The RSS and readers save time by culling the huge amount of daily data to bring you updates on what you want to know about. They cost time because they give you even more to read each day! No longer is it enough to keep up with professional journals and magazines and books in the field. Now there is daily info to keep one on the leading edge.
In my school life, I will have to use this at home. Just like e-mail can be a black hole for time, this reading will also cost productive work time. At least when people see you reading a book or magazine, they can see how that might make you an asset. But absorbed for lengths of time on the computer? Not as positive an image.
I find that when I need information, I will look for it. With the RSS, info is brought to me on topics I've selected whether I need the info or not. For example, every now and then, I like to read Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk blog. He is entertaining and well informed. But with an RSS, I will feel compelled by an irrational concern that I will fall behind if I don't keep up with all the new info.
If there was a narrow curriculum topic that would be served by the latest news, an RSS would be a real asset. An example would be efforts to return to the moon. Or if a school was getting involved in an initiative like professional learning communities, it would be helpful to have an RSS bring in the latest info and thoughts from others trying the same things.
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What is difficult for me is finding others with the same goals and interests as I have....I can find, for example, other readers, but I'm not really interested in hearing others' thoughts about just any ol' book. Tricky.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean. I have an RSS feed to Esme Codell's Planet Esme's Reading Plan (http://planetesme.blogspot.com/). She recommends a new book every day, but we have such different tastes! My students are PK-5 and she tends to read a lot of middle grade and YA. At least the RSS lets me quickly check to see if I want to read something--then, mark as read!
ReplyDeleteI agree! It is tough to find a blog that is worth reading on a daily basis. However, I enjoy reading recent posts from the blogs of visiting authors and authors we're studying. It is a quick way to get to know them better!
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