RSS stands for Rich Site Summary and is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Ben Ticehursts analogy for this tool is " home delivery" the web comes to you rather than you going to the web.
RSS allows you to stay informed by getting the latest content from the sites you are interested in -you save time not needing to visit each site individually. You ensure privacy by not needing to join each sites email newsletter.
A number of web-based feed readers are available, you can use My Yahoo, Bloglines, or Google Reader. The benefit of Google Reader is that you can paste it to your iGoogle page. The find sites that syndicate content- look for the 'subscribe'icon on their pages and click to add them to your RSS.
How this works in the classroom
Not sure it has too many applications in the classroom but anything that saves time is valuable. Combining this tool with Deliicious will ensure teachers can keep abreast of developments in their particular area which they can share with colleagues.
Can create a list of websites that are useful for a particular assessment or topic. Catalogues web sites for research.
Hi Jane,
ReplyDeleteFrom my experience, there are many ways we can use RSS feeds in the classroom. For example, we can embed RSS feeds into web pages in MyPLS or MyPages. This might be taken from the Sydney Morning Herald or YouTube, and with the use of the Google AJAX API (http://www.google.com/uds/solutions/dynamicfeed/index.html), it is easily embeddable. The Google API is very easy to use too, so if you have a chance check it out!
I have used it in the past to display MasterChef video links, SMh Food stories and other food related feeds.