iGoogle

Wow, that was fun!

A few thoughts about the lesson on setting up an iGoogle page.

Students (5 or 6) who had not set up a gmail account prior to class lagged behind and exhibited a higher level of frustration.

"But I don't use gmail for email" That's OK. A gmail account is your ticket to all iGoogle and all it's gadgets. Other internet providers offer similar features to their users. We think iGoogle is ahead of the curve.

"I don't understand what we're doing!". (Well if you put away your Legal Studies homework...) A few students still have very broad topics. One student has no topic. It will be interesting to see if feeds help these students narrow their topics. One of the strengths of feeds is how subject specific they can be. I really, really like iGoogle's ability to search for feeds by subject. Again we are brought back to the earlier google searching lesson. I also like the number of blogs that come up in a search. As students are exposed more and more to blogs, they will become aware of personal blogs and blogs associated with publications like the WSJ. Perhaps students discover the idea of bias in the media or they discover a blogger to follow as they make their way up the corporate ladder. Do we even show them how to search for blogs outside of iGoogle. We may want to stress searching for feeds by an influential person that has come up in their research. Do they have a blog?

Once (if?) they find a good feed, they may be hooked. Ask students what they use as their homepage at home. I'll bet many students use their ISP homepage. Why not use your iGoogle page with a link to your ISP?

Let's stress how messy research is. If you're frustrated, you're on the right track. It's like getting into a comfortable position before you go to sleep for the night. Your frustration will diminish as you get more comfortable with your topic.

The tools we are showing you may not work for you, or for your subject. That's OK. We just want you to know the product before you reject it. Some of the tools may work for you now, or they may work for you later. Research is an individual unique process.