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Appreciating the value of using a personalized Start Pag e is a bit like explaining the power of RSS because you need to experience it first hand. So let me show you how to set up your own iGoogle page and how I use my personalized Start Page.

Importance of Personal Learning Networks (PLN)

Alix E. Peshette and Vicki Davis comments on Are You Making Your Life Easier By Using A Personalized Start Page? highlighted the need to emphasize the importance of Personalized Start Pages as part of our own and our students Personal Learning Network (PLN) — check out my PLN yourself website to learn how to build your own PLN.

As Vicki says teaching students how to set up their own PLE

is one of the most useful skills that one can teach students and most importantly, keeps them focused and saves time!

Setting Up Your iGoogle Page

Create an gmail account. Gmail is Google’s free webmail that you can access from any computer, anywhere. Ideally use a login name that people can identify easily as being you e.g. mine is my name with the s missing from the end of waters.
Go to Google and click on Sign in and sign in using your gmail account.
Click on iGoogle and tick the items you want to add to your iGoogle page (don’t stress you can add and remove items whenever you want).
Set iGoogle as your default home in your web browser i.e. whenever you open up your web browser it will automatically loads your iGoogle page.
If you use Internet Explorer 7, FireFox or Flock you can set it up so several web pages load in separate tabs as homepages. At work we use IE 6 so my solution is Internet Explorer homepage is my College Intranet and FireFox homepage is my iGoogle page (here is more information on web browsers).
Set your iGoogle theme i.e. appearance. I like to regularly change my theme to reflect my moods (keeps me happy).
Add more stuff to your page by click on Add stuff link and searching for widgets (gadgets) that interest you.
You edit settings of your Gadgets by clicking on the drop down arrow. Click on the cross to delete a gadget from your iGoogle page.
Remember you can also add more Tabs to your iGoogle page (means you can organise your work into different categories) and share Tabs with others.

My iGoogle Page

Here’s what I currently have on my iGoogle page (which is only viewable to me by logging in with my gmail account).

1. Gmail

My preferred email is now my gmail account and this gmail gadget means all my latest emails are displayed on my iGoogle page plus I can click on the links to easily compose new mail message or access my inbox.

2. Google Reader

I use Google Reader for subscribing to RSS feeds e.g. blog subscriptions, forums. The Google Reader gadget means I can checkly check latest feeds directly on my iGoogle page or click on the link to open up and read the items inside Google Reader.

3. Weather

This is Google’s weather gadget which I set up to display local weather forecast — not always correct .

4. Date, Time and Meetings

Tad absent minded (extreme understatement) when it comes to anything to do with dates so need lots of reminders:

Date and Time Gadget great for local time
World Clock gadget is good for remembering what day and time it is in other parts of the World
Google Calender Viewer gadget is excellent for accessing my Google Calender to book or check appointments

5. Google Bookmarks

I use the Google Bookmarks gadget to store bookmarks that I can access on any computer anywhere but don’t want other people to be able to access e.g. links to my work email, home email, login links to my blogs and websites.

6. RSS Gadgets

I use the Customise RSS Gadget to bring in posts from the Comment Challenge from Technorati RSS feed for Comment 08 onto my iGoogle page so I can easily click on a link to read and comment on the posts.

Plus I also use the Simple RSS gadget to bring the RSS feeds from comments tracked using Cocomment and:

I have the Simple RSS Gadget set so it displays title and description so that I can read all the comments directly on my iGoogle page and click on link at the bottom of the comment if I want to add my comment.

7. Sticky Notes

My Sticky Note gadget means I can write a quick note on the gadget for all those times I’ve lost my pens or when I need easy access to email addresses.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I like using iGoogle because of its nice integration with all the other Google products I use e.g. maps, documents, gmail, reader. Please remember that the other Personalized Start pages can be used similar to iGoogle and are better for sharing with groups e.g. your students than iGoogle (check out Grace Kat’s PageFlake for her classes, Mike Ball’s NetVibes page for teaching others how to use NetVibes and Mr. Bakins ESL PageFlake — link supplied by Sheryl A. McCoy).

Other posts from this Best of Web 2.0 series include:

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So how can you feel the true potential and benefit of using twitter? And how can you fully realize it’s impact on your personal learning?

As Frank commented “the secret is to create a sizable enough network for twitter to make sense or to “get” it”. Unfortunately most new users don’t have the sizable network, established personal connections with followers or skills at using twitter clients to leverage twitter power.

Yesterday Linda, one of my new twitter followers, asked:

Realizing responses would be limited and not show twitter power I decided to utilize my sizable twitter network to show her and convince others of the value of twitter. Plus it’s an excellent idea for a follow up to Are You Twittering? Here’s How I Use Twitter post.

Disclaimer:

Be very, very careful; use the force wisely.
Don’t use twitter for only asking questions — you need to build rapport with your twitter network by balancing your tweets with mundane/absurd aspects of your life while also making an effort to help others.
Asking her question, following up responses, is something I limit to “Once in blue moon” because you can incur twitter penalties and friendly remembers to consider others.

The Results

Of 560 followers I received 24 responses to “What Web 2.0 tools (apart from Twitter, delicious & Flickr) people find indispensable? Name your best 3?” which I added to Favorite to make it easier to compile the results.

Best part of this question is everyone has different favorite tool so you’re introduced to new ones or ones you haven’t paid enough attention to.

Downside for people new to Web 2.0 tools is too many choices is overwhelming — my advice — take your time, pick and choose, learn when you have time and don’t be afraid to ask advice from people like me.

My twitter network named so many free Web 2.0 tools, from various tool categories, as their “best 3″ that I’ve decided to break the results into a Best of Web 2.0 series to make the information more manageable.

Google Tools

Google has so many great tools which so many people are totally unaware of; tools that are incredibility useful for increasing work productivity, collaborating with others and using with students.

John H. Curry teaches preservice teachers about Google Docs, Gmail, iGoogle, Google Calendar, Google Reader, Google Apps etc and said they freak out because they had no idea Google had so much. Like so many people, his students thought that Google was a search engine only.

Here are the Google Tools recommended by my Twitter network:

1. Gmail

Gmail is a very popular web based email that you can access from any computer. Besides being easy-to-use with massive storage (6591 MB), Gmail includes search which means you can search emails and chats for particular words/terms.

Graham Wegner, Jo Mcleay and John H. Curry all included Gmail in their 3 best tools.

2. Google talk (Gtalk)

Google Talk is Google’s tool for instant messaging (chatting with others) and talking to people (VOIP) using the Internet. If you don’t have a VOIP application, like Google Talk or Skype, on your computer this is a definitely a must – means you can talk or chat to anyone, anywhere, using the Internet, at no cost.

Jo Mcleay also included Gtalk in her 3 best tools. Features I like about GTalk include:

Ability to search gmail and chat messages for previous conversations
Integrated into gmail so you can access gtalk using your gmail if you’re another computer
gtalk client that you can download onto your computer.

3. Google Docs

Google Docs is a free, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation application provided by Google. Users can create and edit documents online plus collaborate in real-time with other users.

No more emailing documents back and forth then forgetting who’s done or where you’re all at; it can now be done online.

Use of Google Docs for your work and with students is only limited by your imagination; this is why Jo Mcleay, John H. Curry, Awyatt and Ken Pendergrass are all included Google docs in their 3 best tools.

Check out these video tutorials on how to use Google Documents (link twittered by Liz Davis) or this how-to guide (link twittered by Kate Olson). Here is Tom Barrett’s post on how to embed Google presentations into an Edublogs blog.

4. Google Reader

Google Reader is Google’s RSS reader (i.e. takes the RSS feed from a site and present in a readable form for the user). Instead of visiting numerous sites the RSS feeds from these sites comes to one location — your feed reader, where you read the information.

Sue Hickton, Awyatt, Britt Watwood, Chad Lehman and Allison Miller chose Google Reader as part of their 3 best tools. It’s a popular feed reader because it’s fairly easy to use, can be accessed online anywhere, provides options for tagging and sorting RSS feeds into folders, provides search facilities so you can search for specific terms within your RSS feeds, and has excellent tools for sharing your favorites posts with others.

Read these posts to learn how:

5. iGoogle

Personalized Start Pages are homepages on your web browser where your information is brought to you via RSS and where you can check all your important bookmarks/links. They normally have options for embedding widgets or gadgets onto the page. iGoogle is Google’s personalised start page.

Sue Hickton, John H. Curry, Awyatt included iGoogle as one of their 3 best tools. Check out what an iGoogle page looks like on John Larkin’s post.

6. Google Earth

Google Earth puts the world’s geographic information at your fingertips by combining the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings.

Sonja selected Google Earth as her top 1 best tool because:

has to be one of the best tools out there that I can think of. There are so many ways this application can be utilized for just about any class and learner. There are also many, many resources out there showing you the golden brick road to best useage of Google Earth.

Check out Sonja’s post for links to help educators use Google Earth with their students and Tom Barrett’s excellent Google presentation on Eighteen Interesting ways to use Google Earth in Your Classroom.

FINAL THOUGHT

Twitter can save lots of time searching for information; because your friends help you find it and are able to give you their recommendations.

Other posts from this Best of Web 2.0 series include:

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Setting Up iGoogle For Your Personal Learning