eduscapes.com
With so much “stuff” available on the Internet, finding what you are looking for and, even then, having to sift through all of it just to get to what you were really wanting to find, can be both an adventure and most time consuming.
Lets talk about finding things on this site in general and then moving up to the really big picture………the web.
This Site: WordPress has several built in methods for you to navigate this site and they are all found on the sidebar to your right. You can go to different pages which I have titled “Learn More About Us”. WordPress also uses search terms called categories and tags. I did not like those terms and, for that matter, didn’t even know what a tag was, so I renamed those “Search By Topic” and “Search By Keyword”. I see subjects as being main topics of interest and keywords being sub-topics within this particular subject field. Finally, there is also a search box where you can type in whatever word you want and WordPress will look for blog posts or pages that contain that word. And, on all searches, you will likely get multiple results (posts and/or pages). You can search for words on a page using Firefox’s find command found under the edit tab on the top right of your browser. I also learned something about what bloggers call the tag cloud…………..I see these funny looking sections on side bars titled tag clouds and wonder why they are all jumbled up and some words are larger than others. There is a method to this. The larger the word, the more the # of posts that have been tagged with this word. Apparently, I like to write about Links, Groups, and Outlook more than say….Weasels. Mind you, weasels are much more entertaining (smile). And, just in case you are from out of town or country and want to know where Boise, Idaho is, I have made those words on the home page into a link to a map (smile).
Now, let’s go to the web. Of course, you have your google searches and even your google blog searches. I’m going to come out again and say that installing Google Reader has been a most wonderful research tool. I find blogs I like in general and then subscribe to get updated content from them automatically using Google Reader. I am able to then sift through and evaluate quickly what is of interest to me. This leads to the terms RSS and aggregator. RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. It used to stand for “Rich Site Summary”. It is a format used for notifying you of new content on a website. Aggregator has many definitions, but in this case it is something that allows individuals to subscribe to web content. Therefore, Google Reader would be an aggregator that collects RSS feeds. You will also see on this site at the top right where you can click to subscribe to entries (posts) and comments.
Random Quips:
I am redefining my expectations of Twitter. “That which we do not know, we fear” (smile). In all honesty, I’m really nowhere deep enough into this tool to fully understand it’s potential. I plan to work on this next week. Part of my new expectations is that, I believe, Twitter is for giving and taking and not asking and getting. This comment is not a negative. I am starting to see Twitter as an information distribution tool where everybody chips in. I provide information that could be of value to others (giving) and, in turn, I find valuable information for my own use (taking). Asking for something expects a response (getting). I do not see much of this happening, and have read articles that would seem to support this but, once again, I have not been on it enough to really form a fair opinion.
Thanks!
Craig
