In my Top 10 tools post yesterday I mentioned that I use Feedly as an RSS feed reader. I have used it – and Google Reader before it – for over 10 years. These are, as Tom McDowall says, the foundations of the internet and RSS is criminally underused as a learning tool.
It keeps track of what’s new
I get the latest thinking on a range of topics and I know it will be delivered instantly to me. When you’re delivering, being able to include content that’s up to the minute is essential.
It focuses my search
I set specific terms and make sure I get the curated list of what I really need to see. I can disallow and remove anything which isn’t applicable meaning sure everything I see is relevant to me. It’s the ultimate in personalisation.
I control the feed
There aren’t any algorithms telling me what matters – it’s all down to my choice and there are no opaque tools deciding to promote what it might think I need.
It creates significant cross-discipline reach
I can follow anything – and often do. It’s not just L&D but economics, tech, design, policy, and sector specific feeds. It broadens my field of view.
Do you use RSS? If not, why not? Let me know in the comments.
I use outlook as my RSS feeder. Maybe I’ll try Feedly as it seems to do so much more and you are not the only person to recommend it recently.
The problem with email is it gets lost in all your other mail. I can look at Feedly and pick out exactly what I need.
Within Outlook, I have each RSS feed going into its own folder !