It is definitely getting harder to keep up… with our industries, research, teaching techniques, political affiliations, books-of-interest, and whatever else aligns with our passions and goals.
I use RSS feeds to stay up-to-speed on what most interests me. In my case, I use Outlook 2007 on my primary computer and it has RSS Feed capability built right in. You just look for the orange RSS feed indicator on your favorite site or blog and it will automatically add the feed inside of Outlook with two clicks of your mouse.
It doesn't make your in-box crowded, because the RSS Feeds are kept in a separate folder (see graphic above for an example straight out of my RSS feeds). You get to decide when you'll invest the time to catching up on your various feeds.
If you don't have Outlook, there are plenty of other free feed tools. Google Reader is one of the best ones out there and it links with your Gmail Account, Google Calendar, custom Google homepage and whatever other apps you use from Google.
Think it will be too hard to learn?
With Common Craft's video: RSS in Plain English, it couldn't be easier
(and they're pretty darn funny, too).
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