Media in the 21st century looks vastly different from anything we've ever seen before. In the last century publishing companies, television programmers, and movie studios controlled what information reached us.
Today, that landscape's undergone a tremendous shift with the advent of push-button publishing. Now, anybody who has something to say can, with the click of a button, virtually share their thoughts with the world.
Information today is ubiquitous. Good and bad, true and false, quality and... garbage. Who's got the time to sift through all of the noise, right? What about all of those times you stumbled on to a great website only to have forgotten which one that was?
In this post I'm going to take you through 3 utilities that can help you keep track of the good news that comes from alternative media sources. I've also put together "best of bundles" that you can add directly to your own reader.
1. Google Reader
In the BG (before Google) era, prior to RSS taking off, you had to bookmark the websites you liked and then remember to go to each one individually to check for updates. That became pretty cumbersome once you accumulated anymore than 10. The other option was to subscribe to the site's newsletter. And sure, this was a great solution for its time, before email began piling up like laundry.
RSS enables you to subscribe to a website or a blog that you like and, instead of making it a habit to check the website for new information, the information is directly dropped into your "reader inbox." This one-degree of separation between my email inbox and my reader inbox was a big key to productivity. Before, I'd go to check email, see some cool articles in my inbox, follow the links, and 45 minutes later no email had been responded to. Now, email is in the email box, news in the news box.
The only problem (and I didn't know it was a problem until last year) was that checking the news looked like this:
Then, along came companies like Flipboard and Pulse Reader to patch that hole. These two resources take blog posts and turn them into magazine like articles.
This is how our Facebook Pages looks when you go directly to the website:
Here's what it looks like when you plug it in to the Flipboard app.
Pulse Reader Overview
After you select a post to read:
2. Pulse News & Flipboard
Pulse News is available for the iPhone, iPad, and all Android devices while Flipboard is currently available only on the iPad. They take news from almost anywhere you desire and transform it into an immersive magazine style. On one page you can have the latest from National Geographic and on the next page, your mom's facebook wall (that's a true story).
At the bottom of this post you'll find a quick guide to setting up Pulse News. Setting up Flipboard is almost identical.
3. Feedly
4. Hit the Ground Running
I'm happy to make available for the first time, my favorite content packages. By simply subscribing to any one of these bundles, you can fill your own reader with good news. These content packs combine the best of the web's resources. Not only do these feeds enable you to receive the best of say, NASA's news, you'll also get update from its YouTube Channel, it's Fickr Stream, It's official Facebook Page, and its official Twitter Feed.
Reading News
Book reviews, highlights from author and publisher events.
Author and Illustrator Blogs
These are the personal blogs of some of my favorite author and illustrators.
Science
NPR, BBC, NYT, Popular Science, Discovery, NASA, Animal Planet, and Science Channel. A true science news power house!
5. Set Up
6. Conclusions
Like it or not, we're living in a fast paced world. Just a few years ago, RSS and Google Reader were the new, novel and exciting. Today, it's just a step on the path to setting up these new content displayers. Today, I can't imagine a world without Pluse and Flipboard. And although today, they might seem like the end of the line, there's no predicting what the landscape will look like in another five years... when our students are entering high school.
Currently, I can't show my students how I integrate information from NASA's Twitter Feed, Discovery's YouTube Channel, or Science Friday's Facebook Page because they're all filtered out of our classroom. All of these information platforms are tools. And just as you can use a hammer to build a house, you can also use it to smash your toe. Why not model theses rich resources as tools for productivity in an educational setting? Hopefully, when the time comes for them to navigate these sites independently they'll avoid smashing their feet.
The system I've showcased here is my media landscape. It's rich with multimedia and personal connections. It's why our class was able to watch the shuttle landing live last year. It's how I'm able to read a thought about revision from Barbara O'Connor's blog while I teach a mini-lesson. It's how I can walk in to class and say, "Hey, remember that discussion we had yesterday about whether the John Hendrix biography about Charles Dickens would be considered biographical fiction or a fictional biography? Well, here's what the author thinks..."
There's so mush relevant and exciting information out there and thanks to these platforms, it's all at our fingertips. I know at times it can seem scary and intimidating but at the same time, when I'm waiting in line for a coffee, I can usually get in a quick article or two. And, with the click of a button, that article will be categorized and stored to be retrieved during a fitting lesson. More on that system later!
As with anything involving the internet, there's information out there that our students don't need. If you do intend to help your child set up these resources, you might want to set the ground rule that before any news feed is added, a parent must vet it.
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