I can't explain RSS better than the video :) However, I can tell you that I think RSS and RSS Readers are invaluable in distance teaching - especially if you're using a lot of Web 2.0 technologies.
When I am trying to find a Web 2.0 tool to use in the classroom, one thing that I check for is it's ability to either retrieve RSS or publish RSS so that I can access the content from anywhere. This has the effect of reducing my workload and, in many cases, has also meant that I was able to grade student work more easily (more on that later).
Watch this great overview of RSS from the folks at CommonCraft.
Please add your RSS thoughts, ideas, examples, and tool suggestions to our RSS Contributions page
Potential Benefits
Some of the benefits of RSS and RSS Readers are that they:
save time - no more visiting several pages every day to get updated on the latest content posted there
syndicate your content easily - you can post content to one single page and have it go to multiple locations
reduce workload - easily check which student posted what to that group web site, voice discussion site, or other Web 2.0 service you're using; addition benefit related to that is that your RSS reader will let you see at a glance what you've already read/graded and what you haven't (much easier than browsing and re-browsing through every post to find the new ones!)
Example Uses
There are billions (ok, maybe just millions LOL) of examples of how RSS can be used, but here's a few ideas to get you started:
Automatically have your podcast posted to one or more sites. For example, I create some podcasts with GCast but I like having interactive podcasts so I put the RSS feed from GCast into CrowdAbout site so students can have voice discussions around what I podcasted. At the same time, I use the same GCast feed to post that same podcast to my blog so people who aren't my students can hear it.
Create a personal or course resource collection of multimedia content by adding multiple RSS feeds from several sources. I really like this use of RSS and have tested out a number of web 2.0 tools that help you accomplish this. Read my blog post on start pages for a desciption and examples of several different tools that help you do this.
Automatically receive the latest updates to any of the blogs, wikis, podcasts, online journals, and any other web sites that you are interested in. This is an easy, effective way to stay up-to-date in your professional arena.
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