Imagination is more important than knowledge.

     I’ve had a Google Reader set up for a while, mainly because I was playing around with Gmail and Google when I first created our Gmail account.  I haven’t really paid much attention to it though, so it was nice to have a reason to reacquaint myself with it.  I could have been wrong in how I went about subscribing to everyone’s Blogger account, I just “followed” the blog and then had to copy and paste the link into my Google Reader subscription bar.  I found this to be kind of a pain, and I noticed that this was not the case on other blogs that were not provided by Blogger since they had the handy-dandy RSS feed button to click and subscribe to all in one.  Of that I was a fan!

     I do enjoy using my blog, though!  I’ve been addicted to cooking blogs ever since we bought our house a year ago.  I wish I were talented or interesting enough to be able to write about something a mass of people would enjoy reading about!  But I suppose that is every blogger’s wish and goal, isn’t it?         

     When thinking about Dale’s Cone and the blog and RSS feed, I personally feel that it would fall in the Verbal Symbol s portion of the Cone.  Both forms of technology depend on the written word or “word of concretion” (127) to get their point across; I also really enjoyed how the article expressed that this point on the Cone was not reserved for those with superior intellects, but for anyone who had the ability to read and write.  This stood out because that is really the case when it comes to blogs; they are used by anyone with access to the internet and feels they have something to share with the World Wide Web.  The RSS feed allows people easy access to the information that is being broadcasted by various individuals, professional or otherwise.

     After reading Siegel’s article about “computer imagination” I began thinking about the different ways blogs and RSS feeds could be used imaginatively.  I enjoy the idea of being about to share the classroom’s progress with parents and guardians who might not have a chance to be as involved in their child’s school life as they would want to be.  Posting pictures and examples of the students’ projects to demonstrate their progress and how they spend their time in class would be a great use for a blog; it would help families stay more connected to their student, especially if a parent is out of state or overseas. 

     RSS feeds would be useful for a teacher especially when they are looking to use various articles for a lesson and need to be in one location for easy access.  The reader is also useful for being able to explore different sites that the teacher may not know about; this could help provide new lesson plans or new ways to teach a certain topic.  Blog posts for fellow teachers could also be posted here and provide constant updates on the state of their classrooms as well.