When we first dealt with RSS feeds in class, I was excited, because I was hoping to learn something new about them. In my past experiences with RSS feeds, I have found them to be cumbersome, aggravating, and difficult to maneuver. Which is slightly ironic, I know, because that is exactly the opposite of what they are designed to be. However, I find it annoying to slog through the feeds to see updates. I suppose it's because I don't enjoy looking through updates in that format. I am actually that one person who enjoys getting the email to let me know that something has been updated (which is why the Facebook change annoyed me... I need those emails!).
In the classroom, Richardson makes note of uses for the RSS feed. He mentions that if you are using student blogs, you could easily monitor them all using a RSS feed. He also mentions Technorati, which I've heard about and plan to investigate more thoroughly. You can also use RSS feeds to create web pages, search for news about a particular topic, search blogs... so many uses!
Thinking about using RSS feeds in my classroom... I don't know how I would fit them in. Most of the work in my classes are based on literature and analysis. Many of the uses for RSS feeds seem to be getting breaking news about topics. I can see this as a must-use tool for disciplines that do cutting-edge research (science, history, and world languages mostly), but I'm not sure how I would fit it in to my classroom. I'm glad to have learned a little more about RSS feeds, though.
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