Dipping my toe into RSS

I'll confess that years have gone by, and I never looked into RSS or clicked on the 'RSS Feed' icon.  I always assumed that it was one more technology that I likely didn't need, would take valuable time to learn, and was ultimately unnecessary.

I write this post on the brink of rethinking all of that.

 Yes, it is taking valuable time to learn how to use RSS.  Or perhaps to put it more accurately, to learn all of the related permutations of how one can use RSS.

But I'm coming to understand it as a potentially HUGE time saver.  In the past, I've marveled at the pace and quantity of content generated by educators like Victoria Davis on her blog.  It seemed humanly impossible.  


Now, with RSS, rapid responses and staying abreast of select current events seems manageable.  


I'm unsure of all of the ways this technology will change my life's habits but feel sure that it will.  


I do have a concern however - one that resonates with classroom experiences: I can introduce this tool to my students, and ask them to use it to stay current on a specific topic.  Fine.   But I know that they will likely also search for content that is of their own interest, that addresses the things that they think about.  Once our class is over, I hope and anticipate that they will continue to use this technology.  Might not my tweeny students restrict their online media consumption to very narrow, very specific interests?  I fear a loss of common interests, a lingua franca.  I get that this is the read/write web, and user generated content is paramount, but I can see how one could fill their entire world with up to the minute minutia, and think that they are well-informed and aware of current events.