iGoogle Disappears November 1, 2013

On June 8, Google announced that it would discontinue iGoogle on November 1, 2013.

The official explanation for this change in marketing strategy is "with modern apps that run on platforms like Chrome and Android, the need for iGoogle has eroded over time."

What this really means is that Google has decided that they cannot successfully market ads to a personalized environment like iGoogle.

What will be in its place? Google probably envisions Google+ working as a handy substitute. It doesn't have the features of iGoogle, but this means that Google will be updating Google+ to try to accommodate the present needs for an RSS resource center.

Many users who use iGoogle as their start page, may replace their control dashboard with NetVibes or ProtoPage or My Yahoo. Lifehacker provides a good comparison of NetVibes and ProtoPage in a recent posting. They are both great alternatives for iGoogle.

If you are interested in making Google+ your homepage, I believe this would be in the form of a Business Page.  There are already tutorials about making Google+ Business Pages like this one from Social Media Examiner. It could be pretty cool to have your Google Hangout on your opening page. You could talk with your friends at the beginning of your day and never get any work done.  =-)

NOTE: Discontinuing iGoogle is part of a "spring cleaning" that Google appears to be doing to streamline their offerings.

• Google Video stopped accepting submissions in 2009 and will be moving its content to YouTube soon. if you have videos on Google Video you have until August 20 to migrate, delete or download your content.
• Google Mini, a customizable search engine, will discontinue at the end of July.
• Google Talk Chatback has been discontinued. 

What will you do? Do you use iGoogle to organize your PLN or with your students' PLNs? How will this affect how you organize your life?

Z

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RSS in Education

English: Podcast or podcasting icon Français : Icône pour les podcasts ou la baladodiffusion (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

RSS (Real Simple Syndication)
RSS is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Resources (audio or video) placed on the web are given an RSS Feed. This RSS Feed enables users to subscribe using RSS readers (e.g., iTunes, iGoogle). A user only needs to open the RSS reader and it will automatically check and load new episodes from the subscribed podcasts.

It is important to remember that it is the RSS that makes it podcasting. It is a form of automated delivery or subscription.  You can use RSS for audio files or video files. Blogs use RSS for subscription as well. You might even say that Blogs are podcasted using the model we are discussing.

RSS in Plain English


Educational Podcasting
Podcasting is a medium that teachers can use for teaching ideas and students can use for sharing their knowledge. It provides a medium for organizing and sharing resources. Students can create projects that can be posted to the web and available for parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and even university students to enjoy.

Watch each of these 3 10-minute videos (not vodcasts) to hear how educators use podcasts.

• Podcasting in Education 1 - What is Podcasting?  How to create a podcast using Garageband 3. (You will not be required to use Garageband to do your assignment, but it is an interesting demonstration that can be generalized to other tools.)
• Podcasting in Education 2 - 7th grade Language Arts middle school teacher from Wisconsin. She uses podcasting for her Integrated Thematic Curriculum.
• Podcasting in Education 3 - Middle School Principal from Georgia sharing how use podcasting to reach out to the community.

Additional Resources:

• Why Some Educational Podcasts are Engaging and Others are Not
• Casting Glossary
• Learning in Hand - Tony Vincent

Related articles

• Podcasting Help

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• How to use Social Feeds 2.0

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• Do you know the difference between plain audio and a podcast?

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What is a Podcast?

What is a Podcast?
It's not about the podcast, it's about podcasting.
A podcast is an audio or video presentation that can be subscribed to by interested listeners/watchers.  It is offered as a newsfeed (RSS) to make it easy for the public to access. Podcasting is the delivery system used to enable users to subscribe to a series of audio or video presentations.

Podcasting in Plain English


Podcasting carries four forms of media:

• Podcast - An audio session that is similar to a radio show.
• Bobby Bucket Podcast
• Enhanced Podcast - A podcast with still visuals.  It looks like a narrated PowerPoint presentation.
• Chicago 2008 - Educational examples. 
• Vodcast - A video session that is podcasted.
• UNICEF Ghana Lauches Vaccines -  UNICEF vodcasts
• Screencast - Using Jing or Camtasia or Screenr to share processes that are occur on the computer screen. This is usually used for tutorials.
• How to use Screenr
• 8 Free Screencasting Tools - blog posting, not a video.

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• Which Android Podcast Manager is Best for You?

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• Podcast: 'On Iowa' talks Jarrod Uthoff situation, Big Ten football

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100+ Emerging Instructional Technologies

Web 2.0 (Photo credit: Daniel F. Pigatto

Looking for ideas for Web 2.0 technologies you might use?  There are 1000s of Web 2.0 tools in the world. Here are a few lists that may be useful. Don't be overwhelmed by the number of tools listed. Browse the lists until you find something interesting:

• 77 Web Resources for Teachers to Explore - This is a list of tools sorted by subject area.  You will find it in the embedded document half way down the page.
• 35 Best Web 2.0 Classroom Tools Chosen by You - This list is provided by teachers who voted for their favorite tools.  These are listed in no particular order but have good descriptions.
• Bloom's and ICT Tools - Web 2.0 tools that are aligned with Bloom's revised taxonomy. Lots of interesting ideas.

Related articles

• Emerging Technologies Jorney So Far!

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Listen to my Blog - Odiogo Audiblizes Dr. Z Reflects

This Odiogo opportunity is snaZZy!!!

If you are too busy to read Dr. Z Reflects, now you can listen to it.  I was reading the latest posting in David Warlick's blog, 2 Cents Worth, when I noticed that there were buttons at the beginning of each posting that allowed me to listen to the posting instead of having to read it.  Not that I am lazy, but it was a wonder option.

Odiogo provides a audio podcast production system that will use sophisticated text-to-speech technologies to verbally read each of my postings into an MP3 file that can then be played through iTunes or some other music player system.  I am quite impressed with quality of the synthesized voice.
Now, as well as subscribing to the RSS feed for the textual version of Dr. Z Reflects, you will able to subscribe to an audio podcast RSS feed so that you can listen to a computer read my blog to you. 

Think of the opportunities that such a system. It isn't difficult to do. Here is a video on the Odiogo blog that shows how you can add it to your TypePad blog.  Adding it to Blogger is basically the same process.

Imagine what you can do with you can "mobilize your media" to make it available on your phone and iPod.

What do you think?  How do you see that you might use Odiogo to mobilize YOUR media?

Z
image: odiogo.com