For those of you who have watched a Star Trek episode, you know the value of shields. When a galaxy implodes or a Klingon Bird of Prey fires a photon torpedo, the captain shouts, "Shields up!", and everything is OK.
There's a Web 2.0 technology that can "save" you, too...
An alternative is using RSS Alert Systems. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, where the information is regularly delivered to you in a syndicated format. You could visit all those web pages and information sources in just one place and all at the same time. In addition, you wouldn't be overwhelmed by advertising. All you would need is a Reader (also known as a feedreader or aggregator) and RSS capabilities (you see them as those small funny orange buttons on websites, like the one above).
Trek 1: Watch this brief video to learn more about RSS:
Trek 2: The next tutorial will actually walk you through the basics of Google Reader. You'll learn how to follow what's new on your favorite sites, share cool content, and more:
- Again, to get to Google Reader, simply go to http://www.google.com/
- Click the "more" link found on the upper left toolbar.
- Scroll down and click "Reader."
- Sign in with your Google username and password (the ones you created for your Blogger account last week).
- Save the url address, your Google username and password in that Word doc. table so you won't forget them!
- When visiting your favorite websites -- click on the feed icon (usually that orange square or an orange rectangle that has RSS on it). It is often found in the site's navigation bar.
- Use Google Reader's Search Box. Simply click the "Add subscription" link towards the left-hand side and enter a search term and hit Enter to find feeds. Scroll through the result list and find ones that interest you; click on the Subscribe button.
- Subscribe to this blog. Just copy the URL (http://internetnextgeneration.blogspot.com/) into the "Add subscription" box and hit "Add." It’s easy, I promise!
Trek 4: RSS in Education
Many colleges and universities have incorporated RSS feeds into their online offerings, both at the institutional and departmental levels:
- Georgetown University: RSS Feeds
- Murray State News Feeds
- University of Pennsylvania's Health RSS Feeds
Trek 5: Write a comment to this week’s blog post. Possible topics:
- What do you like about RSS?
- How might you be able to use this technology in your work?
(For example, here’s one for NPR News:
http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?id=1001
The website is http://www.npr.org/templates/topics/topic.php?topicId=1001&ft=1&f=1001 )
The voyage continues February 16th with "Energize: Wikis"
6 comments:
I use Google Reader to follow Blackboard updates as well as follow friends blogs. Makes it easy to follow several while only looking in one place.
I use Google Reader to keep up with all the blogs I read. I like RSS feeds because it automatically pops up when there are new posts.
I signed up for Google Reader and am looking forward to using it to keep up with several news feeds including headline news from my hometown newspaper, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. I'm still learning about it though and it may take some more time but it does save time.
Well this is my third or fourth try to post a comment.
You said it would be easy to subscribe to http://internetnextgeneration.blogspot.com/ but I have a way of making some things difficult. I kept looking for the post in my Outlook 2007 but things became much easier when I realized that I need to look in my Google Reader. I did try to post RSS feed in Outlook 2007; it would list it but would also state that it was not valid.
Could one use or would it be appropriate use to use RSS feeds as "academic support" to classroom instruction. For example to explain specific items in greater detail. If so, how would you do that?
Posted from a crew member via the IM Chat (meeboguest351569:
After an extremely slow start, I am now getting in the groove. I can make some things that people say are easy ~ somewhat difficult. In task two, I kept trying to get the site in my Outlook 2007 list of RSS feeds. It kept saying it was not a valid RSS site. Then it dawned on me ~ go the Google Reader site to add the RSS feeds. :)
I really like the idea of having the information come to one central location. I have to say, though, I was very happy when I was able to figure out how to create folders to organize all that information!
I see how useful RSS feeds are for research and preparing to teach; I'm not quite sure how I could use them in the classroom unless it's with students who are working on research themselves. Any ideas?
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