At first I had no idea what RSS even stood for, but the more I looked into it I realized I was more familiar with it than I thought. When we were first assigned to subscribe to several blogs, I found so many that I was interested in within a matter of minutes. I was actually surprised at how many I was interested in and how frequently I wanted to read the latest information on the blogs.
I have learned that RSS, otherwise known as ‘Really Simple Syndication’, is a major time saver! If you are interested in a certain subject or issue in the news all you have to do is subscribe to a blog that follows what you’re interested in. I obviously knew what blogs were before this class, but I really had never looked into RSS and blogs other than the ones my friends write. I am almost addicted now to checking my blogs in the morning to see what’s new.
In Darren Rowse’s blog called What is RSS?, he makes it very clear why RSS is so great and the advantages it can have over bookmarking. I have to admit I used to be a bookmark junkie but after reading his blog I realized there is a simpler way of keeping track of blogs. He mentions that with bookmarking you have to do all the hard work, and you can miss information when you don’t check your bookmarks consistently.
Google Reader was very easy to set up, I had no problems with it at all. On the other hand, installing a program was a little trickier. I chose to download myFeedDemon as my RSS reader. Even though it was trickier, it wasn’t totally impossible for me to figure out. It took a little extra time and research on how to subscribe to links with myFeedDemon. I used Google Reader to automatically link all my feeds through myFeedDemon and it was easy from there on out. Although both were great RSS feeds, I prefer Google Reader. It’s less hassle and easier to access if I’m in a hurry. Plus I’m just more comfortable with Google Reader.
Based on my experience, I don’t think students and teachers will have a problem with setting up an RSS reader. I think the Google Reader account is much easier to set up and use for those with less technology experience. I think that teachers and administrators that don’t know about RSS readers would love it if they found out how to use it. It might take a few minutes of tutoring from a student or a colleague who is experienced with readers to help them set it up, but it’s not completely impossible to figure out on their own.
RSS could be used in education in so many ways! It could be used for students, teachers, and administrators. First off I see students using RSS to journal thoughts in classes such as language arts, foreign language classes, and even other classes such as history or science. The assignment would be to go to the their blog and comment on others in the class, just like our class does. I could also see a teacher assigning homework to figure out about a topic through RSS. I think most students are familiar with RSS anyway, so it would be pretty simple for them.
I can also see teachers using RSS for their own educational reasons. They could track blogs from other teachers to share information or get ideas from other teachers in their classroom. I can also see it being used from teachers to comment on their students blogs for classes.
I see administrators using RSS to keep up with their teachers and students. I can see it being used in meetings and put up on the projector for all to follow along with the presenter. The meetings could be led using RSS and administrators could stay in touch with other teachers through their blogs. Will Richardson gives great ideas in his article Blogging and RSS about how administrators could use RSS in their school district. “.. as more and more people get on the blog bandwagon, more and more teachers and schools are starting to experiment with the technology as a way to communicate with students and parents, archive and publish student work, learn with far-flung collaborators, and "manage" the knowledge that members of the school community create. In fact, many are seeing Weblogs as a cheaper alternative to course management systems.” I think that RSS is fabulous and I’m glad I learned more about it because it will save me so much time and trouble in the future.
Works Cited
Richardson, Will. (Jan/Feb 2004).Blogging and RSS— The "What's It?" and "How To" of Powerful New Web Tools for Educators, Vol. 11 No. 1. Information Today, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan04/richardson.shtml
Rowse, Darren. (1 November 2010). What is RSS? Problogger.net 2011. Retrieved from http://www.problogger.net/what-is-rss/
