Weekly Report & Reflection Post #3

Hello everyone, 

As stated in my previous blog post, week three was an exciting and interesting week with the introduction of RSS feeds. In a blog post by pro blogger, they defined RSS feeds as “a technology that is used by millions of web users around the world to keep track of their favorite 

Websites”(http://www.problogger.net/what-is-rss/).  The type of RSS feed we used this week was a program called Feedly. Before week three started I had no clue that programs like feedly existed in the online world. Upon learning the purpose served by RSS feeds I realized that I used Facebook in a similar way. Although a strange comparison, I make it because I use Facebook as a platform to see articles and information that social media outlets publish. However, using Facebook to gain knowledge on news and other published work online is very inefficient because there are many distractions associated with Facebook. RSS also contributes to digital literacy and citizenship because it solely encourages reading and retaining information that educate you about the recent happenings of the world. The organization of the articles is unique and promotes citizenship as it makes it very easy to read and grasp the headlines of many articles in a short period of time. The accessibility RSS feeds provide to articles promotes citizenship among individuals because it encourages people to read and know what is happening in the world. Reflecting among my personal experience with feedly, when I connected with the New York Times feeds, I was educated within 5 minutes about all the major headlines in the world. While going through the headlines I learned about the major snowstorm that is affecting major parts of the United States this weekend. An example like this ones shows that RSS feeds increase an individuals global citizenship because if I did not explore my RSS feed I would not have explored the New York Times headlines and therefore would not have known about the snowstorm. Being globally aware is very important and is something that young people in today’s society, including myself, overlook. After using this feedly, I believe that there really is no excuse to not be a globally informed citizen.   

Picture found at: google feedly

RSS Feeds in my Personal Learning Environment

RSS feeds are another technological tool that advances the way we gain knowledge in our society today. Like stated earlier, these tools encourage online users to become more engaged with the information that is available on the web. This tool serves this function because it makes information so accessible for its users. Also after exploring this tool, I believe that RSS feeds are a very important tool for online users. With the massive amounts of information to be explored, it is my belief that without feedly people are more likely to give up then to keep exploring. In a society that is high speed and does not allow a lot of time for anything to be done, the efficiency of RSS feeds allows all readers to access the necessary information in a small amount of time.

This picture depicts people being more connected to society, a benefit of RSS feeds.
Picture found at: http://oursocialtimes.com/tag/connected-marketing-2/

  

Last week (week two) I discussed in depth my Personal Learning Environment in regards to my online platforms and how they all work together to form my learning environment. Expanding on those thoughts and growing my PLE it is important to understand how feedly will fit into this environment. I believe that feedly will be under both my social and educational categories of my PLE.  I put feedly under my social (or personal) category because there is news and websites that I follow that is for my personal interest only. An example of this would be all the sports websites I immediately started following once I opened up my feedly account. I believe this is what will force me to check my feedly which will then translate to me exploring other headlines. By having headlines from the New York Times and other news related websites and blogs I subscribe too on Feedly, I will be expanding my knowledge to what is happening in the world around me.

Found at: https://pixabay.com/en/rss-news-feed-blog-web-icon-40674/
Picture represents the addition of RSS to my PLE 

Thanks for following and reading about my journey in ADED 1P32 during week 3I I hope you return to read my post next week!

All the best!