January 31, 2008

Thing 8: Saving Time with RSS Feeds

You’ve heard of RSS? You’ve seen those small funny tags on websites? You’ve heard co-workers and acquaintances swear by it, but still have no idea what RSS is? In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionalizing the way news, media and content creators share information, but it also is swiftly changing the way everyday users are consuming information.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is tool for receiving newly updated information on various websites, which you can then access and read from just one location.

How can RSS help you save time?

Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit every day. It takes time to visit those sites and scour the ad-filled and image-heavy pages for just the text you want to read, doesn’t it? Well, that problem can be solved by using RSS tools.

For example, I follow a large number of blogs related to librarianship, professional journals and news sites online. Before I discovered RSS, I had to visit all of those sites to see if any new content had been posted. Talk about a time waster. With RSS, it is now easy to read just the new content (as it is posted) from multiple sites that I have "subscribed" to in a single location without all of the pesky ads and images cluttering the text. This interface is what is called an RSS aggregator or feedreader.

Many websites now offer RSS feeds, particularly traditional news media sites (CNN, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR), professional associations and journals (The Chronicle of Higher Education, as well as newer media outlets such as blogs, podcasts, wikis, and other online sites with frequently updated content. More colleges and universities are also adding the ability to subscribe to their websites (Pepperdine University, Coastline Community College).


As with many online technologies, understanding may come easier through practice than explanation, but it's good to have some basic ideas about RSS Feeds before you get started. So, please take a moment to look through some of the resources provided below before continuing on to the activity.

Discovery Resources:

Discovery Activity:

1. Follow the discovery resources above to learn more about RSS and newsreaders.


2. Create a free online feedreader account for yourself and subscribe to at least 5 of the newsfeeds found below by "adding" them to your reader (Instructions Below). I recommend trying out either Google Reader (since you have already created a Google account) or Bloglines, which is one of the most popular choices.


 3. Create a post in your blog about this exercise.

Wondering what to blog about? Think about these questions:
  • What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?
  • How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your work or personal life?
  • How can educators use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?

Steps for created your Feedreader account can be found here:


Newsfeeds:

  • Learning 2.0 participant blog feeds - Subscribe to several of your co-workers' feeds. This is as easy as typing or pasting their blog's URL into the subscribe field in Bloglines or Google Reader. Try it, it's easy!
  • Also subscribe to the MCPV Learning 2.0 website to receive feeds for any new content that is added

BTW...Once you have completed this exercise you can sigh a breath of relief. It is one of the more difficult tasks of the 23 Things.


Next up...more on locating feeds that will interest you.
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