If you missed the 12:10 lunch and learn on RSS feeds, here are some resources you can use to learn more about this great research and learning tool. RSS can bring current literature searches, reading, news, photos, and your most commonly read informaton to you, instead of having to search multiple sites to find it.
Intro to RSS
Courtesy of Common Craft, displayed via You Tube, RSS in Plain English?
Using RSS in Internet Explorer 7.0 or later (RSS is not viewable in Internet Explore earlier than version 7.0)
George Siemens mentions the idea of teacher as curator in today’s blog at elearnspace. He cites his own more detailed description of a curatorial teacher:
A curatorial teacher acknowledges the autonomy of learners, yet understands the frustration of exploring unknown territories without a map. A curator is an expert learner. Instead of dispensing knowledge, he creates spaces in which knowledge can be created, explored, and connected. While curators understand their field very well, they don’t adhere to traditional in-class teacher-centric power structures. A curator balances the freedom of individual learners with the thoughtful interpretation of the subject being explored.
I think there is genius in his phrase “expert learner”. What he describes, to me is very much the role of a producer in a video or recording project. Think of George Martin for the Beatles, Quincy Jones for artists from Sarah Vaughn to Michael Jackson, or Mutt Lange for Shania.
While I like the idea of curator in the classroom, and especially in the online learning environment, there is room to consider administrative need for accountability and outcomes measurement. In balancing these roles, the analogy of producer rings true.
I confess, it is my experience base as a producer for most of my working career, which is why educators, librarians and digital media professionals are pairing up to deliver new and exciting forms of learning.
As a strategist and as a creative thinking instructor, one of the tools I share with clients and students is the idea of turning around a problem or statement, to look at it from a new perspective.
So, the here are the 12/10 conspiracy tools examined from a new view. Each of the tools you are invited to explore as part of the 12/10 conspiracy can hep you do the following:
Do you want to?:
Improve your presentations with photos but you don’t have the time or money to search stock photo libraries (Flickr)
Have someone organize and collect new research articles and put them in one easy to find place (rss)
Empower students to work and share their learning collaboratively (wiki)
Eliminate (or limit) the amount of information clutter in your email — but still have access to information you want and need (Pageflakes)
Make a fun or clever or creative hand-outs without having to learn a complex program like PhotoShop or Illustrator (flickr tools)
Find new research colleges and share your insights – or – help your students gain a deeper understanding of your work and course lectures (Blogger)
Discover a new was of organizing disparate pieces of information based on your own use or a collective understanding (Technorati)
Set goals and have others cheer you on (43 things)
Use your drive time or workout time to catch up on current issues, or build student understanding of your lectures outside of class time (iTunes)
Create a controlled access point for students to interact with you (Facebook)
Find current article and news relating to any topic and have it sorted and categorized for you (Google Alerts)
Have your colleagues be able to edit the same document and archive all versions (your students can write a collaborative project, as well, with almost no risk of lost data) (Google documents)
Our initial response to the first 12/10 lunch and learn was impressive. Those who attended have begun to see the time and effort saving uses of RSS in and out of the classroom. I’ve already receive initial blog posts, 43 things lists, and a few pleas for “help” in getting the latest in PubMed searches delivered to desktops on demand!
And for those of you who wanted to see it again, below is the video presentation “What if” (a You Tube feed)
F.R. "Fritz" Nordengren is Assistant Professor at Des Moines University where he supervises health care administration graduate student capstone projects.
He is a President of the Iowa Food Systems Council to recommend policy, research and program options for an Iowa food system which supports healthier Iowans, communities, economies and the environment.
Nordengren is an award winning producer, a graduate health care educator, and a small farmer & rancher
