apcampbell

While examining how we could use Feedster
to find feeds relevant to our Japanese studies, we came
across a blog devoted to Japanese pop-culture.  After taking a
quick look, our resident student expert on pop-culture in Japan
exclaimed, “That guy’s such a dork!  I wouldn’t subscribe to him.”
This led to a discussion on how to determine whether a feed is worth
subscribing to or not.  We agreed that too many subscriptions
could cause overload, but too few wouldn’t generate the kind of variety
of perspective needed to consider other views.  I suggested that
‘the dork’ would be a good feed for her to follow, for she would be
able
consider alternative views on a similar topic of interest.  We
must avoid subscribing exclusively to those who share our viewpoints
and make an attempt at incorporating the feeds of those who take
different positions on the similar topics into our subscription lists.

This got me thinking about generating a list of mini-exercises (in the spirit of James’ online lesson plans)
to be used in classes in which students attempt to build their own
personal learning communities.  Here’s one idea related to the
need to consider alternative views in one’s subscription list:

Political Orientation Exercise:
Take the Political Compass Test and compare your results with those of other bloggers on Lambert’s Table. 
Then, in addition to subscribing to at least one blogger who shares the
exact same coordinates, subscribe to one or more bloggers from each
quadrant who write about topics that may be of interest to you. 
Make an effort to critically examine the views of these bloggers into
any academic issues you are currently tackling.  Comment on their
sites or link to their posts on your weblog.  Finally, add
yourself to the Lambert’s table if you think it is appropriate to do so.
—–