RSS Feed Reflection

Ok, I still have lots of questions about the RSS Feed thing. One I answered by Wikipedia-ing RSS: "Really Simple Syndication" - REALLY? Not so sure about that. In any case, as required by EDU 4113, according to the infinite wisdom of Mr. Q, I did subscribe to 10, well, almost 10 "feeds". Like this: my daily horoscope, Miss Manners (although it turns out she's been right there in my SF Chronicle all this time), Quotes of the Day (love that), CNN World News, NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) News, Free Shakespeare Resources, Lesson Planet articles, and best of all, Free Technology for Teachers! (Mr. Q, do you subscribe to that Blog? It rocks!) Through this last, I followed a link to CNN Student News, which features a daily 10 minute current news broadcast for middle and high school classrooms. One of the things I intend to include as a routine in my own classroom, should I ever find a job and HAVE my own classroom, is an ongoing current events focus. The RSS feed would be a great resource for kids to use to find and choose items of interest to present to the class. Also, speaking of current events in the classroom, I found this incredible link to an interactive map of Tahrir Square, site of the Egyptian protest and revolution:

The Camp that Toppled a President

Other items I discovered through this one feed alone included Nikon's "This Day" feature, which displays things that happened someplace in the world on "this day" sometime in history - great classroom content for History or English, and also an "Interesting Ways" page of another educator's Blog, which included a feature "37 Interesting Ideas for Class Blog Posts" and lots of other great stuff.

In short, there are a million ways that RSS feeds could be used in the classroom, or by teachers to enhance classroom learning. Just one more I have to share. On this site, students could create a "Voki" - an animated cartoon character. It could be part of a creative writing project, or used to deliver a presentation, or created as a response to literature. So now I am a linking fool, totally inspired, also totally distracted from completing my final project for EDU 4113. 'Nuf said.