Thursday, March 20, 2008

Thing #14, Week 6

Technorati...

Once again, I got caught up in the world of Web 2.0. It took me awhile to get used to the layout of Technorati for some reason. It didn't seem like a search engine for blogs to me but instead resembled some kind of corporate webpage, which I suppose it is. Once I found the search and advanced search options, I was able to complete the discovery exercises. I found that just searching for SLL2.0 in the search bar brought up blogs that had those words somewhere in the text, which wasn't what I wanted. Searching for SLL2.0 in the tags brought up all of the people who were blogging about the program and their Things. It seems that tags are the new search keywords.

Once I found my in, I started to read all of the blogs. It's so addictive that I think warning labels should be put in the SLL blog so people are forwarned! It's just neat to read what others think and what others find. I don't think I will do too much with Technorati as far as adding their tags to my blogs or their widget to my blog. It is once again a bombardment of information that I am not ready to put the time into yet! I saw at the bottom of the discovery exercises that a possible use of Technorati would be to search for election blogs. I'm not sure that my teachers are ready yet to accept blogs as sources of information in class. A starting point for discussions, maybe, but I don't think the kids will be searching blogs any time soon as part of a class assignment. I may be wrong, though!

2 comments:

IrmaPince said...

You never know what idea some clever young teacher may come up with - and there you will be, waiting in the wings with Technorati skills at the ready!

Library Lady said...

I have had middle school students find blogs in their searches, and not even realize they are reading and citing a blog. When I question the authority of their site, they just get angry because they finally found a site that says what they are looking for. Blog sites are normally blocked by our filters, but some get through when brought up through a Google serch with key terms that are in the blog.