USING RSS FEEDS IN THE CLASSROOMJason Simodejka

Seton Hall University – EDST 6304 Production I

Information

1. Richardson, Will. Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2010. Print.

Images

1. Hongkiat. All RSS Feed Images. Picture. Free RSS Feed Icons, The Ultimate List. Web. 2 Dec. 2010. http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/free-rss-feed-icons-the-ultimate-list/.

2. "Flux-rss.jpg." Tahiti News Report - Tahitian Press Agency. 2010. Web. 2 Dec. 2010. <http://en.tahitipresse.pf/>.

3. Nirmal. "Top 10 RSS Feed Readers." Feed-readers/gif. 27 July 2007. Web. 2 Dec. 2010. <http://www.nirmaltv.com/2007/07/27/top-10-rss-feed-readers/>.

References*

RSS stands for Real Simple Syndicator or Rich Site Summary

An RSS feed essentially works a filter for the vast amount of information that is available on the internet.

Readers are allowed to “subscribe” to RSS feeds from websites, blogs, newspapers, magazines and countless other digital sources.

Whenever a site that you are subscribed to is updated the new information is sent to the reader. Information comes to the reader instead of the reader having to go to the information.

Students can set up RSS feeds on research topics they are exploring. New information will be sent to their readers as soon as it is published.

Students can stay up to date on current events by subscribing to news organization.

Students can be kept abreast of what is going on in their classrooms by subscribing to the teacher’s blog’s RSS feed.

Countless others

What is an RSS Feed1

Student Uses for RSS Feeds In The Classroom

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How to Set Up An RSS Feed

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Teachers can be kept up to date with news in their field by subscribing to sites such as Google News’ RSS feeds.

Teachers can be alerted when their students submit work to their blogs by subscribing to the students RSS feed.

RSS feeds can be linked to Social Bookmarking sites such as Delicious.com to be alerted when bookmarked pages or tags are updated.

Countless others

Teacher Uses for RSS FeedsIn The Classroom

With the coming of the digital age, a big part of digital literacy is being able to quickly and efficiently evaluate the validity of information found on the web. Here are a few simple tips to help determine reliable sites.

• Who is the author of the site? Is the full name used? Are his or her credentials listed or available through a Google search?

• Are there a lot of advertisements on the site? What is the main purpose of the site to inform or to sell you something?

• Is the writing unbiased, educated, fair, and easy to read? Are there a lot of spelling mistakes?

• Is the site updated on a regular basis? Is it worth subscribing to this site for the most up to date information.

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How to Evaluate Worthwhile Sites

If you have a Google Account you already have a mailbox at Google Reader, which is the most popular reader because of it’s ease of use and accessibility from anywhere with an internet connection. Google.com/reader

You can add feeds to your reader by clicking on “Add Subscription” in the upper left hand corner of the home page. Type in the word or words you want to inquire about. Google reader will produce a list of feeds available on your topic. Evaluate (See #4 for tips) the sites and click on “Subscribe” under the title of the sites you would like to follow.

Simply Click on the RSS feed icon of your favorite sites to have feeds sent to your Google Reader account.

There are many other readers available that are just as easy to operate