1. RSS Feeds 101

2. Today's Agenda RSS basics Aggregators and readers Ways to make use of RSS Demonstration using Google Reader Hands-on: It's your turn!

4. What is RSS? http://www.thinkartificial.org/web/how-to-make-the-most-of-rss-feeds-redux/ RSS = Really Simple Syndication A file format for delivering frequently updated information, such as news headlines, blog posts, and podcasts over the web. RSS RSS Feeds Web Feeds

5. http://www.deskshare.com/Resources/articles/rss.aspx

6. hmm...anything new today? http://flickr.com/photos/glenshock/130800304/

7. new stuff delivered directly to you! http://flickr.com/photos/wurges/2132738610/

8. So, How Does It Work? 1.Choose an aggregator. 2.Subscribe to RSS feeds. 3.Your aggregator gathers fresh content and delivers it to you. 4.Open or login to your aggregator and read everything all in one place! Synonymous: Aggregators and Readers

9. Different Types of Aggregators Web-based Accessible from any computer with internet connection; requires username and password. Desktop-based Requires downloading and installation of software applications on your computer. Browser-based The latest versions of many browsers include the ability to subscribe to and read RSS feeds directly in the browser.

10. Web-based Aggregators

11. Look for an RSS icon to see if a particular website offers feeds! http://www.miguelsanchez.com/http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelsphotos/279280606/

12. Take Advantage of RSS! Subscribe and track... Favorite blogs Shopping deals News headlines Packages Job listings Real estate New library materials Events eBay listings Government info Traffic Updates Travel deals TV listings Tee times Flickr photos YouTube videos Podcasts New iTunes music Search results Fun stuff

13. Demonstration of Google Reader

15. Time for some hands-on learning! http://flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/489257240/

16. Google Reader http://www.google.com/reader

17. Google Reader Sign in with free account Follow the steps on the screen Create a new account

18. RSS Feed: Subscribing 1. Find a feed. 2. Find the RSS link. 3. Copy the URL or link. 4. Go to Google Reader. 5. Click on Add Subscription. 6. Paste in the link. 7. Organize the new feed into your folders or subject structure. Skip Steps 3 – 6 if the page has an automated feature Skip Steps 3 – 6 if the page has an automated feature Manually Add a Subscription Manually Add a Subscription Automated Subscription Automated Subscription

19. Step 1 - Find Webpage Google News Search

20. Step 2 - Find RSS Link Feed Button RSS Links

21. Step 3 - Copy Link or Highlight the URL, ie http://edublogs.org/campus Edit, Copy or Ctrl + C

22. Step 4 - Go to Reader

23. Step 5 - Add Feed Click on Add subscription This expands to give you space to paste the URL. Add subscription

24. Step 6 - Paste Link Paste the URL in the box, then click ADD.

25. Step 7 - Sort Feed The feed might look like this Manage subscriptions allow you to group feeds Manage Subscriptions

26. Step 7 - Sort Feed Choose a topic folder or create a new folder. TIP: When you view a folder, you see the newest items for the topic all integrated together.

27. Automated Subscribing Some pages offer buttons you can just click on to add a feed. This allows you to skip steps 2-6!

28. Step 1 - Find Webpage Brush School District -- Document Manager

29. Step 2 - Find and click the RSS Link Scan the page for RSS links Click the RSS button

30. Step 3 – Subscribe or Select Google in the Drop down box if necessary. Checking the Always use Google to subscribe to feeds box will eliminate this step. Click Subscribe Now Click Add to Google Reader Click Add to Google Reader

31. Step 4 - Sort Feeds The feed might look like this Manage subscriptions allow you to group feeds Manage Subscriptions Shortcut to organize feeds Shortcut to organize feeds

32. Step 4 - Sort Feeds Choose a topic folder or create a new folder. TIP: When you view a folder, you see the newest items for the topic all integrated together.

33. Additional Subscriptions 2. Click RSS button, choose Subscribe to ‘RSS 2.0’ 2. Click RSS button, choose Subscribe to ‘RSS 2.0’ 1. Click Recent changes Track changes to the Wiki via Google Reader

34. Using RSS in Education Pedagogy and Research

35. Why use RSS in education? RSS has transformed the way that content is distributed, accessed, and processed 21 st century students are no longer faced with the challenge of “finding” enough information – rather, they are faced with an avalanche of information RSS is one way for students to locate information more efficiently Of course, they still need to be taught how to process, analyze, and evaluate

36. Why use RSS in education? It is also a way to leverage the talent of millions of individuals to identify truly useful information in the tidal wave of data the internet has become. –Mary Harrsch, “RSS: The Next Killer App for Education” http://technologysource.org/article/rss/

37. Using RSS is Research-Based Dr. Henry Jenkins –Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT –“Confronting the Challenges of a Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21 st Century” Participatory culture and its implications for learning in the 21 st century (RSS is all about participation, networking, and community) 21 st century skills and literacies (applied skills students need to be school, work, and life ready)

38. 21st Century Participatory Culture Relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement Strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations with others Some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices Confronting the Challenges of a Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century

39. 21st Century Participatory Culture Members believe that their contributions matter Members feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least they care what other people think about what they have created) Confronting the Challenges of a Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century

40. Implications A growing body of scholarship suggests potential benefits of these forms of participatory culture, including: –opportunities for peer-to-peer learning, –a changed attitude toward intellectual property, –the diversification of cultural expression, –the development of skills valued in the modern workplace, and a more empowered conception of citizenship. Confronting the Challenges of a Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century

41. Implications Participatory culture shifts the focus of literacy from one of individual expression to community involvement. The new literacies almost all involve social skills developed through collaboration and networking. These skills build on the foundation of traditional literacy, research skills, technical skills, and critical analysis skills taught in the classroom. Confronting the Challenges of a Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century

42. The New Literacies Play — the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem-solving Performance — the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery Simulation — the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world processes Appropriation — the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content Confronting the Challenges of a Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century

43. The New Literacies Multitasking — the ability to scan one’s environment and shift focus as needed to salient details. Distributed Cognition — the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities Collective Intelligence — the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal Judgment — the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources Confronting the Challenges of a Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century

44. The New Literacies Transmedia Navigation — the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities Networking — the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information Negotiation — the ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms. Confronting the Challenges of a Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century

45. 21st Century Skills National Educational Technology Standards for Students Communication and Collaboration Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students: interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts or others employing a variety of digital environments and media. http://snipurl.com/1w89f

46. 21st Century Skills National Educational Technology Standards for Students Research and Information Fluency –Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. –Students: plan strategies to guide inquiry. locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media. evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks. process data and report results. http://snipurl.com/1w89f

47. RSS for Teaching and Learning Practical Applications

48. Professional Learning Communities Educators are professionals who, by nature, are always learning Through RSS feed readers and personalized home pages educators can create their own learning network and learn from other educators

49. Classroom Applications for RSS Have students subscribe to each other’s blogs and/or the teacher’s blog Have students and parents subscribe to your blog, podcast, or wiki feed to keep abreast of what is going on in class

50. Classroom Applications for RSS RSS Feeds for News, Blog, and Website Searches –Create a feed for what’s in the daily news about a particular topic, you can make a syndicated feed of search results of Google News –Aggregate targeted news feeds with a shared (published) feed reader (Pageflakes, Google, etc.) –This basically creates a constantly updating targeted “current events” text for students

51. Targeted News Feeds

52. Classroom Applications for RSS RSS Feeds for Bookmarks –Teachers can create a social bookmarking account and publish the list for their students (instant hotlists) –Teachers can create a class account and all students can add to the content –Students can create accounts to collaborate with group members and share resources more effectively All the feeds can be aggregated with the same feed readers used for blogs, podcasts, news, and other media sites

53. Classroom Applications for RSS RSS Feeds for Bookmarks The following social bookmarking applications allow for publishing Internet bookmarks through RSS feeds: –http://del.icio.us/http://del.icio.us/ –http://www.diigo.com/http://www.diigo.com/ –http://www.furl.net/http://www.furl.net/ –http://www.blinklist.com/http://www.blinklist.com/

54. Classroom Applications for RSS RSS Feeds for Media Media hosting sites (e.g. YouTube, Flickr, etc.) organize individual media content (images, video, audio) with tags –Tags are one-word descriptors that users can assign to pretty much all online content help organize, aggregate, and remember RSS feeds can be created to track new submissions of media by tags

55. Syndicating Your Content Most blogs, podcasts, wikis, and other media hosts embed their own RSS feed Users can also use a third-party feed distributor to widen their syndication, create easier-to-use syndication buttons, and track usage statistics

56. News Google News: http://news.google.com NPR: http://www.npr.org/rss/ Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/ Chicago Sun-Times: http://www.suntimes.com/rss/index.html CNN.com: http://www.cnn.com/services/rss/ New York Times: http://www.nytimes.comhttp://news.google.comhttp://www.npr.org/rss/http://www.chicagotribune.com/http://www.suntimes.com/rss/index.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/services/rss/http://www.nytimes.com BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/ Salon: http://salon.com ESPN.com: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/rss/index The Onion: http://www.theonion.com/content/connecthttp://news.bbc.co.uk/http://salon.comhttp://sports.espn.go.com/espn/rss/indexhttp://www.theonion.com/content/connect

57. Blogs & Stuff… Digg: http://digg.com/http://digg.com/ Dumb Little Man: http://www.dumblittleman.com/http://www.dumblittleman.com/ Lifehacker: http://lifehacker.com/Boing Boing: http://www.boingboing.net/http://lifehacker.com/http://www.boingboing.net/ Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures: http://icanhascheezburger.com/http://icanhascheezburger.com/ Dilbert: http://dilbert.com/rss/http://dilbert.com/rss/ Word of the Day: http://dictionary.com/wordoftheday/http://dictionary.com/wordoftheday/ Quote of the Day: http://www.quotationspage.com/qotd.html Del.icio.us: http://del.icio.us/help/rsshttp://www.quotationspage.com/qotd.htmlhttp://del.icio.us/help/rss Calendar Events: http://www.rsscalendar.com/ Craigslist: http://www.craigslist.org/about/rss.htmlhttp://www.rsscalendar.com/http://www.craigslist.org/about/rss.html

58. Even More Stuff... Travel: http://travel.travelocity.com/feeds/Subscription.do YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/rsslshttp://travel.travelocity.com/feeds/Subscription.dohttp://www.youtube.com/rssls Flickr Photo Tags: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/ Real Estate Listings: http://www.trulia.com/ http://www.trulia.com/ Traffic Updates: http://www.traffic.com/rss.htmlhttp://www.traffic.com/rss.html Government Info: http://www.usa.gov/rss/index.shtmlhttp://www.usa.gov/rss/index.shtml Packages: http://www.SimpleTracking.com/ Medical Information: http://www.hubmed.orghttp://www.SimpleTracking.com/http://www.hubmed.org Movies: http://movies.com/rsshttp://movies.com/rss Comedy: http://www.comedycentral.com/rss/ Weather: http://www.weather.com/weather/rss/subscriptionhttp://www.comedycentral.com/rss/http://www.weather.com/weather/rss/subscription

59. Classroom Blog Ready to build your own Classroom Blog – Edublogs - http://www.edublogs.orghttp://www.edublogs.org

60. More Explanations of RSS HOW TO: Getting Started with RSS http://paulstamatiou.com/2005/11/13/how-to-getting-started-with-rss What is RSS? http://paulstamatiou.com/2005/11/13/how-to-getting-started-with-rss http://rss.softwaregarden.com/aboutrss.html Wikipedia Article on RSS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format) How to Explain RSS the Oprah Way http://www.backinskinnyjeans.com/2006/09/how_to_explain_.html RSS Feeds 101 – credit for presentation http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=dfvx2r6j_52cvp94tfb&skipauth=true What is RSS and Why Should I Care? A Presentation for Educators and School Administrators http://www.slideshare.net/lcstephenson/what-is-rss-and-why-should-i-care-a-presentation- for-educators-and-school-administrators

61. References RSS Feeds 101 - Google Docs – http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=dfvx2r6j_ 52cvp94tfb&skipauth=true http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=dfvx2r6j_ 52cvp94tfb&skipauth=true Britt Watwood, VCU “Using RSS Personally and Professionally” Patricia F. Anderson, U. Mich “RSS Demystified” Perter Bromberg, SJRLC