Parry’s Second Reason for RSS-ifying Classes
Posted by: Paul Beaufait in B4B/B4E/LwC, InformationLiteracy, blogs & wikis, graphics, rssIn The Technology of Reading and Writing…: Why RSS is crucial for a Blogging Classroom, Parry suggests need for a reliable means of facilitating peer-student readership, one that guides students beyond clicking and scanning of classmates’ blogs, beyond simply looking up and hitching up with one’s friends and favorites, and that propels them towards “reading the others’ work critically and providing constructive contributions” (Why it Matters for Student Writing, ¶ 3). If students receive RSS feeds providing headlines and synopses of posts from all peers’ blogs, Parry argues, students can scan every post and determine for themselves which they ought to read more closely.
In writing classes I’ve taught, I’ve observed how students at liberty to do so will gravitate to their friends and favorites, with whom they may even sit in class, and on whose blogs they may willingly sustain exchanges beyond one-off comments at assigned intervals. Although active feeds which conceal author’s names may encourage students to explore posts on blogs other than those of their best buddies, they will still need interest, motivation, and purpose to carry them beyond scanning attractive posts, commenting haphazardly, and then nipping back to links, feeds, and channels already familiar and favorable to them. I still wonder to what extent student peers can stimulate and satisfy each others’ intellectual curiosity through obligatory online interactions.
Parry suggests also that we use RSS feeds to channel comments as well as synopsize posts. Indeed we can, without so much difficulty that students cannot do so on their own blogs. For a relatively simple recipe for doing so on Blogger blogs, please see:
Recent Comment Feed on Your Blog
(pab’s potpourri, February 1, 2008).
Entries (RSS)
February 2nd, 2008 at 11:52 am
In reviewing an article for the Blogging for Beginners workshop, and again for the Blogging for Educators workshop, both last year (2007) and this (2008), I homed in on one of the same sections of Parry’s article (2006, [APA ref. in Class-Based RSS..., below]), namely: Why it Matters for Student Writing (¶ 3). I also filed both of my posts in virtually the same categories without cross-checking before making the second post.
However, this year’s post is shorter, mainly because if focuses only on two points, and quotes less extensively from Parry. Moreover this year’s introduces personal observations and provides a crosslink to a simple syndication recipe for blog comments.
Parry’s Second Reason for RSS-ifying Classes; Friday, February 1st, 2008
Posted by: ltdproject in B4B/B4E/LwC, InformationLiteracy, blogs & wikis, graphics, rss
Class-Based RSS for Reading and Writing; Monday, February 5th, 2007
Posted by: ltdproject in B4B/B4E/LwC, BloggingCommentary, CognitionReflection, CommunityGroup, InformationLiteracy, blogs & wikis [+ rss]