Chapter 5: Blogs, Wikis, & Podcasts

Reflection of Chapter 5:

Before reading Chapter 5: RSS: The new Killer App for Educators I didn't have the slightest clue what an "RSS" was. I soon learned that RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Here's my definition of an RSS: A place you can go on the web to get information from a bunch of different websites all in one place. Basically, instead of clicking through dozens of sites to get the information I'm looking for I can create my own RSS and have the all the content I need in once place. To quote the book RSS's allow you to "read more content from more sources in less time." Also, the websites on my RSS are all websites I will subscribe to so they should all be sites I'm interested in; NO SPAM! As always on the web though, I would have to evaluate the websites I choose to put on my RSS before I put them there. And, as we know, evaluating websites can be tricky. Still, I thought the RSS seemed pretty convenient. At first, I thought setting up an RSS sounded pretty complicated with the "aggregator" and what not but I think once I'd actually do it, it wouldn't be very difficult and would be worth my time. Another feature of an RSS is that it can let you know when someone publishes something with a certain keyword in it. This could be beneficial because someone could post a new story on the web about a topic I'm interested in and I'd be able to easily find it. I did think that this could kind of contradict the whole no spam aspect of the RSS though because a website that has keyword with a topic im interested in might also have a lot of spam. As a future educator, I learned that I could use an RSS to keep track of my students' blogs. I thought this was a great idea because, like the wiki, I could keep all my students' blogs in one place where I can quickly access them.

So now that I know how to use an RSS, how can my students benefit from an RSS? Students could use an RSS for research. For instance, if a student is researching kangaroos the student could create an RSS that would bring any information about kangaroos to their RSS right when its published. This way, they're getting more sources for their research without actually doing any work. I found this both good and bad. The good thing is that students can get more information faster. The bad thing is, I think students need to learn how to do research themselves, both on the web and off the web. All in all, the RSS has advantages and disadvantages, like any technology. I think an RSS is a can be great tool for middle school or high school students but as an early childhood education major, my students won't be using one!