RSS: The Constant Channel of Information

I have to admit that my introduction to RSS was a “teaching moment” I will never forget. It was also one of the first moments that made me feel old and “out of the loop”, as some would say. I was staying after to work with some students in my classroom to finish up some last minute yearbook details, and just happened to (not every enthusiastically I must say) mention to the kids that my graduate class was asking me to follow some kind of “RSS thing”. I heard a snicker come from a couple of students on the left side of the room, and shortly after they attempted to show me their RSS feeds on their personal laptops. Next, they even helped get mine set up on my computer as well! I used the Yahoo Reader and the Microsoft Outlook versions, and found the little button that was the key to updated information. It was truly a ‘student teaching teacher’ moment!  Honestly, I am not sure I could have figured it out on my own. I probably would have had to search for some sort of tutorial to do it myself.

           A week later, I am finding myself reading more, just not in my usual format. I have always preferred to read the print version of something, and I think that partially has to do with my job. Teaching and studying English, print sources were what I was brought up with. Secondly, creating the school yearbook, well, that is all digital, requiring many hours online on the design website. But this week I got to thinking that this RSS thing may actually save me time in the long run, and could really be a ‘really simple syndication’ as many websites had stated. I started to “check my feed” at least a few times a day. I also began to look for the RSS icon as I visited different websites. I stumbled on an article by a woman named Colette Cassinelli, who stated, “If you can’t find an RSS logo on the site, the site may not offer RSS feeds,” and finally it all clicked. “Once you get into the habit of subscribing for news or information, you will find that you search less. [One can] stay up to date with breaking news, school updates, latest blog posts or news from your favorite website,” she explained.
           My understanding of the RSS application is that it is a simple way for the user to read the latest postings and updates from favorite websites. The online feeds, such as Yahoo, seem to give latest headlines on all subjects, whereas on Outlook, one can prioritize to the articles to their personal areas of interest. From the news articles I have read from these feeds, I feel that I like to use the Yahoo feed much better than the Outlook. I seem to get a more wide range of information and articles to choose from, and in a much faster manner. One of the feeds I have on my Outlook RSS is Apple Hot News, and in a different format, I see some of the same headlines that I see on the Yahoo RSS. The only main difference I see with the Outlook is that you have to open your email account, click on the RSS folder, and pick the category or sites that you subscribed to. Lastly, a long list of news topics will appear, and finally articles can be chosen. Basically, I really think all RSS feeds serve the same purpose; a quick way to hear the latest news.
           When thinking about how RSS could be used in the education system, many ideas and lesson plans came to mind before I even had a chance to observe the feeds for a few days. However, I was considering what a pain it may be to get RSS readers set up on all of the student computers, and if the students would even have “permission” on their student accounts to access and download the necessary items. As many districts do, the district that I work for monitors the student computer accounts at a strict level, blocking downloading and access to many websites. In conclusion, I decided a way that I could have students use and explore RSS feeds was that I could make it an extra credit assignment (as a trial run). I could show students how to set it up using my computer hooked up to the projector. After that, the rest of the assignment would ask students to follow feeds at home and write up a response, journal, paper, or some kind of other informational assignment to let me know what they discovered using RSS.

From a professional standpoint, I feel that my colleagues and out administrators in the building would greatly benefit from the RSS feeds. I am not even sure that people know that it is an option on our Outlook email.  Professional blogger Darren Rowse states, “RSS flips things around a little and is a technology that provides you with a method of getting relevant and up to date information sent to you for you to read in your own time. It saves you time and helps you to get the information you want quickly after it was published,” (www.problogger.net).  Since time is such a valuable asset in the world of education, this would definitely be beneficial to teachers and administrators; especially if some of the topics and feeds came from educational sites. After beginning my experience with RSS feeling somewhat overwhelmed and ignorant, I now feel that RSS is something I will be recommending to others.

Works Cited

Cassinelli, Collete. (9 Feb. 2009). Tech Tip Tuesday – RSS and Google Reader. edtech VISION 2011. Retrieved from http://edtechvision.org/?p=537

Rowse, Darren. (1 November 2010). What is RSS? Problogger.net 2011. Retrieved from http://www.problogger.net/what-is-rss/