RSS Reader

A RSS Reader can be installed on your computer, such as Active Web Reader, or logged into on the internet from any computer, such as Google. A Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Reader “collect(s) news in the background at user configurable intervals and warn with a little popup in the system tray that there is a new message arrived. You can click the news headline to see a short description of the news and click or open the original news web page in an RssReader browser or default browser window.” (RSS Reader) A web based RSS Reader can be accessed from any computer, I personally choose to use Yahoo, because it will give you a summary of the article right there from the home page. You can modify the home page to keep track of a large selection of web sites that are constantly being updated. I recently chose to install Active Web Reader onto my desktop computer and I found that easy to install, but the web sites didn’t seem to be as actively updated as the Yahoo monitored sites. An advantage of using a web based RSS Reader, you can get to the information from any computer that has internet access, which I find very convenient and much more user friendly. Also Yahoo was very easy to set up and create an account, to set up My Yahoo, you just need to follow the step by step instructions that are online.
I monitored the New York Times, New York Times Personal Tech, and The Onion with My Yahoo RSS Reader. My Yahoo RSS Reader keeps me up to date throughout the day on the latest news, since I can log into it anywhere. On my installed RSS Reader, Active Web Reader, I subscribed to www.extremetech.com which has lots of information on the latest and future technology and The Galactic Apple, which is a resource for teachers. I found the installed RSS Reader to be very distracting, when it was on, it was forever asking me if I wanted it to monitor every web site I went to, so needless to say it was turned off and I only turned it on when I was ready to read or mark a site, but other than that I found the Active Web Reader very user friendly and easy to install.
I think that an online RSS Reader would be good for both students and teachers; this way, current events and other topics can be discussed in the classroom. A teacher can make it an assignment for students to read the headlines of the New York Times and not have to worry about the students getting a physical newspaper, not to mention the online version is free, while the newspaper still costs. Recent research by the Newspaper Association of America Foundation, found that students who read newspapers are “more likely to get involved with volunteer work and fundraising to improve their communities.” (Capital Newspapers)
I also think that students can keep a blog about current books they are reading or a topic studied in class and then have their peers read the blogs. This can be a way to keep students accountable for their own learning. With the online RSS Readers it is simple to see if any of the blogs have been updated since the last time you read them. Students could then ask questions to the person reading the book, and help them to get a deeper understanding of the book, not to mention that students can also improve on their written communication skills.
References
Capital Newspapers. (2009). Newspapers in education. Retrieved September 6, 2009, from http://www.capitalnewspapers.com/readers/nie.php.

RSS Reader. (2003-2007). What is an rss reader, archived at http://www.rssreader.com/rssreader.htm.