RSS, Social Bookmarking, & Media Sharing

I suppose that all this new technology is going to make the world smaller. Suddenly, China is not so far away (neither is Bangkok, Thailand)J. Whatever our location, position in life, or present age, we all are connected.
The technology of blogs makes it easy for someone in China to follow (be connected to ) you. With the help of social bookmarking and media sharing information can be easily downloaded; shared with other entities. Schools can partner in projects, classes can share presentations, and one day, with some certainty, students can be connected to their classes from their home.
The fair possibility of home schooled children sharing projects and presentations in a regular classroom from their home is within the reach of reality. Perhaps some schools all ready are putting these technologies into practice for students that have extended illnesses or hospitalization. It may be a matter of policy for students that are on “in-house suspension.” The reason is obvious; to not allow the student to fall behind in his/her schoolwork.
Private schools enroll international students. Through Google Spreadsheet, the school can readily share those students’s academic progress with their parents. Through RSS, Parents of international students can remain informed about school activities, view sporting events their child participated in, view school plays and concerts, and feel readily connected to the school their child is enrolled in. And, international students have the possibility to share assessments, projects, and social events with their parents.
The social bookmarking can allow people to view anything someone has published in a blog or in the Google Spreadsheet. It’s quite amazing that a potential employer can review an interviewee’s material. It would give the principal or personnel manager a good feel for the quality of work the interviewee has to offer. Kind of scary, too, if someone has something inappropriate out there that s/he wouldn’t want a potential employer to view. It may be time to clean up the blog closet of things written in a moment of emotional haste, which may prove embarrassing.
For the cost of being connected, Google Spreadsheet and RSS is the way to go. A lot of small school systems (especially in Maine) would greatly benefit from the FREE technology. With school budgets regularly being tightened, it would be in the best interest of the school IT system to go with such technology. It gives the user the same services as Microsoft.YouTube and TeacherTube are super technologies that can accelerate any class/lesson. I especially liked the TeacherTube clip of “The Events Leading Up to the American Revolution.” There was so much there that would stick in any student’s mind. The potentials are endless. The operative for progressive classrooms is “retention.” What will cause student to remember equations, dates, events, principles, and operations? The subjects and categories on all media shared sites is amazing. It also holds the potential for students to share their own ideas, media projects, presentations, and ways to remember math and science operations. It’s just amazing.