Follow Ontario Edu-Bloggers

A couple of weeks ago, Rodd Lucier set out to have folks from Ontario submit the URL to their blogs so that he could compose a list of them.  The list appears on his blog here.  There are some great blogs in that list and I’d encourage you to submit to your RSS and read as many of them as you can handle.  Or, do a rotation routine and work your way through the list.

Ontario educators tend to be very insightful and positive about the things that they’re doing in the classroom and in life in general.  Because of the nature of education in Ontario, many of the suggestions, ideas, and even frustrations are similar to all.

On exactly the same date, I had blogged about a new resource from Microsoft/FUSE LABS about a new product that was available called Montage.  Montage is a way to create a page of resources from many internet locations.  It seems to me that the combination of Rodd’s work and mine would make for interesting results.

So, I went through Rodd’s list of blogs and found all of the blogs that had active RSS or Atom feeds and created a Montage of them.

On Fridays, I like to celebrate those with whom I learn during the week.  Today, I’d like to recognize those that take the time to blog and who also contributed to Rodd’s list.

Here’s how I created this.

1. I started a new Montage with a layout that looked like it had a lot of windows.
2. I worked my way down Rodd’s list of blogs looking for RSS feeds.  Where one was available, I created a window with the feed to the blog.
3. When I needed more room, I would use the tool and split the window either horizontally or vertically.
4. Saved it and published it.

You can enjoy my work by clicking here.

So, what’s the big deal.  It’s just another list of blogs.  Well, yes it is, but with a difference.  Instead of a link to the blog, each of the windows feeds to the RSS feed of the blog.  If these folks are blogging regularly, every visit to this page will reveal the latest and greatest from this great group.  You can scroll up and down to read the text or click on the entry title to go to the original blog.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the feed for all of the blogs.  If you are on Rodd’s list and not on mine, either you’re not broadcasting an RSS feed or I overlooked it.  If I did overlook it, please let me know and I’ll get yours added to the montage.  What’s nice about this?  Conceivably, you could make this page one of your start pages for your browser and get a glimpse of what the province is blogging about every time you fire up your browser!

But, extend this further.  How could you use this in your classroom?  Suppose you had an entire class blogging – put a window to each student’s RSS feed and you have a class at a glance look.  How easy is that to see just where everyone is?  Or, if you have students doing research, have them create a window for each of the resources that they used.  With one click, both they and you could see where all of their internet resources are.  There are undoubtedly other ways that this could be used.  Just use your imagination and creativity.

For today, though, please spread a little Ontario love and check out what the province is blogging!

Tags: blogs, ontario, educators

 

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