Thing 24: Control the Info Flow with RSS & Feed Readers

Using an RSS might seem like it is complicated but it is actually very simple and something that I think a lot more people might take advantage of if they knew what it was all about. I also know that there are people who already do subscribe to an RSS feed without even realizing like those who subscribe to various YouTube channels or flickr. The best thing that an RSS feed does in my opinion is gathering all of the important information that you might be interested in and having it in one location so you do not have to go all over the place looking for it.

I never knew what that orange icon meant before and now that I do it seems to be popping up everywhere. I decided to spend some time on feedly because right away I loved that there was a box I could click that would let me do some exploring before I was required to sign up for anything. The site was simple and clean and I liked that. I searched using the terms library, school library, and elementary library. Some great results popped up and I was introduced to some fabulous new blogs I had never known about. One of the other things I really liked about feedly was that there were popular topics already chosen for me that I could click on and see a wealth of information.

Sometimes I feel like I have so much going on not only at school but also in my personal life that I don't enough time to read all the blogs that I would like to, or keep up with all of the newest trends as much as I would like to. I love the idea of having the information that I want sent to me when it is available. Not only does it save me time, but it also helps me to keep up with it and stay on top of all of the new information that is out there. There are a few library blogs that I have found in my search for other things that I have come to love and using an RSS feed to keep up with that information would be wonderful.

For me I think I would use an RSS feed more in my personal life rather than with my students. I think that using it to follow blogs and teacher librarians like myself where I can find new information and explore new things would be the most helpful to me. Libraries can definitely take advantage if this new information to share information around the world. I think introducing it to students in 5th or 6th grade and letting them explore and play around with it would be a nice way for them to learn about it and see what it is. 

After playing around and exploring I am still a little overwhelmed with it but that is usually how I feel when something is new to me. The more I explore the more I think I will get used to and maybe one day have it mastered. I found a few sites that I loved from playing around I am sure I will find a few more the more I explore.