Lets start with RSS Feeds. I have been a HUGE proponent of the RSS Feed for about 7 years go, I started with "The Google Reader" while in Medical School as a way to keep up with the million physician blogs I followed--they were the light at the end of the tunnel and a way to see what my life might be like in a few years. As times changed I began to follow more cooking blogs and ultimately my feed has became very "Emergency Medicine Centric." Unfortunately a few years ago Google dumped The Reader (start the water works). After much searching I stumbled upon www.theoldreader.com, which is designed to replicate the social features of the Google Reader--it allows for "friends" and sharing posts with your friends. I LOVE my reader, to date I have over 100 blogs I follow, probably 20 of these are focused on Emergency Medicine and education/teaching medicine. It keeps things well organized for me, The Old Reader has a search function which makes it easy to find previous posts. I find it much easier than bookmarking blogs or websites, I don't have to remember to visit them everything is organized in one place! I can't say enough great things about RSS feeds.
(disclaimer, because I have had an Old Reader for a few years now I did not create a Digg, I had previously used Digg but preferred the Old Reader and at this point it is well organized and a part of my daily life).
Now, lets talk affinity groups, unfortunately medication education is such a narrow field I had a hard time finding an affinity group specifically for that. Instead I joined www.Edutopia.com, it is a K-12 Education affinity group. Their sections on Game-Base Learning and PBLs intrigued me. I fear that while Edutopia will be interesting it won't be pertinent to my life as a medical Educator. I will continue to search for a community with a better fit for me. In the mean time I will continue to peruse Edutopia and my rss feed (there are a surprising number of EM blogs and EM teaching blogs as EM is a large part of the FOAM (free open access meducation movement).
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Q1: How do you feel about RSS feeds, are they for everyone?
A1: I try to get everyone I know to use The Old Reader. I love the organization, the ease of use, that it marks off what you have read, what is left, and allows for sharing amongst friends and the search function.
Q2: How can I make the most of my RSS feed?
A2: It is important to pick the reader that fits your life, do you want to just look at blogs, do you want to have a social component? I love being able to share blog posts with my Old Reader Friends, this avoids cluttering their email inboxes. It is important to organize your reader in a way that won't become overwhelming. Many blogs post daily if not more frequently, if you only check in once a week you can quickly have a couple hundred posts to read! I have many folders: food, medicine, interesting stuff, etc. This helps me decide what I need to read and what is just for fun. Overall, just have fun with it!
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That is my cat Fletcher. I've had him for 7 years, but only have a handful of pictures of him. He black, a little bit of a cuddly deamon and I am 100% sure that when he licks me he is just testing to see if it is time to eat me yet. We love him.
Great entry. Its always difficult to see the old style technology or service being discontinued. You are definitely right, though. You have to really specialize on what you want to read otherwise you are going to sifting through hundreds of messages and posts on these feeds. Good observations.
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