RSS - Really SIMPLE Syndication!

If you had asked me last month what a RSS aggregator was, I would have looked at you completely dumbfounded - I simply had no idea! On top of that, the thought of adding an RSS feed to my blog sounded so complicated! Funnily enough after seeing that RSS in fact stood for, 'Really Simple Syndication' I breathed a sigh of relief! I like things that involve the word 'simple' in it! After a few simple clicks, I had a set up a RSS aggregator and was now able to follow some of my peer's blogs!

Blogging with RSS is a powerful tool that teachers should embrace to help themselves and their students in and out of the classroom. Will Richardson (2005), discusses the benefits and practicalities of RSS in a document called, RSS: A Quick Start Guide for Educators (2005). David Parry (2006), who is involved with the University of Albany also talks about the benefits of using a good RSS feeder when blogging in a classroom:

'What a good feed reader does is allow you to quickly scan the headlines, mark the ones you want
to read, toss out the ones you don't, and return either immediately, or at a later more convenient
time, to carefully read the ones you have selected.'

In essence, RSS saves you a lot of time. Instead of searching and gathering information and having to constantly go back and forth getting new information, RSS does all of this for you. Furthermore, by saving time this means more opportunities to focus on other important areas such as; helping your students understand and comprehend information or moving onto other forms of ICT that could be implemented in your classroom!

References:
Parry, D 2006, The Technology of Reading and Writing in the Digital Space: Why RSS is crucial for a Blogging Classroom, Blogs for Learning, viewed 20 August 2009
http://blogsforlearning.msu.edu/articles/view.php?id=6

Richardson, W 2005, RSS: A Quick Start Guide for Educators, Creative Commons, viewed 20 August 2009
http://weblogg-ed.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/RSSFAQ4.pdf