Thing 10: Feed me, Seymour.

When in the market for a reader, I decided to go with Google Reader because, well, I already have a Google account. That was really about it. Then I had to pick five sites to subscribe to, so I thought about the kinds of things I used to do to entertain myself when I worked for the state and had nothing better to do all day. I had five sites in no time at all, except for the time I spent getting caught up on a couple of webcomics.

So, about those questions...

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?

I guess the handy thing about a newsreader is that I can check everything from one place. I don't know how impressive that is, really, but it's kind of like going down your Favorites list without having to click each one to see if there's anything new today. Not really much of a labor-saver, if you ask me, but slightly more convenient than doing things the old way.

How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your school or personal life?

I think I just answered this, at least with regard to my personal life. In my school life, I suppose it would be handy if there were a bunch of professional sites I wanted to keep up with, or if I made my students maintain blogs or something - then I could keep track of them all in one spot.

How can teachers use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?

Teachers can use a reader to stay abreast of professional developments or breakthroughs in their fields, or to keep track of other teachers who blog or maintain websites. This latter use could help strengthen the educators' community. Being totally honest, I'm not sure I believe that, but I think that's the idea.

Anyway, I'm not going to do a public page right now, but for fun I will share the sites to which I subscribed on here:

Ghettokore Studios: Website and blog of fellow Privateer Press Ganger, semi-professional miniature painter, and all-around cool lady Jen Ikuta. She may or may not know karate.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: I trust Jon Stewart at least as much as most "real" news outlets.

Homestar Runner: Words cannot adequately describe this site. Words like "hilarious" come close, but there ought to be more of them and I don't have time. Just go watch some cartoons - the Strong Bad Emails are particularly good.

Webcomic Overlook: I can't be bothered to actually read all the bajillion webcomics out there. So I'm putting my trust in a masked Mexican wrestler to sort the wheat from the chaff. In addition to webcomic reviews, there is a recurring segment called "El Santo vs. The Vampire Women," in which the author takes on the apparently quite prolific subgenre of webcomics that specifically deal with female vampires.

Nuklear Power: Home of 8-Bit Theatre, an incredibly long retelling of the first Final Fantasy game's story, using mostly 8-bit video game sprites. The author, Brian Clevinger, has also written a novel about superheroes (Nuklear Age) and an award-winning print comic (Atomic Robo).

Now, what do these sites have to do with being a teacher? NOTHING AT ALL. But I did learn how to use Google Reader, didn't I?