RSS: The New Killer App for Educators

I know why Will Richardson calls RSS (Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) the new killer app for educators now! (A killer app(lication) is so useful or desirable that it proves the value of some underlying technology... –Wikipedia). Having one website to read all of your information from your favorite sites vs. having to go out to a million different sites to find this information is clearly saving time, visually appealing, user-friendly and smart. You can read more content from more sources in less time. –Richardson.

CommonCraft created a video on YouTube that explains what RSS is in "Plain English". It's entertaining and informative. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU

From an educator’s point of view, you can view your favorite weblogs and media sites by checking one site instead of 40. You can view your students’ work on one page instead of all 25 different weblogs by collecting their work on your aggregator using their RSS feeds. You can check for appropriate content, participation, and edits. This can be an excellent communication tool for parents, guardians, other teachers and counselors. You can also make RSS feeds search specific for news and blogs by adding the search criteria on your topic of study. I love how you can organize your different feeds into different folders. This makes all of the imported information readily available and easily accessible. I love this technology and can’t wait to share it with my students!