RSS - What an amazing tool !!!!!

Since I attended the EVO 2008 Blog4Educators, I've been introduced invaluable Internet tools or applications and got insights into how blogs or wikis can be used in classrooms. However getting introduced to RSS -- it is like a dream come true! I can't help thinking why no one ever told me this before. But better late than never... I also feel an urge to share this invaluable tool with the people around me...

Let me explain in simple terms what I got as to what RSS is and how it can be used in the classroom. RSS stands for Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication. Weblogs have a code called XML (referred to as a feed) and copying these codes to your reader - such as Bloglines, Google Reader or Pageflakes - you can subscribe to the content of either a Weblog or a webpage you are interested in. So you no longer have to visit those sites to see what's been updated since they all come to you. You just go to one place, your reader to read all the new content. It's amazing :)) especially when thinking how much time it saves for us.

As a teacher, I may utilize this exciting tool in many ways for different purposes. First of all, I can reach to all of my students' blogs just with a click and see when they have been updated. Besides my students also use RSS feeds to read each other's blogs and it certainly ensures interaction among them. When they put up a post on their blog, they feel sure that their classmates will be informed of it. Futhermore using RSS efficiently surely enhances students' level of network literacy as David Perry clearly states in his article "The Technology of Reading and Writing in the Digital Space: Why RSS is crucial for a Blogging Classroom". Thanks to RSS feeds, they can learn how to search for a specific content and handle with lots of information they gather on the Net - by subscribing to related sites, scanning the information on a regularly updated platform, deciding which ones they need to read critically. Writing and reading in digital space certainly requires learners to have appropriate skills and RSS helps them go their own way and be more organized...