RSS

Having gone through some of the options available on Google Reader, I am struck by the many different things that I can do with the information that I can get here. As an LMT, I can stay current on book and author information, I can keep up with the latest trends in technology, I can find out the new techniques that students are using to get around technology in a way that can hurt themselves and others, and, most importantly, I can get information that will help me be a better LMT, a better teacher, and a better collaborator.
When it comes to teaching research to students, RSS is an excellent way to access current events and even current research on past events. However, considering the way that RSS functions, this is a feature that should probably used as a long-term research tool, rather than as a one- or two-time use program. If students only have 1-2 hours to research a topic online at the lab, and if they have no other access online, then setting up a Google account, getting Google Reader, and subscribing to RSS feeds will actually waste more time than it will save. If, however, these same students are doing a long-term project over the course of weeks/months, then RSS could be a real time saver, especially if we can teach students how to evaluate the veracity of the information provided on those feeds.
I believe that teachers will actually be able to find more to use out of this than students. Teachers can use this source to subscribe to journals, news feeds, magazines, etc. and then download the information that they are interested in to a folder that they can use to build up curricular projects and plan for the coming months. As technology speeds up, the information provided on these feeds will also speed up and, rather than being left in the dust, those of us who use RSS can instead keep pace with the rest of the world.