#8 (Week 4)

Okay after about a day and a half I have come so far in my ability to use a reader. I must be honest and say that at first I was so disillusioned that I wanted only to learn enough to understand about this technology, and then to not use it for myself. Now, after much learning, I am willing to dedicate daily time to this endeavor.

Let me share some of my struggles. At first, this activity was giving me so many more questions than answers. Such as, what are the pros and cons of following a blog through Blogger or subscribing to a blog through an rss feed? (I still don't know the answer to that one but perhaps I am going to be able to figure it out on my own)

Then I was frustrated not knowing why there were so many items in my reader. When I read them and scrolled through they were "marked as read" but I originally wanted them to go away. (I am opposed to clutter and it simply wasn't what I was used to, e.g. when I go through my email, I can be left with an empty inbox on a particularly productive day) I was distressed at first and didn't know what I was doing wrong. I still don't really understand this part but it is no longer bothering me.

Then I thought if I am going to do this rss thing, will I need to make Google reader my homepage? How will I remember to check my feeds each day?

I wanted to use this technology effectively yet I could not find an article on how to use the reader... I was finding more articles on how to set up your reader with feeds and how to be effective as a blog writer by looking at what followers are seeing in their readers.

Then I was feeling really unable to understand and work with rss feeds when I struck gold! This next bit sounds more like the learner I know!

I found the Google Reader YouTube videos. They are excellent. Oh my gosh... I am really getting this now! And I love that you click on the question mark and get the shortcuts... so far I am using j to get to the next post and I just used shift-d to share with notes... took me a bit but I am getting this now and while I keep current in the field of school libraries, I can look for a bicycle for my son on Craig's list!

I am experimenting with some feeds and being ruthless about which to keep and from which to unsubscribe. It seems that a certain amount of time should be dedicated to reading these feeds each day and that it should be at a certain time. After that I will mark all items read. I am thinking 30 minutes but I am not sure when. I'll look at our school schedule when it is ready and make a determination.