Basically I can click on my bloglines bookmark and see on a single webpage if anything new has been posted to the blogs that I read. This spares me from clicking through all the blogs in my list when most are not updated daily. The only downside is that comments aren't included, so I still wind up clicking through to see if any new comments have been posted on certain blogs. Still, as my list of blogs increases, the need for a service like bloglines increases.
I was having difficulty getting my own blog to "syndicate." All this terminology is a bit confusing - syndicate, subscribe, site feed - they all refer pretty much to the same thing, only the reader "subscribes" to a website's "syndication" or "site feed" - enough already. I certainly won't go into the different protocols available for this purpose. At any rate, I finally got the settings correct so that I or anyone else can now subscribe to my blog. I'm posting this message in part to test that I've got everything set up correctly. As infrequently as I post, it's a worthwhile effort if you find yourself clicking on my link frequently and finding nothing new. I know that can eventually become a disincentive to visit.
I have also been searching today, unsuccessfully, for other biology teachers who might be out there, anywhere, blogging about teaching biology. If you stumble upon this post and know of any, let me know through the comments button below.
Update
I neglected to mention that you can also use bloglines to subscribe to news organizations, even specific news sections that you want to subscribe to. For example, I've subscribed to the New York Times Science Section, the BBC Science & Nature feed, and Scientific American. You can get similar services by using e-mail updates, but I find I just delete most of the e-mails I get from these sources before I even have a chance to read them. It's just more convenient for me to have it all on a website that I can click on and get the latest information that I'm interested in.
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