Announcing TonyVincent.net
TonyVincent.net is online! While learninginhand.com covers the world of learning with tools that fit in students' and teachers' hands, TonyVincent.net focuses on online and digital technologies. Here are just some of the topics TonyVincent.net will cover: online publishing, Google Earth, digital video, RSS feeds, Wikipedia, information literacy, free software, and Web 2.0 services. These "internety" topics and handheld computing will often overlap and probably give me headaches when trying to figure out on to which site to post the content.Currently, TonyVincent.net features a blog and forums. Unlike the learninginhand site where I use Dreamweaver to upload an HTML file for each page, TonyVincent.net uses a content management system (Drupal for those who want to know this kind of stuff). What does that exactly mean? With Drupal I'll be able to organize content on TonyVincent.net with just a couple of mouse clicks. Once there's more content, I will to have TonyVincent.net sorted by subject area. Posting in blog-format is a great convenience for the blogger, but it isn't so great for a reader who wants information on one topic. So watch for site organization and features to be added in the future. You can also look forward to layout changes and lots of tweaks as I improve the site.
As Dale pointed out in a blog comment, it takes some effort to keep up with all of the content I provide online. If you really want to keep up on everything I post, subscribe to my RSS feeds:
- Learning in Hand Blog: Handheld computing, podcasting, and iPods
http://feeds.feedburner.com/learninginhand - Learning in Hand Forums: Discussions about handheld computing, podcasting, and iPods
http//feeds.feedburner.com/forums - TonyVincent.net: Education & Technology for Teachers
http://tonyvincent.net/?q=rss.xml - Soft Reset Podcast: The podcast for those using handhelds in education
http://feeds.feedburner.com/SoftReset - Our City Podcast: Learn about cities from the kids who live there
http://feeds.feedburner.com/OurCity - Learning in Hand: iPods Podcast: Using iPods for teaching and learning
http://vincent.libsyn.com/rss - TonyVincent.info: My online scrapbook of what I'm finding or doing online
http://tonyvincent.info/rss
Labels: blogging, rss, tonyvincent, web2.0
An RSS Button
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is becoming more and more popular. Why? RSS allows you to subscribe to content, like news, blogs, and podcasts. As you might already know, my preferred method of reading my RSS feeds is the free Bloglines web service. I can check on updated feeds on any computer with a web browser, including my handheld and mobile phone. Bloglines senses which web browser I am using and formats itself accordingly. Check out my public subscriptions if you want to see the RSS feeds I subscribe to.RSS is an important part of what's called Web 2.0. What's Web 2.0 all about? The amazing video, Web 2.0...The Machine is Us/ing Us, by Michael Wesch at Kansas State University, does a great job explaining the new ways the web is being used. RSS is dubbed as a way to "describe the content, not the form. So the data can be exported, free of formatting constraints." Content without form is perfect for small screens as information can be formatted in ways that work best for the tiny computer you're using.
Here's proof of RSS's significance in mobile devices: Samsung's new WiBro SPH-M8100 Smartphone (running Windows Mobile) sports a dedicated RSS button (here are some photos). The button launches an RSS reader application. I wonder if you could remap that button to launch Explorer Mobile and go to Bloglines. I also wonder if this is the first of many phones to have an RSS button.
Labels: blogging, mobile internet, palm, pocket pc, rss
