RSS "Really Simple Syndication" but sometimes "Rich Site Summary") feeds are a great way to collect the articles, images, blogs, video and other info that you want to check out. You can use Google Reader to select sources on any and all topics by choosing sites based on keyword or URL. You can organize them in folders by topic, share them, star them for later reading and/or delete them. It is one stop reading instead of navigating to all your favorite places one by one.
Things I subscribe to are my friends blogs so I know when they have been updated so I do not miss their latest adventures. I subscribe to my local newspaper so I can stay current on the happenings in my neighborhood. I selected several educational technology websites and have already benefited greatly from them.
As a student they can select keywords of their topic to be delivered to their reader. They can then read the summaries and decide to read more, ignore it or read it later. They can also select the sources they are getting information from so you know it is current and appropriate.
As a teacher you can subscribe to your students blogs, flicker accounts, wikis, or uTube videos. It is one stop shopping that allows you to view all of your favorite items in one location. As a student they can subscribe to your sites as well and know when you have updated your blog to include homework assignments, extra credit, or class notes.
Are any of you using RSS for yourselves or for your students. What do you see as the benefits, the drawbacks? How do the students like using it?
4 comments:
Nice clear explanation of RSS feeds and what you might use them for. Keep the good ideas flowing.
Sandy
This sounds too good to be true. I especially like the idea of organizing things into folders for later reading. Unfortunately, I am not savvy enough to figure out how to establish RSS feeds. I sure hope our tech person at my school can help me out!
Beth, it is really easy. I like Google Reader, http://www.google.com/reader.
Once you create a name and password...which is the same if you start a blog, picassa images, documents or gmail you are good to go.
In the upper left click Add Subscription and you can use keyword searches or the actual URL for the website. For instance if you wanted to add Katameya Golf course you would paste this Y+URL in http://www.katameyaheights.com/about_kh.asp then press ADD. It would add the site and show you the new info. Or if you did a keyword search you can select from the listed websites after your preview them. Simply click Subscribe and they are there! I have started to use this a great deal and love the way I no longer have to navigate to all those sites to see if they have been updated.
Hope this helps! You know you can always ask me for tech help!
This is what I was looking for. I wasn't sure how I would read all the blogs my students (100)were writing, but this is it... They can also see eachothers blogs in teacher made work groups and choice work groups. Thanks for the suggestion.
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