RSS Feeds.....Oh How I Have Missed You

(Quick note: sorry for the length of time between posts - I know that my fans have missed me.  I have been super slack and won't let it happen again)

Around 12 months ago, I found out about a thing that changed the way that I interact with the internet and find resources.  That was just a little thing called Twitter.  Under the advice of an educator that I have never meet (Mr Robbo) I signed up for this thing and jumped aboard the PLN train.  I have a bit of an addictive personality (as outlined in a previous post about my podcasting addiction) and started to become amazed at how easy it was to find out about new things from educators all around the world.

Whilst I still believe in the power of the PLN, recently I have been thinking about revisiting an old friend and its name is iGoogle.  In my BT world (before Twitter) I used to live and die by my iGoogle feeds.  I remember with excitement reading a post from Sue Waters at the Edubloger about this exciting thing called RSS and how it would bring content to your rather than you having to open each website individually and hope to god that you haven't wasted your time.  I was amazed by this and really thought that it was amazing.  I added so many things to my feeds, it was ridicioulus.  I have the usual feeds about sport, school etc but I also added stuff about Harry Potter (which is really sad for a 34 year old grown man)

But then Twitter hit and I started to become amazed by how much information was passing by my finger tips every day.  I thought 'Who cares about RSS when I have Twitter?'  I lost track of my feeds and they just sat there.  I actually deleted a whole bunch because I arrogantly thought that Twitter would do the trick for me and I wouldn't need it anymore.

But recently I have been thinking about my feeds and due to Twitter, I am constantly adding new people to my PLN and they are posting links to their blogs.  I really want to go and revisit some of their old work and it is fantastic.  But what happens if I loose something in the 'Tweet Stream'?  I had a revelation in my head (it doesn't happen often but when it does it is quite profound) and decided that if I liked their thoughts, I would add their feed to my iGoogle.  It has been an empowering decision and I am glad that I have made it.  I actually now have so many blogs from following # tags on Twitter (and a blog will come out about that soon) that I had to 'sub categorise' my 'School Stuff' tab into smaller sections.

I am glad that I have found you again iGoogle - I will never leave you out in the cold again!