Week 5

Since I took one of my one-week vacations from blogging last week, I'll mention a little on RSS in general at the same time before looking at this week's readings. Like a number of other people have posted, I always thought of RSS as something that was potentially interesting, but before this course I had never gotten around to setting up a reader. The few times that I had clicked on RSS feeds in the past, I ended up with some folder in my Firefox browser that I didn't know what to do with. Since getting Google Reader set up, I'm much more excited about RSS feeds.

The longer I take this course, the more I feel like an old geezer. As a Gen X-er, I always felt like I was pretty "hip" to new trends and scoffed at the notion that Gen-Y-ers or Milennials--or whatever the going term is today--were somehow more adept with technology than me. The further I study the tools in this course, the more I realize how "out of the loop" I really was, and how much this course will benefit me in trying to be a librarian with a fresh perspective on technology.

It has been interesting over the past two weeks to see the many ways RSS technology is being used and I'm curious to see how it will evolve to meet the needs of its users. It's a good idea to use RSS feeds to keep up with your interests online, actively and selectively searching out potential sources. RSS feeds are great for keeping current and they encourage continuous professional learning, something that is important but can be time-consuming.