TOEP has taught me a lot - and I will likely learn a lot more

In this blog post I'll talk about my learning relating to RSS and newsreaders. I've use an RSS newsreader to collect and subscribes to a number of sites prior to the requirement for the Tools of Engagement discovery activity. Even though, I learned quite a bit through this TOEP task.

The first thing I learned is that in addition to RSS standing for "really simple syndication" it also means "rich site summary." This second meaning seems to be a simpler way to understand what an RSS feed is used for.

Another thing I learned is that Bloglines, which is an RSS reader similar to Google Reader, is alive and well. When I implemented a project similar to TOEP in my course my students discovered mid-semester how transient technology is. Bloglines was the de facto standard for newsreaders. As my students approached the RSS discovery activity Bloglines was suddenly discontinued. This I saw as a teachable moment; no matter how "standard" a technology seems to be - there's always a new "standard" right around the corner. A principle that TOEP tries to instill is that one should never get too caught up in the tool and instead learn the principles behind how and why a broad technology concept is used.

And the third thing I learned through TOEP was how to make a public blogroll. The link on the TOEP site to View All Blog Entries was created as a result of conversations among the TOEP team members to try to find a way to make the reading (and browsing) of other TOEP participant's blog entries easier. When my students reviewed their classmates blogs they had to click each blog post.  NOW all TOEP blog posts are easily scannable from a single blogroll page.

I learned this new time-saving technique as a result of TOEP and as a result of being able to communicate with others about what my goals were and collectively we discovered a way to accomplish this goal. I'm sure this is just one example of many ways we will all learn along side each other through TOEP.