Week 6--Thing 14--Technorati

Before I get to the part about my discoveries on Technorati, here's a link to something I found there, , in which the author first blogs about the olden days of library research (pain and torment, and too little information) then points out the contemporary pain and torment of too much information. Amen to that. He goes on to deliver an eloquent description of why RSS feeds are so very useful (the information comes to him), and drops the statement that even his (young-ish) friends don't know how. He kindly offers a tutorial. So, Web 2.0 librarians, we ain't behind the 8-ball yet.

Technorati is another terrific mall-like website: something for everyone and thousands of choices. But like a mall, it's easy to be distracted and side-tracked, and I have a hard time (yet again) seeing how it can be useful professionally in my elementary school. I can't see that the results will be worth the effort of teaching this tool when there are simpler ways of getting at the information. Children just want to find the information they need and move on. I noticed that some of the same sites and blogs popped up when I searched for School Library Learning 2.0 in different places (blog posts and tags). That lent authenticity to the process, and the value of the sites. I find two things very annoying. One are the ads, and the second is the peculiarities of searching in Technorati. I get cranky having to re-learn search protocols.

I'm going to like tagging--for the most part. It's authentic and quick. But, there are students who are more comfortable learning and applying a concrete set of rules. Tagging may not work for them.