Once again, I am amazed of the technology tools that have been right under my nose, but I have been oblivious to their potential in both my personal and professional life. The focus of this blog is the use of RSS Readers. It's especially embarrassing because it took so long for me to actually have this "A-HA!" moment. Not only do I have TWO readers already installed in my Firefox web browser, but I even subscribed to a web-based reader through BLOGLINES for the Learning Technology course I am currently taking through the University of St. Thomas. While I understood the purpose and the basic function of these tools, I guess I have been only vaguely familiar with their actual potential.....at least until I went back to the text and read what Will Richardson had to say in his text, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tolls for Classrooms.
RSS (Real Simple Syndication) has incredible potential for a social studies classroom. I became especially excited about it when I was reading Richardson's ideas for using RSS for news searches (p. 78-79). Just last week I assigned a current events project where my students must find and follow an on-going issue in the Middle East. For many of my students, the Middle East is a VERY foreign place, one that they are very unfamiliar with (despite recent years). Furthermore, while my students are 'technology natives', they have very rudimentary skills in using research, especially the internet. If it isn't on the first page of a Google search, they are stuck. Now, using an RSS reader, once they invest some time in setting up a search (Google News is a good place to start), they can be assured of finding relevant articles that should produce better results than they traditionally have come up with.
Obviously, learning to effectively use RSS Readers will be more difficult for some students than others, and it will take some time on my part to introduce and demonstrate what a powerful tool it can be. Also, some may not have consistent internet access which is something I am always conscious about. But, I see this as a tool that can be used not only for their current events project, but other avenues of the course as well.
As far as RSS readers, I spent some time becoming more familiar with the Google reader and Wizz RSS 3.0.0 (mostly because it was one of the readers I had already installed, along with Sage). I actually found whe Wizz reader easy to use, especially in setting up initial feeds, but I can see the benefits of using a web-based reader such as Bloglines or Google reader. Being able to access these feeds from any computer with internet access is definitely a bonus. In Google's case, I also like the option of downloading the feeds if you know you won't have internet access.
All in all, with any new technology, I know I'm only scratching the surface as far as using RSS feeds effectively, but this is the perfect time to jump in and start learning as I go!
