"But I don't like any of these books!?"

Any teacher has heard that comment before. However, with using in the classroom RSS you may never hear it again. Students can create their own RSS feeds to aggregate sites about their favorite things. Or if you do not feel comfortable with each student having their own reader you could create one for the class. This poses as a fantastic way to learn more about your students and for them to build connections with one another based on common interests. Troy Hicks presented this idea in chapter 2 of The Digital Writing Workshop.

I was so amazed by the simplicity of this idea and the large spectrum of impact this could have on students. I think of elementary boys that are interested in sports and science and cars, but do not have the books to foster their interests. These students can, with your help, find websites related to their interests that they can access through their personal or class RSS.

Wouldn't it be remarkable to have every student in your class reading and not only would they be reading, but they would be interested and engaged! Oh the power of technology!

Is a picture worth a thousand words?

No, a picture is probably worth much more than a thousand words. New resources are available that are appropriate for supplementing, enhancing and assessing learning. I refer to these tools as "new resources," simply because they are completely new to me. I had not heard of them in general, let alone knowing their educational potential and value.

Flickr can be used as a source to create digital stories as presentations, slideshows, picture field trips, illustrations of poetry, portfolios of school work and opportunities to locate places and teach geography with Google Earth (Richardson, 2010). I love the idea of creating picture field trips or annotated picture biographies or autobiographies. Ficktion is a game where students can select a random picture to write about and post their story to the picture, click on the link to see some that have already been posted. To expand your learning about Flickr check out the Flickr FAQ or if you are already familiar with the basics take a look at this list of 100+ Tools for Flickr Addicts.  Another similar tool I came across was the PixnTell App that can also be used to create digital stories or videos. This blog post discussed how a third grade class used PixnTell with iPads. Students worked in pairs to create videos for classroom procedures.

The cohesiveness of these tools is their best attribute; I am impressed with Flickr being connected to Google Earth and that you can subscribe to picture libraries on Flickr by adding a specific topic search to Google Reader or other RSS feeds. I am beginning to understand the depth to the Read/Write Web. These resources create opportunities for learners to write creatively, analyze and synthesize information and to become producers and editors. Using these tools our students can create original pieces of work and use them to foster conversations with other classrooms, post on a class webpage to open communications between school and family or explore an unknown world through a collection of pictures. Providing students with ways to use these technologies will build their understanding of becoming 21st century learners and contributors. These options make it clear that yes, a picture is, without a doubt, worth more an a thousand words.

Subscribe to Your Own Personal Newspaper

Do you feel the same way? Are you sick paying for the whole paper when you just want the sports section or to glance at an overview of the weather?

If you like the sound of reading material being personalized to your interests and delivered directly to you, not on a daily basis but in constant updates, you need to subscribe to an RSS: Really Simple Syndication. If you have a Google account then you already have access to the Google RSS tool, Google Reader, or click the link to subscribe to both. Google Reader, is one of many RSS feeds, that allows you to "subscribe" to the sights you are interested in and then allows you to view all of their updates from one location. If you are interested in learning more, explore the Google Reader Blog or its video for beginners posted below.

Now get started with selecting the pages for your personalized daily read!