RSS feeds are a really interesting bit of tech for me. I only learned how to use them a few days before this class started, a friend who is a PR major is working web tools for a non-profit and has been passing on knowledge to me as she takes her crash course. She knows I am a rabid consumer of college football blogs, and showed me how to use the RSS feed to get all of my blogs on a single iGoogle page. I've never been more efficient at wasting time. In classes, I can see many applications for feeds. Firstly, students could have my blog (reflections and comments from class that day, why should the last class of the day be the only one to benefit from the insights of the previous classes?), as well as the blogs of their groupmates, if, say, they were working on a project together. Additionally, I could have an RSS of all of my students' blogs, so I could know every time they updated.
I really liked the practical applications as well, primarily the blogs in character of early American colonists. It reminds me of my favorite project I did in elementary school, the Discovery 3 simulation, in which we played exploring colonists, interacted, made war, traded, and tried to survive. It probably was a key factor in why i'm a social studies major today. I also liked the suggestion to foster discussion about topics like political cartoons. Engaging students outside of classtime seems like it could foster some really interesting points that could be addressed the next day. Just requiring a single post per night could result in many more just by piquing interest in the topic.
Addressing John Dewey's article, he puts a lot of emphasis on social aspects of teaching. In an age where social connections are wide-ranged thanks to the internet, this social side of education is becoming more and more important. Between blogging, feeds, chat, and a host of other tools (which I assume/hope I'll learn about more in 504) we can learn to take advantage of the powerful impact of the social side of the education process in a way that is more engaging at home than rote study ever could be.
Lastly, in typical iFashion, I was unable to access the page on synching up with the iKid due to a "Page Not Found" error. With web-based resources, you have to be prepared for this kind of problem, however.
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2 comments:
Lewis
I'm so glad that you posted on RSS. We are going to look at them more in class this week, but many teachers often find them confusing. I'm pleased you were able to elaborate on what they are and how they could be useful in teaching and learning. Some great ideas. Start Pages (like iGoogle) are great places for teacher homepages. Many teachers are creating Start Pages (often with iGoogle or Page Flakes where they insert their favorite RSS feeds, as well as videos, links, and images. Here is an example
yeah, I agree. without RSS, blogs and news seem overwhelming, and only for people with all kinds of time and no life.
Perfect for SMACers - no time, no life :)
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