Recent Experiences with RSS Aggregators

Breaking News...take a look!  In addition to the required feed subscriptions, four RSS feeds I subscribed to include:  ERIC What Works Clearinghouse, U.S. Department of Education, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and a blog entitled Mathematics and Multimedia:  Celebrating the Beauty of School Mathematics.  Each of the previous sites were subscribed to intentionally to support personal development as an educator and participant in the educational community at large.  The Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) was selected for exposure to current research focused on effective practices in education promoting student improvement.  Second, the United States Department of Education news feed was chosen to increase personal awareness regarding conversations taking place nationally with regard to education.  Next, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) subscription provides news, research, and updates focused on the content area of my teaching certification.  Lastly, the Mathematics and Multimedia blog offered a meeting point for incorporating technology in mathematics curriculum.  Combined, the four previous subscriptions serve as a means of professional development sharing news, research, and resources which will increase awareness, challenge current perspectives regarding effective teaching strategies, and provide examples of lessons and activities to implement.

Here is a screen shot of my RSS page.  Checking RSS feeds on several different occasions, a few different things were observed with respect to the type of subscription.  News and organization sponsored feeds tended to update more frequently.  In some cases, these subscriptions provided multiple updates posted on the same day mere hours apart.  Journal subscriptions in some instances had no new updates since the creation of my RSS page.  Thinking about the work and process to publish in a journal coupled with consideration for the journal distribution schedule, few updates in a short amount of time began to make more sense.  Blogs tended to have unpredictable updates.  In some cases, new entries seemed separated by a consistent number of days; however, not all blogs evidenced a routine posting schedule to accurately anticipate future updates.  With these observations, although perhaps understood and not considered prior, my appreciation of RSS aggregators grew.  As I browsed each subscription and noted the latest post-date, I easily navigated through a wealth of information and continued on to websites, articles, and blog posts of interest and relevance.

Intrigued by a blog post entitled, "Online Learning" Isn't "Learning Online," I proceeded to unpack the writer's contemplation.  Working through a list of ten suggested benefits of online learning, the author of the post wrestled with the question of if online learning increased or bettered student learning.  Not far removed from my reflection and creation of goals related to skill development and technology use to impact student learning, thoughts of the necessity to effectively incorporate technology resided in the forefront of my mind.  The author's statement, "...let's make sure they take advantage of the online piece to let participants develop the connections that will sustain them far beyond the class.  Or, if not, let's call it what it is...online coursework, not learning," elicited my response.  My comment briefly articulated the thought reworking in my mind described above.  I likened my technology dilemma to the questions the author posed about online learning and concluded that our job as educators is to analyze the effectiveness of practices with the ultimate goal of continued improvement to benefit and impact student learning.  I checked back a few days later curious about further commentary.  Much to my surprise, my comment received a response in return.  The response suggested that others outside of the educational setting engage in similar conversation in order to evidence change promoting learning.  The response additionally highlighted a concern that decisions related to technology use might be made with regard to finances.

The exchange described above certainly provided opportunity to both hear and think about the distinction the author was making about online learning and learning online.  Prior to responding to the post itself, I read through the comments left by others.  Here I learned the direction the conversation continued from the posted thoughts.  In addition, I learned of other articles and resources working through a similar thought.  A few days later, I logged in again to check my feeds and read, "The big thing I think we lack is both a state and national plan for how we can really have successful utilization of technology nationwide in education," a statement made by Patrick Plant shared on TechLearning.com.  Immediately, I thought back to the recent blog post and how those two updates might be related.  Through this, I learned discussion surrounding technology implementation occurs in a variety of places, on a variety of levels, and from a variety of perspectives.  Another thing learned from news feeds is the concern regarding quality of education.  NPR shared news on February 17, 2011 about a mother who provided a false address in order to send her children to a better school.  On February 20, 2011 news of a North Carolina school district's previous decision to end current busing policies and an interview with the district's superintendent.  The interview briefly discussed the quality of the large district's schools.  Both instances conveyed a general concern from different stakeholders about the quality of education students receive.  The NCTM feed communicated information pertaining to upcoming conference dates and registration deadlines as well as resources for the classroom.

Largely, the subscriptions and feeds will increase personal awareness regarding current happenings on a broad scale in education.  Moreover, awareness of conversations taking place serves as encouragement to participate and engage colleagues in the conversation locally.  Several subscriptions offered resources to enhance classroom activities in the form of suggestions or new technology.  Reviewing feeds could introduce a new classroom technology or approach to implement in the classroom.  Also, monitoring feeds will keep me connected to relevant research.  Undoubtedly, this research will influence classroom activities, lessons, technology integration, and perspective on how students learn and how best to support and facilitate student learning.  RSS aggregators themselves could impact the classroom by connecting students to relevant resources also.  Since pages can be shared, students could benefit for research projects or keeping current with events of the world.