EDU 271
Group Project
Toni Ryan
Mary Scriven
Stacy McAllister
Keiletha Sutton
RSS
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? Well don’t worry, according to a recent survey you’re still in the majority, but this is changing rapidly. In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionizing 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 "Rich Site Summary", but is often defined as, “Really Simple Syndication”. It is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web. Updated content is organized by RSS feeds for users to retrieve. This content could be blog posts, photos, articles, PowerPoint Presentations, PDF documents, video files, audiio files, or other applications. (Teaching Hacks)
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? Now imagine if you could visit all those information sources and web pages in just one place and all at the same time … without being bombarded with advertising… without having to search for new information on the page you’d already seen or read before… and without having to consume a lot of time visiting each site individually. Would that be valuable to you? Well, it’s available now through a newsreader and RSS.
RSS could be an excellent tool in education in which teachers and students can stay informed of changes made in the course curriculum or ideas could be exchanged between the two. You can also easily stay informed by your favorite websites without having to visit them all the time. There is no need to sign up to a websites' newsletter to compromise your privacy. This could be a potential asset students can take with them through their careers. (RSS in Education)
RSS allows users to subscribe to online information using an "RSS Reader" or a piece of software called an "Aggregator". These check subscribed web pages and automatically download new content. An aggregator may be a browser, mail application extension, web based, or desktop application. Some are freeware and others are commercial products. A few applications that have aggregators built into them are the Opera Web browser, Apple's Safari browser, and the Internet Explorer7(beta). There are rumors that the next version of Microfoft Outlook will support feeds as well. (Teaching Hacks)
You can have too many feeds. You don't want adult news feeds coming in from CNN, ABC, CBS, etc. RSS feeds do not display graphics for the websites. RSS feeds only provide a brief summary of the entry. Many sites still do not support RSS feeds. (RSS Feeds advantages and disadvantages)
An example for it's classroom use is, a teacher can have a blog for students on a site and can add RSS feeds to that blogsite. RSS feeds deliver updated web content to subscribed users. The teacher would have the students subscribe to all of the feeds in the course. He or she could have the students work in groups of about five. They could have their own blog that they work together on. Example: If the children were to be working on an experiment together; when they've finished, they could report their results in their blog.
Nancy Bosch, a retired teacher after 25 years, recommended that the following RSS feeds are appropriate for kids:
"CBBC Newsround" - Frontpage
"Science Buzz" - Science
"Why Files" - Science
"Cybils" - Literature Books
"Discovery Channel Headlines" - Science News
"Nova Science Now" - Science News
"Patent Pending Inventions" - (Blog written by a 15 year old boy)
"PBS Newshour" - News
"Wands and Worlds" - Fantasy Book Reviews
"Surfing the Net With Kids"
By introducing RSS to our students and staff, we provide them with a tool which will aide them in having their information delivered right to their door. (Carol)
References:
Le Feever, L. (2007). RSS in Plain English. Common Craft. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU>
RSS Feeds For Elementary Students (2007) http://anotsodifferentplace.blogspot.com/2007/01/rss-feed-for-elementary-students.html
7 Things You Should Know About RSS <http:net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELi7024.pdf
What is RSS?<http://www.whatisrss.com>
RSS Feeds advantages and disadvantages<http://www.samirkamble.com/rss-feeds-advantages-and-disadvantages/>
Quentin D' Souza, http://www.TeachingHacks.com
Carol, (2008). http://teaforweb2.blogspot.com