Google Reader: RSS (otherwise know as the little orange box)
Introduction
RSS, Really Simple Syndication, allows you to subscribe to information on websites of your choice and receive brief updates (think headlines or short summaries) delivered to your RSS reader. Those of us in education thrive on information, but staying current in the digital age can become overwhelming. RSS feeds are a great tool to help you quickly scan information.
RSS can be a bit confusing, mostly because of the vocabulary. Simply put, the feed is the subscription, and the reader collects (aggregates) all of the feeds in one place. The two most popular readers are Google Reader and Bloglines. We’ll be using Google Reader—we already added the gadget for it to our iGoogle pages
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Vocabulary
Aggregator-- An aggregator, is a software application, webpage or service that automatically collects updated publications from a number of sources, such as RSS and other XML feeds from blog, audioblog or vlog websites that the user has signed up to. wsgfl.westsussex.gov.uk/redirect/
RSS— Really Simple Syndication.
RSS Feed—the ‘feed’ is the source or subscription or syndication of a brief summary from a website. Feeds are updated frequently depending upon the site (anywhere from several times an hour to once a week).
RSS Reader—a software program that collects or aggregates feeds.
Quick Start Guide
- Go to http://google.com/reader and log in with your Google account.
- On the sidebar, click on ‘Add a Subscription.’
- In the subscription box, enter the url (http://www.npr.org/rss/) or search term like ‘wcax.’
Multimedia Resources (Presentation, Podcast, or Video)
Video: RSS in Plain English
In the Classroom
- Turn kids on to reading by subscribing to a few feeds of interest to them
- Have students search technorati.com to find the best bloggers on a topic.
- Have students read a blog entry and write a persausive essay pro or con
- How could you use it?
Review
A start-up home page can increase teacher productivity, engage students, and ‘push’ information to users (instead of having to go search for it!). You and your students can build and decorate your homes, and create multiple tabs to organize information by course, project, content, and/or personal interest.
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PRO
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Can be a great time saver for scanning information on the web
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CON
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You could wind up reading more from your feeds than you would have on a website.
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Bottom Line
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Why search for information when it can be delivered to your screen?
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