070119_finish_your_RSS.gif













Seven things you should know about RSS

Recommended Educators to subscribe to in your reader


Educational Applications


  1. Professional Development- The ability to subscribe to various news sources, blogs and websites are one of the most timely and cost effective forms of professional development
  2. Time Saving – Reduce the time you spend surfing the Internet for topic specific content. Tracking more information in a shorter period of time.
  3. Up to the minute content specific feeds in your teaching area – Any teacher of a content area such as social studies or world events can find up to the minute information via an RSS feed. For example if the teacher were focusing on a particular current world event, it is possible to subscribe to and read news on that topic from several different sources. The aggregator checks for feeds at regular intervals from 15 minutes to hourly. The updated information is timely, immediate and because you can get information from a number of reputable sources you know the information is accurate.
  4. Information Coming from Contrasting Sources - A teacher and their students could subscribe to feeds from different parts of the news world about a current event in the news to compare and contrast the information and/or to check to see if there were any biases. For example, an RSS feed from the BBC news may have a totally different emphasis on the London bombings than the feed from the New York Times or Reuters. What would a news report of the elections in Iraq contain if it came from a Middle Eastern newspaper? Giving this kind of information to students allows them to experience current events in the timeliest manner possible with a world perspective on the particular event.
  5. Sharing What You Are Doing with Other Educators – Any teacher who is using technology in their teaching likely has some information that they would be willing to share with other teachers. If that teacher has a blog or webpage, that information can be shared with literally thousands of other teachers via an RSS feed. Whether a teacher records their reflections, a lesson plan, some web site links, a new concept or idea, other teachers around the globe can learn from their experiences
  6. Follow your students blogs