RSS Feeds are an excellent tool for teachers and students. I have been subscribing to educational blogs since I started teaching five years ago, and have found them a useful tool for growing as an educator. They have allowed me to explore new topics, new pedagogic theories, and skills to teach my students.
In-terms of use in the classroom, they can be a great tool to help with organization and research. I have been to many technology conferences, and have heard many teachers and speakers speak to the advantages of using RSS Feeds in the classroom. Here are few ways to do so. First, if you have your students blogging, it would be an easy way to have one place to access all the content your students are creating. As a teacher, it is vital for us to stay organized, and RSS Feeds can help with that. Also, as I teach social studies and I have my students creating content through projects, I am always looking for up-to date information. With RSS Feeds, I am able to stay up on current events and new topics of discussions. Instead of spending countless hours researching the internet (and Google has made searching much easier, if you know how), I can have feeds to newspapers and magazines. Then I can help guide my students to those sites for additional information. Or even I could use these sites for topics of discussion in my class the next day or so. I am not sure if you can do this in Google Reader, but in Netvibes (another RSS Feed reader), you can set up search boxes that will bring up current articles with keywords in them. A very useful tool for those student research projects.
RSS Feeds are a great way to not only help with gathering information to either our field or whatever your hobbies maybe, but also a great way to help keep your students organized with projects as well. (Click of the Google Reader badge to go to my bundle.)
George Phillip EdTech Learning Log 