RSS...What's it all about?

I really liked the definition for RSS on the MPR website. I must say I was very much in the dark about this before I began my Technology and Literacy course. For those who are just as much in the dark as I am, I really found MPR's definition of Rss's Feeds to be direct, relatable and in terms that even the technologically challenged could understand. Here's the link to that site:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/about/site/rss/

I already had an idea of what RSS feeds were, but this site painted an even better picture for me. " A convenient way to get content from your favorite programs. The feed contains headlines, summaries and links to full stories."

I think RSS is a great system that will allow me as a reading teacher to scan information frequently from blogs, podcasts and other websites. It gives me the ability to search through and only choose content that I find useful. I can grow and learn from other teachers experiences and knowledge. This really allows you to bring the world to your fingertips without much work at all!

In my research I found a really neat quote about RSS and "literacy". One blogger, Chris Heuer , suggests that RSS could be "the fourth "R" in our conception of literacy , noting that RSS-based social media literacy 'enables any individual to step into the conversational flow—to not only follow what other people are communicating, but ensure what the individual has to communicate is heard by other people who care about the topic."