RSS+-+Really+Simple+Syndication

RSS can be used on iGoogle, which can be read in other wikis. Below however are two YouTube videos that will guide you in setting up an iGoogle including a RSS. iGoogle tutorial part 1 [] iGoogle tutorial part 2 [] But what is a RSS? RSS stands for really simple syndication, which is a family of web feed formats to update and publish works frequently viewed. These can be blog entries, news headlines, audio, and videos. RSS is a less-technical security feeds designed for users at home to provide content on topics the users are interested in. reading a RSS document or otherwise known as a “feed,” “Web feed,” or “channel,” benefits publishers and users at the same time. The publishers are allowed to syndicate content automatically. On the flipside of this are the readers and users who now can experience timely updates from their favorite websites. In order to read these RSS documents one needs a RSS reader. These can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-devise-based. These documents XML formatted plain text in two different versions RDF (RSS 1.*) or RSS 2.*. The first version of RSS was RDF site summary. This was designed at Netscape in March 1999 and was named RSS 0.9. Later in July it became RSS 0.91 and picked up the name Rich Site Summary. It wasn’t until December of 2005 when Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook adopted the feed icon commonly known today (orange square with white radio waves). How to use a RSS reader – When you see the orange icon there should be a link to a RSS feed to subscribe to. One form of a RSS reader is Google reader. This is a web-based aggregator, released on October 7, 2005, capable of reading RSS feeds. September 28, 2006 led to major revisions including the movement toward making news aggregation something for the general public to enjoy. Users subscribe to feeds using the search function or entering the exact URL of an Atom or RSS feed. New feeds from the feeds are displayed on the left-hand side of the screen. A users feeds can be shared with another Web user. From 2007 – 2011 this was done by URL, but on October 31, 2011 was replaced with a Google + +1 button. Features as of 2010 Here is a YouTube video on Google reader [] Here is the Google reader website [] Information from [] [] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">[]
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Copy the RSS feed’s URL desired to your clipboard
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Paste it into your “new feed…” or “add feed…” dialog of the RSS feed reader of your choice
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Choose to refresh or continue/discontinue subscribing to the RSS feed
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Search in all feeds for all updates for the subscription
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">marking of feeds as read automatically
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">the ability to choose between list view or expanded view
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">keyboard shortcuts for the main functions
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Subscription lists able to be imported or exported as OPML files
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Front page lets you see new feeds at a glance

Molly Kemper 4/18/12  EDP 279- assignment 5.1 RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. I had never even heard of this before I started researching it. RSS is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. This is an awesome feature because websites, especially news and current-event websites change daily, if not hourly. In fact, many news-related sites and blogs syndicate their content as an RSS feed to whoever wants it. However, the name is misleading. It’s not super obvious or easy to use. There can be different formats and can it can be hard to figure out how to view the RSS. How do you receive RSS feeds? Well “Feed Reader” or “News Aggregator” software allow you to grab the RSS feeds from any site that offers them and displays it for you to read and use. This is a great tool for teachers because it allows them to build a knowledge center. Teachers can collect all the websites they want students to use for, say a project, as a list and group them together and tell the RSS to keep them updated. They can then give students that RSS and the students can view all of the websites at once and can be as recently up-to-date as possible. This tool also allows the teacher to be sure the students are using credible and recent websites for projects and assignments simply because they are using the RSS feed the teacher is providing and the teacher has already “approved” or screened the sites on the RSS. RSS can allow students to listen to recent podcasts about certain topics, like the upcoming presidential election. Students can also access blogs about topics they are researching or studying and can be sure that the information they see is current. It is a way for students to use different modes of research while making sure things are recent and credible. However, the teacher needs to be sure they know how to use RSS feeds and needs to make accessing the RSS feeds easy, especially for younger students. It is a great tool, but can be a little tricky. Below is a great link to a YouTube episode of “The Mobile Classroom”. It not only explains what an RSS is, but shows you how to use them and how to access them!! []

=**Bloglines**= Bloglines is a free web-based way to subscribe to RSS feeds. It is a news aggregator. A lot of websites, online blogs, and news sources post their content to the web in syndicated news feed with new technology like Really Simple Syndication. Bloglines manages news aggregator software that collects the syndicated feeds from millions of online sources Bloglines allows its users to subscribe to different blogs and websites, to create your own blog, and use the widgets offered. It organizes all the information you subscribe to on your own web news page. Bloglines was created by Mark Fletcher in 2003 who was the former CEO of ONElist. It is now property of IAC Search & Media. Bloglines <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">is one of the worlds largest news and feed aggregators Once you become a member of Bloglines you can search their database of all the websites and blogs by category. Their categories include news, business, travel, sports, shopping, etc. Once you chose the website or blog to subscribe to Bloglines will constantly update your personal web page with the websites and blogs you have chosen. You can also add widgets to your Bloglines webpage. The widgets you can add include weather, Twitter, to do lists, etc. Bloglines also allows you to load your Twitter and Facebook pages to your personal webpage.

Bloglines is a very useful tool that can be used in the classroom. Teachers can subscribe to the educational websites that they use throughout the week instead of constantly searching for each individual website. Teachers can also have each student set up their own Bloglines account. With their own accounts students can register to educational websites. Teachers can various websites to assist the students in teaching them about multiple concepts. Teachers can use weather websites of the weather widget to track the weather with the students. Teachers for high school students can have their students subscribe to news blogs to keep track of current events happening in their city, state, country and worldwide. Students can also write their own blogs on Bloglines for the teacher and their peers to subscribe to.