It’s true! Technology keeps surprising me and most of all the achievements on the Internet. RSS is definitely one of those.
RSS stands for ‘Rich Site Summary” or “Really Simple Syndication” and is about to change the minds of those who feel that to search the net looking for what they like robs them too much time and therefore end up quitting. With RSS all that changes.
“What RSS does is “syndicate” all of the content you want, and send you everything you have asked for.” (David Parry, University of Albany, http://blogsforlearning.msu.edu/articles/view.php?id=6 ).
With RSS we invert the direction of the information – instead of searching for it ourselves, we have all the info we want coming to us. We can be updated daily on the news, web sites or even blogs we usually go to without having to go from one to another. We can save time and have all web sites we like and blogs we like coming to us instead.
To achieve this, all we have to do is open a Reader account (you can go to www.google.com/reader; www.bloglines.com; www.newsgator.com; or My Yahoo!) and subscribe to our favourite web sites and blogs. Believe me it is worth it!
For teachers who are trying to use blogs with their students, RSS becomes a precious tool, too.
We all know that having a class blog has made students aware of the importance of language acquisition and use, especially when their reading skills are very likely to influence their comment to a post.
Class blogs have also improved students’ writing skills since it becomes the key to general understanding. Besides increasing their motivation, students also become more careful readers and therefore more accurate writers.
By using RSS in class, it is possible to maintain students’ commitment to posting on their colleagues’ blogs since both teachers and students are updated on new posts without having to go from one blog to the other. They can also choose which posts they want to comment on. Once again, we save time and keep motivation levels high.
If you go to http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english, you will understand why RSS is going to revolutionise the way we surf the net searching for information on what we like.
StArt RSS. I am sure you won’t be sorry! ;-)
