RSS is a big deal in the blogging classroom! But what is it all about?
After reading David Parry´s article on RSS , what would you consider to be the advantages of using syndication tools for students and teacher?
We're anxiously waiting for your thoughts on the topic!
The Blogging Team
20 comments:
Hello, everybody! I have just been reading the article on RSS, and it reminds me of the fact that my own reading habits have changed a lot in later years. I am a literature lover and as such I am a more than regular reader. I always carry a book with me wherever I go just in case I have some spare minutes to read. Now when it comes to reading on line, what I mostly do is scanning. I get restless and it is difficult to get a hook on any text regardless of how interesting the texts may be. For example, reading this text on RSS proved to be a difficult task for me, I mean, I had several interruptions till I finished. So, what happens when we are doing some kind of research and we get so many texts to read. Usually we have no time and no pacience. I cannot say I really understand how RSS actually works, but I think this is a more than useful tool which had to be developed as a natural consequence of the alteration of our reading habits, plus the amount of info we have at our hands today.
Another main point mentioned in the text is the fact that we should teach our students how to browse and use the information they find on line. For instance, we should teach them how to discriminate what is reliable and what is not.
Well, I'll go on investigating what RSS is about. Regards
Pat
Hey, ho: Let's go - into the RSS feeding pool: hook, line and sinker!
It seems that one of the biggest advantages of educators using RSS feeds would be to help keep gobs and gobs of learners' (and their own) bloggings neatly assembled and readily accessible in a single location - as Karim explains in Message #856.
Cheers, Paul
Has anyone tried FeedBlendr?
Upside: It looks easy to use, and generates both RSS 2.0 and Atom feeds.
Downside: A ready-made feed warns that if you fail to access it for two weeks it may disappear.
Cheers, Paul
Hi everyone
I was invited over from Openweb to give my two cents on the subject.
I personally prefer Bloglines, especially together with firefox. It's just one click on the RSS sign in the address window and then you're finished. (even easier since the 'using bloglines' article. If you get a lot of e-mails, it's much easier to get them that way than to have them e-mailed.
Having said that, I'm checking out netvibes. It looks cluttered, but you can erase everything and give it a clean look. YOu can even name the feeds so you know which blog they belong to (not always easy from the url)
well, enough for now and enjoy the blogosphere:-)
Dear Pat,
Although you mentioned that you could not understand how RSS works, you certainly got the right idea that it is part of the new paradigms we have for our reading habits and information processing. Instead of checking every blog, for example,you want to read, you can keep track of the latest updates through the use of RSS aggregators. Some of them have been mentioned here (Feedblendr, FeedDemon, Bloglines). These Aggregators are like newspaper clippings that you get with the latest updates on the blogs you subscribe to.
The one you'll choose to keep informed on the new content published on the blogs that interest you is a matter of personal choice. I have a Bloglines account, but have recently subscribed to Netvibes.
However, if you work with Firefox, you can have the RSS feed going straight to your bookmarks (Bookmarks - Subscribe to This), which I like it, for I don't have to go anywhere to see the action going on on my favorite blogs!
Paul, Eric and Illya, thanks for your contributions, giving us a lot of options to explore!
Beijos,
Carla
Any ideas why my two previous comments are prefaced by "anonymous said...," even though I'm quite certain that I'd signed in with my Google account?
Cheers, Paul
pab's potpourri
Dear Paul,
No idea and I'm facing some problems with Blogger since I switched to the new version, little bugs... I do hope they go about these technical glitches soon!
Carla
I know what you mean about technical glitches, Carla!
I too hope Blogger sorts them all out - or at least the ones that I haven't caused by being logged in testing two different browsers at the same time.
One that seems to be sorted now is the reappearance of a wastebin at the foot of a non-anonymous post.
Cheers, Paul
Speaking of feeds: Could someone please point out the feed URL for the B4B blog?
I've looked around, but haven't found a link that I thought was routinely available at the foot of Blogger blogs:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
(A subscribe to comments option might also be nice.)
I wonder whether there's an option in Blogger Dashboard settings to make feeds available....
Ah, yes, there is (Dashboard: Settings: Site Feed)!
Cancel that question at the beginning, please. Now may I ask one of the B4B blog administrators to Allow [a] Blog Feed (Full or Short)?
Hi, my policy is "wait and see". I've had a blog for three months only, and I don't grasp the use of feeds yet. A problem I see: isnt there too much information and little time to explore it? I write a post in my blog once every two or three weeks, with tasks for students. Is that too little? On the other hand, I am not interested in statistics. Well, "see" you soon in Alado,Bill`s talk today. I hope to learn why rss is so important. Then, I'll comment on a different point of view.
Dear Carla,
With your explanation it seems I've got it about RSS a bit.
One question only:
You said "...if you work with Firefox, you can have the RSS feed going straight to your bookmarks (Bookmarks - Subscribe to This)..."
How can I subscribe my Bookmarks to this? I think that it would work better for me than Bloglines or Netvibes. I don't have a good internet connection from now and it might cause some difficulties to get to the websites all the time I need.
Anyway, the new skills of using RSS are essential now and then. I hope I will come back to this question in a while.
I enjoyed immensely the live session in Alado with Phill. The voice works perfectly well, everything was clear. I am sorry for leaving the room in English manner, but I need to do that. I have recorded all the session and now have an opportunity to listen to it again and again. It is an amazing technology which, I am sure, will use with my classes and colleagues in the nearest future.
I am very much grateful to all of you for the EVO workshops. I have been inspired working within your wonderful community.
{{{{HUGS}}}}
Nina Lyulkun
The David Parry article was very informative, concise, and easy to understand. As I am just getting started with RSS, I appreciated his explanation of it as a personalized "newspaper"; also, he showed how the use of RSS could be used to improve students' reading and writing skills. When we think about moving some or all aspects of our courses online, we do have to make some adjustments in assignments and just the general way of doing things. In effect, RSS could help us make this transition.
According to the article, RSS is a tool that can help the teacher because he or she can easily subscribe to students' blogs or share specific information with students via RSS feeds.
RSS is a tool that can help the students because they can subscribe to their classmates' blogs. And, by perusing only relevant RSS feeds on any given topic they may feel less overwhelmed by the volume of available material.
If a tool can be so beneficial for both teachers and students, then I would like to try to take advantage of it more in the classroom!
Although I couldn't attend the FeedBlitz presentation today, I enjoyed seeing Phil Hollow's PowerPoint presentation through our group's wiki. I have used this service previously and found it very user-friendly. Thanks to our great moderators for choosing the reading selections and inviting a guest presenter!
Mary H
I attended the presentation yesterday, and it was fantastic. It was my first live session, and it went really well. Of course, being my first experience, I was a bit too silent. But Phill's presetation was really clear, and I have just finished signing up to Feedblitz and sindicating some blogs. And what's more, I have started my own blog. As there is no interesting posting yet, I'll just wait a tick to give the URL. Thank you all for everything I am able to make come true in this blogsphere. Regards
Pat
I think that this tool is really time-saving and it takes you straight to the point.
As Pat, I don't know exactly how it works and even though I've been reading some info about it at wikipedia and can't understand it clearly enough. What IS clear to me it that by subscribing to it you can get the latest and you don't have to go into all blogs. By the way, does RSS work only with blog? And Are RSS and XML synomyms?.
Now, if u take into account that I cannot still understand a blog, then you'll realize about my lack of comprehension! (Joke)
Another question? I've read that you can have...how can I put it? say, access to RSS thrugh Mozilla. I use that sofware so can anybody tell me how to subscribe to RSS with it.
THanks
DAvid
Nina's question and David's may be related. David asks about Mozilla, which I understand is the base for Firefox browsers (Firefox 2 for Mac's is based on Mozilla 5). Maybe a plain Mozilla browser stores feeds in bookmarks like Firefox.
About Firefox, Nina writes:
One question only: You [Carla] said "...if you work with Firefox, you can have the RSS feed going straight to your bookmarks (Bookmarks - Subscribe to This)..."
How can I subscribe my Bookmarks to this? I think that it would work better for me than Bloglines or Netvibes.
I'm not using Firefox at the moment, but I think, in your browser, you open an RSS or Atom feed (sometimes hidden under a small orange button on a web page), then follow Carla's directions (Bookmarks - Subscribe..., above).
Hope that helps.
Cheers, Paul
I really like and use daily http://www.protopage.com
I imported all my Bloglines feeds through Protopage's easy instructions, but you can select which RSS feeds to put in and have to add them by hand in the news feeds area, but once done, it is much more convenient to read than Bloglines, I think.
And you get all the extras, like a weather page, post-it notes, a place to put personal photos, etc--in a much simpler interface than NetVibes. You can share or not share (PW protect) the page as you wish. And even have some pages public and some private. I use mine privately as my opening page in my browser, mainly so I can see my daily to-do list on a sticky Webnote there. And I like keeping a couple of favorite photos on the front page too.
Limitations--modest capability to personalize colors. But Protopage seems to be adding more features all the time.
Cheer--
--Elizabeth H-S
Hello David,
Here's a reference I consulted for using Mozilla's Live Bookmarks:
A Tutorial
Mary and Pab,
Thanks a lot for your support.
david
I found the Parry article very thought-provoking. I have already considered the possibility that blogging does not really change anything for the students, but Parry makes a good case for helping students to see the potential of online writing with RSS. I have had a bloglines account for a few months now, and it helps me to keep track of student posts to blogs (including those of classes I don't teach anymore--I like to be able to respond to their occasional posts even when the students are gone). However, I had not really thought through how important it is to introduce the concept of RSS to my students and get them to subscribe to each other's blogs, as well as other sites they are interested in.
I still think of myself as an RSS novice, just scratching the surface of its possibilities. During EVO I have added a number of feeds, but I have even less time to scan them! I have a subscription button on my taskbar, but can't figure out why it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. So I am a little anxious about being able to present this tool to my students. Should I recommend Bloglines to them because what little experience I have, I have with Bloglines? Or should I try something else? There is so much out there, but the more one adds the more overwhelming it all becomes. If I try to use another feed reader, I may end up confusing myself. Or I may find something I prefer to Bloglines. But then what about all the time and effort it took me to set up those feeds? ... Lots of questions, no ready answers!
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