I must have come across RSS at a MACUL Conference…how else would I have stumbled across it?  It seems like I’ve been reading feeds for years, but surely it hasn’t been that long.  Google Reader was announced in the fall of 2005, but I was still with Bloglines before they were bought by Ask Jeeves in February 2005 (Remember Jeeves?) So that’s at least 4 years…well, I guess around 40 in Internet-years, so it’s been a while.

If you don’t know what RSS is, and even if you do, RSS in Plain English is an awesome video explaining everything.  (Here’s another one…Google Reader in Plain English.)

Now…40 years later…I can’t imagine not using RSS every day to follow news and events in ed tech and beyond. A person in my position is kinda expected to know what’s new and exciting…and Googling new and exciting on a daily basis does not return many usable results.  I have to get more specific info from sources I know will be relevant.  So, I subscribe to feeds about gadgets, web tools, and tech news as well as LOLcats, Star Wars, and Venn diagrams.

I also use RSS feeds to keep track of who is updating my wiki, or what’s happening in some of the classrooms around the county. or the latest activity on one of the world’s greatest social networks dedicated to educational technology.

All told, as of right now, I have 67 subscriptions in my Google Reader.  (No, I don’t read them all everyday…and really, that’s not that many…)  Like Lee Lefever suggested in the video, I could go out to 67 sites on a regular basis to find out what’s new (Boo!).  However, thanks to RSS I have all that info spilling in to my office everyday!

New to Twitter, and not sure where all your MACUL friends are hanging out? Perhaps you’ve been twittering for awhile, and you just can’t seem to get any of the other educators in the building to hop on board. Never fear, your closest MACUL buddies are here! After reading Patti’s post about how she started using Twitter, and subsequently how important it’s become to her personal development, I thought I’d point out the giant Twitter discussion thread over at MACUL Space.

You’re probably not going to find every single person you’re looking for, but with over 63 replies, the MACUL Twitterers discussion thread is a good place to find some familiar faces using the popular micro-blogging service. You can find the twitter names of other MACUL members, share your own twitter name, or just follow them to get your daily dose of the MACUL conference on your desktop. Happy tweeting!

I joined Twitter after last year’s MACUL Conference. Steve Dembo introduced it as part of his “10 Best Web 2.0 Tools” session. (Make sure you attend all Steve Dembo sessions!) Twitter did not take long to figure out and soon I was reading the conversations of some amazing tech educators (140 characters at a time of course.) I found myself rushing home to get on Twitter and reading through all the tweets I’d missed while at school. (I occasionally have time to tweet from school, but not often!) I’d spend hours exploring the links shared and reading the blogs of those I was following. I was learning more than I could have ever imagined and it was all stuff I could bring right back into the classroom. If I asked a question, many replied with great suggestions, links, ideas. When some of the “Big Deal” Tech people that I was following responded to me – it felt like I just got invited to sit at the cool kids table!

I also started my own blog because of the example and encouragement of those on Twitter. It didn’t matter if anyone read it, I was putting my thoughts and ideas out there and it was a great experience just to do it. I was especially proud of a video I made with my 2nd graders. I posted it on my Classroom Blog and decided to put the link out on Twitter. I didn’t realize one of the “Big Deal” people I was following noticed it, and Re-tweeted it to her following (which was much bigger than mine.) I ended up with 14 comments on my blog! What an incredible moment to receive so much positive feedback and encouragement from people who have never met me. (I was choked up – it was a Wow! moment.) I also realized -If I am this affected by praise, what is it like for my students? (Another Wow!)

I have made many friends on Twitter, a few I have met in person, some I someday hope to meet and others are half a world away in Australia and New Zealand. We share ideas, ask questions, encourage each other, laugh with each other, cheer for each other, learn from each other and share some of the same taste in TV (I follow many who are also fans of LOST, 24 and Heroes. We do not Tweet during these programs, nor do we give plot information away as some are in another time zone.)

I have learned so much from Twitter and the best part is tomorrow there will be even more to learn. May the Tweets be with you.