Web 2.0: RSSs - A Long Walk to Make a Short Trip!

Web 2.0: RSSs

Getting my RSS feed on to my blog was a very cumbersome ordeal that took over 13 hours to achieve the simplest of feeds. After watching the videos on what a RSS was and reading how to do it, I decided to use Netvibes (https://www.netvibes.com/en). Setting up the account was free for 14 days and easy to do.  Getting my Netvibes dashboard RSS to be shared on my blog was an ordeal that I failed at time after time even though it looked like it should work with Blogger.  After having my wife and 13 year-old child give it a try, I finally gave up and decided to try a different site.  This time I set up an account with Feedly (https://feedly.com/i/my).  Again, it was easy to create an account and put together my feed; getting it to work with my Blogger account, however, was yet another issue similar to the first try.  I figured it was user error (it usually is), and tried a third site that was recommended by our text book: google.com/reader.  Unfortunately, Google no longer supports a reader, so I was back to square 1.  Ultimately, I got one to ‘take,’ (Inside Schools – Education Next), but have never quite figured out why the RSS feeds I put together would not work, but the premed ones did.

I see great potential in using RSSs in the support of CCSS and ISTE standards.  In fact, it seems intuitive that a teacher would use them. The teacher gets to decide on a number of news and information that goes on a classroom feed that students can choose from.  The teacher can use and discuss, real primary sources that are reliable.  Discuss and teach about fact vs opinion, and other topics ingrained in the CCSS.  For example:

I can think of one unit I could use an RSS for – the Unit on WWII while we read the book Night.  In the 8^thgrade it is customary for our students to do an interdisciplinary unit on WWII and the Holocaust before the 8^thgrade travels to Washington, DC and visit the many monuments and museums.  Nightis a deep read for most 8th graders; the subject matter and detail that Elie Wiesel goes into as he recalls the brutality of his stay at Auschwitzcan be overwhelming for even the toughest of students.  However, it has been our experience that most students are lacking in even the most basic understanding that what went on during that war.  In fact, many of the boys I have had got most of their knowledge on WWII from video games set in that time period! Pushing valid and reliable pieces out covers state standards regarding fact vs opinion, reading primary sources, informed discussion, and more.  

As usual, teachers need to guide students at this level through what they are doing, but in the end, once students are comfortable with, and understand the limitations to, RSSs, students will be able to develop and use their own RSSs to find and construct their own informational feeds as they grow.

ISTE Standard met: Empowered Learner, Digital Citizen, Knowledge Constructor