RSS Feeds

Some of the feeds I subscribed to. I didn’t include them all in the picture because it would be too extensive!

I always knew that RSS Feeds existed. I had no idea what they did. I simply knew that there was a little button on some pages that allowed you to subscribe to the webpage. So this was a pretty exciting discovery for me. Here are my feelings on the subject of RSS Feeds:

• I was entertained that I can just center all of my information gathering in one place. RSS Feeds (and readers such as Digg) allow me to subscribe to a feed and then the reader site allows me to know when the webpage updates its information. I no longer have to waste my time checking to see if a site has updated its content.
• I was saddened by the fact that not all sites have a RSS Feed.
• I was amused by the fact that they are call “Really Simple Syndication.” It doesn’t sound like an official title!
• I was worried by the fact that this could actually cause me to spend more time looking up information and reading articles.
• I was pleased by the fact I can organize my feeds into folders for ease of reading.
• I was likewise pleased by the Chrome button that allows me to quickly add a site to my feed list.
• I was enlightened by the possibilities RSS has on education. It makes collecting knowledge quicker and I could read professional development articles by the dozen. I could have my students subscribe to RSS feeds to gather information quicker. I could also have my students create blogs and follow them easily with RSS and thus grade their work quicker.

This project took me forever because the website was down over the weekend. I was slightly perturbed because the message told me to return in a few minutes, and those few minutes quickly turned into hours and even days (okay, maybe only one and a half days). So I also practiced being patient!