Thoughts about RSS

RSS . . . Really Simple Syndication. I find it amusing that I now have an aggregator for my RSS feeds, have created a blog and a wiki and various podcasts, but still have trouble operating my "really simple" TV, DVD and VCR at home without referring to the step-by-step instructions my 15-year-old typed for me regarding the operation of these "dinosaurs!"

But back to RSS - I truly am amazed by this sort of reverse "push" of information to me that Web 2.0 offers. Now I don't have to randomly search for information on the Internet - I can create favorite sites to send the information to me whenever there are updates. At first I thought this was going to cause me to feel overwhelmed with even more things to keep track of; this turns out to not be the case. I can simply skim and delete. Or I can "star" it and come back to it later - a simple flagging tool like e-mail. However, RSS is nothing like opening e-mail and seeing 150 unread messages. As I get my RSS feet wet, I see that I do need to create some folders so that I can look at topics in an organized way, but that is really easy. I am trying to train myself to read my feeds each day after I check my e-mail. I think this skimming and scanning task is a valuable concept to teach students as well, what with everyone looking for ways to improve PSSA scores these days in our neck of the woods.

What I also like about RSS is the ability to use it as a classroom management tool with regard to student weblogs. I plan to have students create blogs in my French 4 class this year when we read our novel (Le Comte de Monte Christo - Ugh! Hoping to be able to change that reading selection within the curriculum soon). I can collect the students' weblogs in my aggregator using their RSS feeds and can scan through the entire class content in one place rather than traveling to their individual sites. I also love the automatic date-stamping of their posts within their blogs - assignments are either completed on time or they're not!

Regarding student safety, I do believe it will be wise to get free membership to Technorati.com for indexing weblog content with their "Watchlists." Inappropriate content can be stumbled upon too easily.

I am also including a few links to some great feeds that I will use for my classes, including French newspapers, French Word-A-Day, and learning French by Podcast.