Week Four - Thing 8 - RSS Feeds

Ok, I have set up my RSS feeds. To be perfectly honest, I have no need for RSS feeds in my life - personal or professional. I think, as it is, we are all bombarded by information from all angles every day. So why would I subscribe to another thing that I have to sign up for, sign into, and spend time reading? I see how these would be helpful, especially if you had a job as a reporter for a newspaper or some other job where you need to be on top of information from multiple sources quickly. In my job, somebody comes in with a question and I search for the answer right there and then. Does it help to be on top of current trends and information? Of course. However, I already find myself saying, several times a day, "I was just reading about..." without needing to be hooked into an RSS feed.
Something that really bothered me is the fact that I signed up for a friend's political blog, and anywhere he has video embedded shows up in the RSS feed as a continual list of pornographic language. What's up with that? It makes me ask what kind of filtering there is on these RSS feed sites. If I asked students to sign up for these, will they see something similar?

Week Four - Thing 9 - Blog Finders

I used the Google Blog finder. I never knew there was such a thing! I think this is great. I often am faced with a question from someone who would like to know what others in a certain field (usually different teaching disciplines, but not always) are thinking about. With the Blog search I can go on and find a few blogs and read a little about any subject to get various opinions. It's weird, it is almost like having a round table discussion about any subject at the drop of a hat. I found with some blogs you sometimes are faced with some fanatics or people who feel really passionately one way or the other, depending on what subject you are searching for. I suppose people who bother to keep up with a blog are the ones who DO feel passionately about their subject matter. Anyway, if you can kind of sift through and glue all comments together for a more well-rounded perspective, it can be really helpful.