Chapter 5 in Richardson's book "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms" addresses the use of RSS feeds in the educational context. The subtitle of this chapter is "The New Killer App for Educators" and I would have to agree. Before this class, I had never used an RSS feed reader, but it really is pretty cool. I like that it saves time because you don't have to visit each webpage independently. I can quickly click on articles that I want to read or I can "mark as read" things that I am not interested in reading.
I can see that utilizing RSS feeds as an educator will help me be more time efficient, but I learned that application has benefits for students as well. Richardson points out that even if students are not using weblogs they can still set up an RSS feed reader to keep up to date on "current events and even topic-specific research" (p. 78). I am interested in having my students set up a Feedly account to stay up to date with dental articles. In their second year of dental hygiene education, the students are required to start consuming evidence-based research in the medical/ dental field and must write abstracts of what they learned. This is to prepare them for continuing education requirements once they have their RDH license. I think that using an RSS feed reader would be an ideal way to accomplish this.
In chapter 8 I was introduced to podcasting. I was relieved to read that Richardson explains that, in reference to podcasts, that "this is not the highly polished, professional radio you might be used to" (p. 113). I am self-conscious about recording my voice as a podcast for students, but I guess if it is understood that there will be some stumbling of words or "ums" included, then I won't be as nervous when I go to make mine.
References: Richardson, W. (2010) Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin
I couldn't agree more when it comes to recording my voice. The use of RSS feeds is a great tool and this is my first time using them as well. I listen to podcasts all the time and they are a great tool for the education field. You can find a lot of free material out there that is very useful. I highly recommend the use of podcasts as much as possible. I am a history educator and I have found hundreds of them.
ReplyDeleteI am with you guys on the recording my own voice thing. I hate to hear myself on the answering machine/voicemail. I am getting the hang of the RSS feeds though. I do like that all of your favorites come to you so you do not have to go to many different sites to see what is new.
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