Thing 10

RSS, you know, that little orange button that you see every now and then that makes you think "huh? what about my wifi?" really is pretty cool. It turns out that it isn't what I thought it was. I thought it was just like a compatibility thing or some kind of trademark or copyrighting thing. Not only is it not that, but, IT'S ACTUALLY USEFUL! Thanks to RSS, it's now possible to have information come to me instead of having to go look for it. Also, I already had a Gmail and Google plus account, so, my account was already there for me to use.

Just yesterday, I got into a debate with someone (via Facebook of all the ridiculous places) about guns, gun laws, and their global impact. The only good thing about having debates online is the fact that you can cite your sources a lot better than you can in an impromptu face to face debate. In a debate such as that one, I wanted the most up to date facts that I could get my eyes on. The newest numbers I could find were from 2011. Most of the time, that's a good time frame, but, in a debate like that, I wanted numbers from last week! If I had known about how useful RSS is and had been using it to follow current trends on those kinds of things, I may have been able to have a source that was more up to date. As far as teaching goes, RSS wiill help me stay abreast of the current trends in effective educational strategies and  pop culture. In thing nine, I talked about helping to relate a foreign language to a student's life by way of their interests. I used Bart Simpson as an example, but, times change. It will help having a child roughly the same age as my students, but, if his angst is anything like mine was, I'll only see him at dinner time.

I do think, however, that RSS is useful to a fault. Yes, the information that is being received is about as up to date as possible. But, the information is all totally subjective and biased according to what the reader WANTS to read. So, at the very least, the information needs to be researched a little bit at first to make sure it's really what it claims to be and not just some guy sitting at his computer in his dads basement making stuff up based off of Dragon Ball Z Abridged videos and something he read off of a Cheetos bag. I've heard plenty of stuff that sounded like that may have been the origins of a "factual argument." So, don't tell me that those kinds of things don't exist. Overall, I think it's a great new resource for anyone that is hungry for information and wants to know more about knowing more.