I found chapter 5 in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms to be very interesting because prior to reading this, I had never heard of RSS before. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is, to my understanding, a personalized pool of information in which you can pick and choose what information is fed to you on any specifically website. After reading only a couple sentences of this chapter I realized RSS is a tool that seems to have huge potential for in the classroom and in my personal life. I am always searching the same things on Google or checking the same websites for updates all the time. With an RSS, I wouldn’t have to do that so much anymore and can focus on reading the important and relevant information that is flooding into my aggregator.
The title of the chapter says it right when it states “The New Killer App for Educators”. This tool could be so helpful for students doing research projects, sharing daily updates on a news subject, or even just searching the web for info. It helps narrow down the vast amount of information on the web and organize it into a less scary, more satisfying experience in which you get all of the useful information into one place. This program can also help children learn about the Read/Write web as place that can be used to find any information their heart desires and it is not the scary place where bad things can happen to them like can be portrayed on the news sometimes. RSS can also help students keep up to date on things they are learning in class as well as blogs about what other students their age are learning about as well.
All in all I find this a very useful tool that I am sure I will find myself as well as my future classroom using. It will save time, effort, and lots of useless information from piercing its way into our searches and allowing a classroom to see how useful the web can actually be if used correctly.
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