StumbleUpon

Well, I've found a second black hole - StumbleUpon. When you sign up for this site, you check off your interests on a long list and you add a Stumble button to your toolbar. Whenever you click this button, it takes you to a random site within your range of interests. There are thumbs up, thumbs down buttons as well, and after you've explored the site a bit, you click one of those. Your thumbs up sites are saved on your StumbleUpon homepage, so you can retrieve them easily whenever you want to spend a little time off task. One of the sites I found might appeal to those of you who are intrigued by Jackson Pollack and are doodlers as well. It's kind of fun to swirl lines and blobs of color around the page. I don't think Primary Source would have any particular use for StumbleUpon, but as teacher I might play around with it to find good sites to use with my students. For example, they list interests such as Ancient History, Geography, Japan and so forth. Who knows what random but potentially worthwhile sites might turn up?

Google Reader

I love Google Reader! I also recognize that it's a black hole. It's amazing how much time you can spend reading this and that, and of course, one thing leads to another. On the other hand, it's a lot faster to move from one site to another on Goggle Reader than it is to use your bookmarks. What this week's exploration has taught me is how much I need a new computer. I've been saying this for a year or two, so it's not a fresh discovery. As I sat on more than one occasion until my long blue scroll bar stopped jumping around, I realized that I could cut my online time in half if I weren't constantly waiting until the scroll bar moved or stopped moving.
One of the feeds I added that I think some of you might like is 101 Cookbooks (http://101cookbooks.com/) , a cooking blog with fabulous recipes and beautiful photographs. There are also lots of links to other food and cooking blogs. I have noticed that people at Primary Source like to eat!
One way I think Primary Source might use feeds is to have teachers who are going on a trip set up Google Reader and then give them several blogs or newpapers to add. For example, Time Magazine has a really interesting China blog (http://china.blogs.time.com/)that I couldn't seem to add to my Google Reader, but that may be my computer. Another possibility would be China Daily if it has a feed. This would be interesting reading for teachers who will be going on a China trip and would give them a sense of what was happening in the country before they visited.