RSS Feeds

This is my first experience using a reader to organize RSS feeds. My only experience with RSS feeds in the past was when I added a news in forensics feed to my Weebly website and to my iGoogle page.   Once I completed my reading and explored the tools provided in the module, I was ready to set up my reader.  I chose Google reader, which was very easy.  I am learning that Google makes everything easy.  A perfect example, I have been using Safari as my web browser for the past few years.  After completing a workshop on using Google and Youtube, I decided I would start using Google Chrome as my browser.  I downloaded Google Chrome, imported my bookmarks from Safari, but I still have been primarily using Safari.  Why, because that is what I am most comfortable using.  When I started searching for RSS feeds, I found it was very easy to add the feeds to my reader using Chrome.  I didn't have to copy URL's, Chrome would just add the feed.  It was kind of my ah ha moment. 

When I started searching for feeds, I went first to news feeds,  New York Times, CNN, and PBS. Next I added blog feeds of blogs I had already been following along with feeds I found interesting in my search for RSS feeds. I have feeds on news, education, technology, science and forensics.  I found it very easy to both subscribe and unsubscribe to RSS feeds.

Can or will I use RSS reader in the classroom?  One way I could use them would be to have students set up their own feeds, monitor them, and choose something they want to share with the class, maybe once a week.   In an online classroom, students could set up blogs and use Google reader to follow each other's RSS feeds from their blogs.  They could them be required to respond to blog posts.  This type of activity would meet NETS-S standard 1: Creativity and Innovation, and standard 2: Communication and Collaboration.