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Looking but not seeing
“Many times I looked but never saw.”
That old adage of not truly seeing something until it’s pointed out is how I feel about this RSS feed assignment. I have seen the RSS feed logo or similar options to subscribe to a particular sites news updates. I was always reluctant to even click on the link as I believed they would just send updates to my e-mail and I already get too many e-mails every day. I believed that by not subscribing I would be saving time by not having to read each e-mail from various web sites. Of course now I understand that the opposite is true. By subscribing I can go to my Google Reader and have access to all of the web sites I would normally read all updated in one place.
As a Social Studies teacher I am a news junkie and I am constantly reading news sights for updates and interesting stories to tie into each days lessons. So I used to have the various key news sites open in my browser at all times and I would search back and forth looking for any changes or updates. This was time consuming and often a distraction for me and my students as I project my laptop screen onto my smart board. Now with my RSS feeds I just go to one page and quickly scroll through, clean and simple.
I have begun involving students in finding sites they are interested in and I have created a link in my online course to allow students to share their RSS feeds. They can suggest curriculum-related sites for their fellow students to subscribe to. On a personal level, they can subscribe to friends’ blogs, receive news and sports updates, and keep abreast of anything of interest to them.
If shown how to use Google Reader efficiently, students may find it to be a powerful tool and part of the electronic skill set.
AECT Standards
Standard 2: Development Candidates demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to develop instructional materials and experiences using print, audiovisual, computer-based, and integrated technologies.
2.3 Computer-Based Technologies Computer-based technologies are ways to produce or deliver materials using microprocessor-based resources.
The use of RSS feeds requires the use of a computer for the collection and viewing of the feeds.
Standard 3: Utilization Candidates demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to use processes and resources for learning by applying principles and theories of media utilization, diffusion, implementation, and policy-making.
3.1 Media Utilization Media utilization is the systematic use of resources for learning.
3.2 Implementation and Institutionalization Implementation is using instructional materials or strategies in real (not simulated) settings. Institutionalization is the continuing, routine use of the instructional innovation in the structure and culture of an organization.
Standard 4: Management Candidates demonstrate knowledge, skills, and dispositions to plan, organize, coordinate, and supervise instructional technology by applying principles of project, resource, delivery system, and information management.
4.3 Delivery System Management Delivery system management involves planning, monitoring and controlling ‘the method by which distribution of instructional materials is organized’…[It is] a combination of medium and method of usage that is employed to present instructional information to a learner.
4.4 Information Management Information management involves planning, monitoring, and controlling the storage, transfer, or processing of information in order to provide resources for learning.
Todd Dumais 
I had similar ideas about RSS before this assignment. I always saw it and just assumed it would add more clutter to my life. Now that I realize how it works to organize my clutter into manageable chunks for easy access, I am in love!
I can see how RSS would be helpful in Social Studies with current events and news stories. I think it is wonderful that you are already applying it in your classroom and teaching your students how to use it!