Thing 7 - Learn about RSS

An hour ago I knew nothing about RSS. Now I have an account with 4 news feeds and a blog feed. WOW! It is spectacular to learn something brand spanking new! And compared to some of the other 23 Things that I have been working on, this one was fairly simple to learn, use, and adapt. YEAH!

What I like about the RSS and newsreaders is the simplicity and straight forward delivery of headlines sans ads and distractions. I love how only new headlines are listed saving me the trouble of rereading things that I have already seen. The process for adding feeds to my Google reader was very simple. It was so simple that I added my favorites quickly one after another. I anticipate that this is going to be a technology aide that I refer to frequently. It seems simpler than running through my bookmarks and checking each site for updates. I like the image on the first video where the arrows were redirected to the subscriber; I now have my favorite news sites sending me the information instead of seeking these stories. There is a mental adjustment for me though in simply marking things "read" versus deleting them. I am accustomed to a clean slate meaning tasks are done; it is strange to leave every headline in a long list but this seems to be the format.

I will use this technology in my personal life for quick access to the current headlines. In my professional life I am anxious to access blogs that enhance my professional development. The RSS seems like a simple way to receive updates from professional education sites. The news feeds and blogs can provide supplemental content to my lessons reducing the time it takes to find valuable resources on the internet. I can share in someone else's success in a search for valuable content if they post this information in their blog. I can receive news feeds that send current events in Spanish making it very easy to add this content to my classroom conversations. I am still trying to decide how to have my students independently use this but I probably just need to ask them. My guess is that they use this more than I do.