RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication. RSS is a great tool for anyone who regularly checks multiple web pages. Instead on going to all of the different sites RSS brings all the information to you instead. All of this is done by an “aggregator” or feed collector. What I find to be really cool about “aggregators” is that they check all your choosen links every hour. That’s insane! Another great feature is that there are no ad’s or spam like email accounts can gather. A great advantage of using Google Reader for your RSS is that you can access your information from any computer. Folders within your account can help you keep all your links organized. Tags as can serve this function too. There are many great features and uses for RSS accounts. I really like how you can monitor classroom weblogs and narrow searches down by using the “advanced search” page. Also, teachers can use RSSmix.com to help manage student’s weblogs and other accounts.
I want to end chapter 5 with this quote that I think really sums up teacher’s role with RSS feeds:
An aggregator is like a personal information filter. Without it the Web is a big scary place. Having a well-stocked, well-fed aggregator is like having a personal guide. As a teacher, I consider one of my main jobs to be serving as a personal guide, helping kids to fill their aggregators with content that is relevant and useful for them. They also need to learn most importantly to separate signal from noise.
Starting off I was a bit weary of Flickr. I did not feel comfortable publicly posting pictures that were intended for school use, what I thought was even worse was displaying students work in a public fashion. Now after reading I see that there are features that can be selected during the uploading process that can limit who is capable of seeing certain things. Making groups or having work be private has eliminated those fears of mine. Another great advance of flickr over other sites is that Flickr for the most part is free. This could be a great classroom tool to promote journal entries or short stories. I really liked the idea of having “random writes” where students type in a random word and write on the first picture that pops up. Also, the annotation feature seems like it would be really handy in classroom. I can see that feature being helpful for students studying maps or other detailed photos.
Nice work summarizing the potential of RSS and Flickr…