Chapter Five

I found Richarson's enthusiasm for Really Simple Syndication (RSS) to be a bit too much to take.  Yes, there are advantages to organizing the web sites that a person follows, but to question why on earth someone would not have already set up a google accoung is a stretch. Some people, I think, prefer to maintain simple lives, without always being connected to the internet, or other forms of technology.  I think that our lives today are jam packed wth "things to do".  Why would someone be so willing to add just something else to the list of "to do's"?

Richardson suggests that we follow blogs of other teachers to keep abreast of what they are doing in their classrooms.  As I've previously mentioned, I think that this is a reasonable use for blogs.  But in all honesty, I'm not sure where are we supposed to find the time to do that on any kind of a regular basis?  While it makes sense to keep abreast with new happenings, I don't think that it is as critical as Richardson suggests.  In some occupations, such as financial advisors, knowing the latest data can be a critical factor.  But I disagree that (as Richardson suggests) when you take a camping trip, you should have to make arrangements to make sure that you don't miss reading any texts.  I can remember a time in my life when if you missed a TV show, you had to wait until the summer, and hope to be able to view it in reruns.  And leaving the house?  Well, we could go out and not be bothered with the sound of phones ringing.  And when we returned home, we had no clue as to whether anyone had called us in our absence!  Somehow we were able to survive, and yes, life was blissfully simpler and somehow just a little bit more interesting!  Life held more surprises, because we couldn't predict everything that was about to happen.