In the past I have used Diigo and Delicious for my RSS feeds. I really like Diigo because it is extremely school-friendly and allows students to share with each other and me, as well as allowing them to highlight, archive, and sticky note articles.
I tried out both NetVibes and Feedly and found that I much prefer NetVibes. I like that it creates the dashboard along with an identifying picture (OK - not very scholarly I know but I like that part) and it allows you to view the feeds in an alternative they call "Reader" mode which is more list-like for my kids who are not into the more graphic view. Feedly seemed 'old' compared to NetVibes. I don't know why - to me at least it just seemed to not be quite as flashy and have the bells and whistles that the kids and I like (those pictures and a nice graphic organization).
I can see that teachers would find NetVibes fairly straight-forward and easy to use too. I thought about the social studies classes using the 'news' dashboard for exploring current events across a variety of sources or the 'sports' dashboard for Sports Marketing class to explore current topics. I didn't like that the pre-made dashboards only gave 4 or 5 main news sources. I would have liked to see PBS and perhaps London and NY Times included there as well, but that's just a personal preference. It's easy to go in the categories section and select personal choices.
I think the RSS feeds, for me at least, are a great way to track things easily and quickly. I can go and scan updates and often I might not need something right then but I remember I read it and can go back and track it down. I always look for info from Joyce Valenza, Buffy Hamilton, and EngageNY. I also like seeing what other states are doing with their Common Core lessons especially in states like Utah and others that have had the Common Core for a bit.
I like to show my kids my RSS feeds so they can see how to organize themselves and move away from the Twitter and FaceBook syndrome of looking OTHER places for information on the world in multiple perspectives. Having kids develop a list of their top 10 RSS feeds also helps me get to know them better and helps me tailor lessons that fit their interests.
A great lesson to remind us to always keep exploring new resources even though we all have our own old favorites!
