Keep Updated with RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds make it possible for educators to keep up-to-date on the content they teach.  By subscribing to RSS feeds you can keep in touch with many sites at one time.  By using sites like iGoogle or Google Reader, My Yahoo!, or Pageflakes to name a few, you can store all of their feeds in one central location.  The nice thing about RSS feeds is that you do not have check and read them everyday.  You can, but don't need to.  The feed keeps track of what has been posted by listing the title of the article, and sometimes it shows a date to keep you posted on the last update article from that site.

I am a STEM person - science, technology, engineering and mathematics.  I love knowing what is going on in these fields, so I have pages created for Science and Technology.  I skim the feeds and if something is in there that interests me I'll read it.  If not, I wait until there is something I want to read.

This is a great way for personal professional development for teachers and students. Knowing the new and upcoming allows you as an educator to be aware of the top stories, and can relate or share these new ideas with your students.  For example, you may want to create a class RSS Feed section on your classroom web site or pull up your own personal feeds during class and see if the students find something interesting. This could be a way to spark classroom discussions.  Maybe there is something dealing with a new species that a Biology class could talk about with adaptations and living conditions, or possible some new technological innovation that a Technology class could explore.

The discussions do not have to take a lot of time either, nor do you have to do them every day.  5 to 10 minutes at the beginning or end of class, once or twice a week would work. Maybe you'd rather have students select a recent article from one of the feeds and write a paper on it.  What ever it is that you decide to do, RSS feeds gives you another tool in your toolbox to help students learn about a topic of subject.


Feed Readers to check out:

iGoogle

Google Reader

My Yahoo!

Pageflakes

Bloglines