RSS in Education

This has been an adventurous week in technology for me.  I learned about RSS, which I was unfamiliar with prior to this assignment. In addition, I made a multimedia presentation with Screencast-o-matic.  It seemed like a daunting task, but in the end I was surprise how easy it was.  I've been curious about all the icons on different websites.  From news sites to church sites, it seems everyone has the facebook, twitter, and RSS icon.

During this time of research, I learned that RSS, which means Real Simple Syndication, was simply an up-to-date news feed from blogs or websites.  I usually check my local news site along with a national site a couple times of day to get a quick look at what is going on.  Using a RSS reader, like Feedly, allows a person to save time browsing site to site and condenses it on one continuous feed.  I was surprise how easy it was to make categories and organize the information in a way that best fits the individual.  In my video, I discussed that RSS is and how it can be applied in the classroom.  I really wanted to figure out a way to integrate it into a high school social studies class.  So I thought back to assignments I thought were important in all my classes and how this technology could enhance that lesson, but also be appropriate for the age group and content.  Then it dawned on me!  What assignment needed to be updated daily from creditable sources?  Current Events.  I believed it is important for my students to stay in-tune with what is going on, not only on a local level, but also a national and international level.  Since you are able to categorize the groups easily, it can be used for all my content areas - history, government, economics and geography.  RSS is a tool that will provide information to my students in an organized area on their computers or phones.  This would be desirable because students will appreciate the efficiency provided with the constant feeds and their ability to subscribe to several news sites, like the New York Times or the BBC.

Although I do not feel like an expert in RSS and its uses, I was glad to research some of its possibilities and look forward to viewing other posts and videos for other ideas to integrate it into the classroom.