RS.. what??

When I first began this course, I hadn’t of ever heard of an RSS nor did I know what the abbreviation stood for- which I now know is a Really Simple Syndication (RSS). However, upon learning about this application it is easy to see why so many people take full advantage of it- what a great way to send out homework!! An example of how this application could be used in a classroom context is as follows.

Being up-to-date with world news is important and learning about daily news in the classroom as an English/SOSE activity can be made quick and easy by subscribing to world or local news through an RSS feed. Learners’ could have a Google reader account whereby each morning, in small groups, learners choose a news article to read, learn about and remember. The small groups then represent this information to the class, educating their cohort of the event. This keeps learners up-to-date, builds on public speaking skills and does so extremely fast thanks to RSS feeds!

An additional way to use an RSS feed is during an assignment in which learners can subscribe to sites which contain content of significance to them and allows them to keep updated effectively and efficiently. Or, in terms of keeping updated with regard to an assignment, learners can subscribe to a feed relating to assignment criteria and alterations to task e.g. due date etc.

This technology (RSS) can be analysed using a variety of frameworks, however, the classroom-idea suggested involves collaboration and therefore a constructivist approach will be utilised as the framework in analysing RSS feeds as an education tool. RSS feeds also have a strong social and community foundation (Duffy, & Bruns, 2006). This is because RSS feeds permit syndication of content to thousands of people around the world, expanding much further than the initial publication location (Duffy & Bruns, 2006). Evidently, this application is easily classified into that of the ‘social learning’ theories; constructivism being one of these (Duffy & Bruns, 2006).



Nic.




Reference List

Duffy, P. & Bruns, A. (2006). The Use of Blogs, Wikis and RSS in Education: A Conversation of Possibilities. Retrieved August 3, 2009 from http://eprints.qut.edu.au/5398/1/5398.pdf