How can you find others using the same tags you've placed in your posts? Well, open an account in Technorati
What is Technorati? It is an Internet search engine for searching blogs, competing with Google, Yahoo and IceRocket. (More Info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technorati)
- Go to Tecnorati at http://www.technorati.com/
- Open an account
- Go to "My Account"
- Click on the "Blogs" tab
- Go to "Claim a Blog" and write your blog url
- You'll see "Begin Claim" and will get a choice for next step, just pick the simpler, "Post Claim".
- Activate the claim using "post claim".
- Follow Instructions.
- Once you have successfully claimed your blog, complete the Edit Blog Settings form, where you'll need to write the tags that will describe yours, and HERE, include wrtingmatrix.
- When done, you'll see "My Claimed Blogs". Click on "Ping".
You can now check for your blog's new content. There's no need to "Automate this", as this option will demand some knowledge of html. Your blog will now appear in your "Blog Directory search". (from Rita's article in WritingMatrix wiki)
I have found the following post about Technorati at
http://21centuryconnections.com/node/412
I asked WM teachers :"Do you agree agree or not with the article , and why?" Opinions about Technorati by WM teachers:
Rita Zeinstejer : "Technorati can be a very good tool for stds provided they know how to use it, when to use it, where to use it. And it's up to teachers to show them how to find out about it."
Vance Stevens: "I don't have much experience with technorati. I teach a course whose coursebook is here: http://213.42.148.233/file.php/83/internetsearch/InternetSearch2008v1.pdfI try to expand the students' notion of search beyond Google.
I make a lot of use of del.icio.us. Technorati is mentioned there as are other Google search tools.\I think I would agree that it's not that useful to students unless they are familiar with the concept of tagging and work in a field where bloggers are common (such as the field of education and social networking) and where these bloggers will tag their posts.I think teachers should get familiar with it first and then they can think of ways to use it with their students."
And you? What is your opinion?
Comments
I had already read you post about technorati yesterday. In spite of having an account there already and having claimed my blogs, I learned a few things more from it, namely pinging. I hadn't realized it was possible to ping other sites with technoraty and also making the process automatic in your blog.
I usually don't use technorati because I haven't found out yet how it could be useful in my everyday life. I hope I will find out this time.
Hmm.. A tricky one this. I think in general I would have to agree with Vance here, that in general Technorati is not a tool that I would choose to introduce my English Language students to.
I have used it to register my blog Digitalang and I check how "popular" it is from time to time as well as to find out who else is linking to my blog.
Overall though, I prefer to tell my students about tools like this one, Twitter, or even something simple like the The Archers podcast.
I personally feel very stringly that technology should be use in language teaching as the medium, not the message.
Technorati is a fantastically useful tool for bloggers like you and me. However, IMHO our students should be free to find it if they wish to, but shouldn't have it set up as an example by us.
Thanks Nelba for providing us with this interesting platform for discussion. I really think it's important that us language teachers and learners should discuss the ways we use technology to help us learn. Good luck with the talk this weekend!
Seth.
stella :(
I am still a newbee to technorati. Reading your post helped me to make better use of mine. I think it is a useful tool. I have already claimed some of my blogs. Like Seth, I also agree with Vance and would not use it with students. I would say the learning curve at technorati is little steep. I guess, it could be useful for e-tools fanatics like us.
Hugs from Brazil
Although I set my Technorati account more than a year ago, I have not used it much because I rely on Bloglines (and don´t even follow it that much either). I have claimed some of my blogs but I am not really that interested in checking if they are popular or not. Having a map in each one is more than enough for me, especially when I have a class blog and want students to see where our visitors are from.
From the online article about the Reading Matrix, I can infer Technorati is really useful for aggregating tags and getting students in different places find out about what other learners are writing and become interested in reaching these ESL/EFL students all over the world.
I am still a little mixed up, though, especially because I do not want to overburden my students with too many things at the same time. They will be opening their blogs soon and will be posting twice a week on any topic they choose.
I am not sure I will be able to participate in the chat on Sunday but I will try to make it.
Thanks so much for setting up all these opportunities for us to keep learning.
All the best, Berta
Students are now creating their personal blogs but very slowly and this class blog will have less activity than before. Our main space is the wiki which has served as our portal.
I was planning to have students create their Technorati accounts but I feel they have been handling too many new tools simultaneously, so I will wait a bit more. One of our major constraints is time because our course just lasts 12 weeks, so we have sometimes to throw too much information at them sometimes. We´ll see what happens.
Thanks again.
Cheers, Berta