Organic Learning

I’ve heard in the edublogosphere about how Google Reader is a quality RSS aggregator. I’ve been using Bloglines as my aggregator for the past two years and have been so comfortable with it, that it was hard to think of using something else. I decided to be daring and give it a try.

I decided to work on a project about Darfur. I frequently visit Will Richardson’s PageFlakes Collection of RSS feeds on Darfur and often use it in presentations about the power of RSS. Could I do the same kind of thing in Google Reader? I created a tab and a tag called Darfur in my reader. This created a folder in which I subscribed to photos in Flickr, a video search in Google, darfur tags in del.icio.us, Google News in general on Darfur, and Google news coming only from Sudan - using the advanced search in Google News. The feeds are great. It’s not maybe as eye-catching as it is in Pageflakes, but very useful. I could then put this collection in my personalized Google home page, so I can always find new information. That was powerful.

Having read several blogs about making the switch from Bloglines to Google Reader, I decided to move my feeds to Google Reader by exporting and importing the OPL file. I have the option to return to Bloglines if I don’t like it. (I did this earlier with Netvibes and moved back to Bloglines after just a few days.) The export/import was so easy! It even kept my feeds arranged in folders. The text is easier to read, and the features for sharing and tagging are nice. I like it! I’m hooked. … I’m still going to hang on to my Bloglines account however. It has served me well.