Thursday, August 21, 2008

Question for the Class

HELP! How can I more effectively keep up on all of the postings on BLOGs? I'm struggling with trying to keep up with posts to BLOGs and participate /comment to those blogs. How are you compiling the additions to all of the blogs? I tried using an RSS feed but not all of the changes are showing. I'm wasting huge amounts of time just trying to read all of the BLOGs and bouncing around from BLOG to BLOG.

5 comments:

edcs855 said...

Al,

You can add everyone’s blog synopsis to your site by adding the following page element. 1. Sign in to your blog and click on the customize option in the upper right of the page.
2. Click on the Add a Gadget located on the left side of the customize page about a fourth of way down.
3. Select the “Blog List” item.
4. Leave the default settings as is and add the Snippet of most recent item with a click in the checkbox.
5. Click on Add a blog to your list option about three quarters of the way down the page.
6. Type in OR copy and paste from the URL address in your browser one of the cohorts blog URL. Example: http://cs855nigel.blogspot.com
7. Click on Add to List button to repeat the process for each cohort blog site. Note: If you do not have a list of everyone’s blog site. My blog site http://edcs855.blogspot.com has a list of everyone’s blog site under the title CS 855 Blogs on the left side about half way down.
8. Click on the Save button.
9. Click on the Page element added View Blog option top middle of customize page.
10. Now your blog will display everyone’s blog updates for an easier review.

The set time will take about 20 - 30 minutes.

Have fun!

Jean said...

You need an aggregator.

Nigel pointed out a Google service that does this (Google Reader?).

I use an application called NetNewsWire (Mac of course). When I visit a web page on the Mac an RSS button shows up in the navigation bar if a page has an RSS feed. Clicking on this adds the feed to NetNewsWire. I currently have 65 feeds I am watching, including all of the blogs and twitter feeds from class, other news such as CNN and BBC, friends blogs and tweets, and so on.

I usually just look at the aggregated feed of unread articles. You can click on an article to view the original content on a built in web browser.

asdasd said...

Yup, if you just add an RSS feed for the blogs that you want to watch yo tour blog, this will make things much easier.

askill said...

Thanks all! The Blog list gadget works pretty well. If I were to continue using a blog I think I'd look into some of the tools available (that Mac appears to come with.

Lyr Lobo said...

With the volume of blogs that we have in this class, it is still a good-sized task to keep up with it all, Alan.

I've given up on sleep and take the occasional cat nap when my eyes blur beyond recognition. *grins*

Still, I would not miss these blogs and everyone's insights for the world. But I am going to reflect on alternative ways to track and respond to comments. *chuckles*