newspaper’s headlines, news from your municipality, programs you’ve noted interest in from the park district, announcements from both your kid’s school and teacher, status reports from your kids’ sports teams, a notice of the “special of the day” from the local coffee shop you love, and on and on and on.
Funny thing is I was talking to our librarian about this concept today and I could see her eyes getting wide. I’m not sure if she was understanding the ways this might change the way she informs the school community (shifting?) or if she didn’t understand what I was trying to say. Either way, whether she knows it or not, next fall, she’s going to have a newsfeed, and she’ll have some subscribers as well. Mark my words. 😉
Your librarian colleague may need to see it in action or need help with lesson plan ideas. The article on blogs I wrote for the December 2002 issue of Teacher Librarian may help. Here’s the link: http://www.teacherlibrarian.com/pages/30_2_feature.html
Also, the Feb 2003 issue of Technology & Learning (www.techlearning.com ) had a good article by Kristen Kennedy on using blogs in teaching writing skills. Here’s the link: http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/TL/2003/02/blogs.html
Hope this helps!