RSS Feed Educators

RSS feeds, who knew? Ok a lot of people knew. This is one of those things I should have understood. Here I am in the fourth month of a technology and media degree and I had never invested the time to understand the usefulness of the RSS. Wow!

Well for the four of you that are left out there that use the internet on a regular basis and do not understand RSS feeds here is an explanation. RSS, according to Michael Stephens’ article “RSS” in the July/August 2005 addition of Library Technology Reports, is a term that represents a family of applications that have been refered to as: really simple syndication, rich site summary, and real-time simple syndication. http://bit.ly/10HBaD . The authors go on to explain that the RSS code takes form multiple websites any updates and deposits it neatly onto one simple page. The user then has a consolidated list of websites that they can to peruse easily and quickly.

RSS feeds can be used as a form of communication as well. Richard Procter wrote in an article for Technology, Pedagogy & Education http://bit.ly/11nNa6 that there are ways to use the feeds in collaborating research projects. Creating a database of information that is being built by multiple researchers can cause confusion. RSS feeds can be set up to allow both researchers and users of that research to know when changes to the projects websites have been made.

Peter Duffy and Dr. Axel Burns presented wrote a piece that was found at Queensland University of Technology’s archive http://eprints.qut.edu.au/5398/1/5398.pdf that discussed the use of multiple Web tools that can be used in education. They talk about the importance and ease of the RSS feeds and its value to both teacher and student. The point out the superiority of using these kinds of feeds verses an email subscription to disseminate information. The email subscription has security issues concerning email list ending up in the hands of spammers. The RSS can send any update you like and the receiver is protected from giving out email information. The also discuss the ease for grading online homework like blog entries. Instead of visiting each individual site looking for the updates they are notified in one location of when students finish their work.

Teachers are constantly trying to connect real world information with what they are teaching. Historically teachers might discuss what was on the news or in a periodical to connect what they are teaching to what is happening outside of school. The RSS feed is a natural continuation of that activity. In her article, “RSS: The Next Killer App for Education” http://technologysource.org/article/269/ Mary Harrsch points out that a teacher can have an RSS feed to websites that relate to her field. As new items come up the teacher is immediately aware and can bring the to their class.

The volume of content that the Internet contains is overwhelming. To be able to find information that is valuable in the least amount of time is the goal of any user. RSS feed speed up that search. The wesite The Media Drop contains a list of newspapers that have RSS feeds. http://technologysource.org/article/269/ The compilers of this site have done a great amount of work that makes a users life easier. I think that there are opportunities for growth with such websites. Learning communities all over the world are building these kinds of sites the are useful for streamlining research. Refining the Internet through Web 2.0 technology and philosophy can empower the educational community in ways that are not completely clear but are obviously full of potential.