I’ve chosen to explore the wonderful world of Feedly (although so far, I am really not a fan). I have been fooling around on the site and app for the past week, and have found it somewhat difficult to navigate. I don’t know if my frustration is with the site/app itself, or from learning to use so many different platforms at the same time. Regardless, there are a few sources I’ve chosen to follow that have supplied me with some interesting resources, blogs and news outlets — Free Technology for Teachers, Gizmodo, and MindShift.
Free Technology for Teachers is an excellent feed to follow because of how straight forward the articles and attachments are. If the title of the article is How to Use Microsoft Translator, that’s exactly what you will find. The layout of the articles are very straightforward, and have direct connections to applications in education — making it extremely relevant to our EdTech course, but also for teachers and education in general.
Gizmodo is a technology and science based feed, ranging from news outlets and social media, to product reviews and internet safety. Because there is such a variety of information in this feed, there is greater opportunity to find additional resources while you’re exploring the articles and linked websites. I have found it particularly beneficial to expand my knowledge and resource base in coding, (for my learning project). I didn’t realize how much coding is involved in EVERYTHING, and this feed has provided me with different avenues for understanding code, and even the language and jargon around coding, in a way that is slightly less dry than some other outlets.
MindShift has been my favourite feed so far. The articles and resources in this feed refer a more “humanitarian” sense of technology and education. As a pre-service teacher with a background in sociology, and as someone who is just learning about many of these technologies, I’ve found the posts on this feed are more relatable and accessible. The content that is covered has a lot to do with the processes we are going through in education courses and new technologies, but also the things we are reminded of, in regard to taking care of ourselves, mindfulness, meditation, and our own well-being — the best of both worlds.
Hi Lisa,
When I first started using Feedly I wasn’t a fan either, but it was because I was being bombarded with so many platforms at once that I couldn’t take the time to just sit down and understand how to use the one, and how to use it properly. Once things cooled down and I started to look into Feedly, I enjoyed it more and more. I now use Feedly quite often, as it has helped me with so many assignments. One of my favourite sources on Feedly is TeachThought as it discusses up to date ideas of technology and teaching in general. I definitely think once you take the time to use Feedly, you will begin to enjoy it too!
Also, thank you for mentioning the Mindshift source! Your description of it was intriguing so I searched it up on my own Feedly and I am impressed. I have now started to follow that source as well.
One thing I would try to do with your blog is to link the three sources you talked about to their actual websites. It would have been beneficial in my case as I was intrigued by the Mindshift source; however, I had to go search for it on my own Feedly, whereas if you had it linked all I would have had to do was click the link and it would have taken me there. Aside from that, your blog is great!
Great post!
Shantel
Thank you for your ideas and feedback! I will definitely update that, to make them more accessible.
Hey Lisa,
Feedly is definitely a great source to find articles and it can be overwhelming when you first start looking at it. It is cool for the fact that you can find so many articles and blogs in one spot. One thing I really noticed is that it is really hard to use Feedly on your phone so I definitely suggest always using it on a laptop or desktop as it does make it a little less confusing!
Rebecca