Week 4, #8: RSS Aggregators and Thoreau

Let's start with the fact that I really don't like Thoreau. Sorry. Any guy who has time to sit and watch ants for I can't remember how long doesn't mesh with my Type A personality. But still, when chaos threatens to consume me, I have only 2 options: 1. Eat a large bag of BBQ chips; 2. Repeat the manta, "Simplify, simplify, simplify."

In theory RSS Aggregators should simplify life for me. I choose the sites or areas that I like/need to read. The software advises me when new articles arrive. The problem is that I am a kid in a candy shop. I want to subscribe to many sites, thus getting many articles. Suddenly the software that was supposed to help me simplify is putting me in information overload.

The solution would seem to be to minimize the number of sites. However, if I didn't want to subscribe to many sites, why would I need an RSS Aggregator? I could use my bookmarks, or even Live Bookmarks from Firefox, if I only wanted to see a few sites. At the risk of seeming shallow, I browse the general news by using Yahoo as my home page. I bookmark a few of my favorite sites and visit those. I don't even look at My Yahoo any more.

I tried Google Reader a few years ago. At first I was really excited at having articles delivered to my screen. Soon I wasn't opening the page--for weeks.

What I really need to do is spend more time learning tags, or programs such as FeedRinse. I need to look at Moreover too. The potential of APML could help me better use RSS feeds. The tutorial included for this lesson demonstrated Feedster, which seems to be defunct now??? I'm going to spend the rest of my lesson time on that function. It seems to me that previously I set up screens/filters in Google Reader. That appears to be part of the next lesson so I'll hold off on that, but that' where my interest lies.

I like Google Alert and want to see what use I can make of it, combined with RSS feeds.

RSS feeds have other advantages, however. I like looking at the top 100 lists to see what is popular. RSS feeds are great for a website creator to develop an audience. I see RSS as much more valuable for the business than the consumer. If I am a small town newspaper, I would put an RSS link on my page in hopes that people would automatically view my updates daily, or even hourly, and thus drive up my usage and advertising rates.

How are others using RSS feeds in the classroom? I read an article by Will Richardson on using RSS feeds in the classroom. He mentioned that you could subscribe to the blogs of your students (where they post assignments for you) and then the RSS feed would keep you apprised of their current work. Another use might be having the share function in Google Reader send relevant materials to your students, especially in a class like current events.

Obviously I need to spend more time refining my skills to see an application of the RSS feed to my teaching, not just my learning.

I'm pretty sure Thoreau would disapprove of the Internet in general, but after a few nights in jail for not using it, he might concede to trying RSS feeds.