Reflecting on RSS Feeds in the Classroom

Being able to set up an RSS feed reader, such as Netvibes, offers new options for teachers to foster critical thinking in the classroom. Have feeds that pull information from different sources on the same topics can give students practice in analyzing the credibility of sources, identifying bias in reporting, and describing point of view. These feeds can provide students with stories relevant to topics and concepts being discussed in class. An example for the math classroom is using an RSS feed from the site FiveThirtyEight to investigate the appearance and uses of probability, statistics, extrapolating, and other math topics in the real world and their usefulness to everyday life with articles addressing topics ranging from when a basketball team’s performance began to decline, to the statistics that prove a professional boxer’s claims to being the greatest are true. I might have students use the feed from FiveThirtyEight in this way in my own classroom. 

One surprising find is a feed that will present daily warm-up problems and questions for students to work on. For teachers that use them, rather than having to spend excessive amounts of time preparing a warm-up for classes every day, an RSS feed that provides a new warm-up for each day frees up time that can be spent on other lesson preparation and tasks. In my own classroom, this is likely another way I would use it.