Journal #7-Mining for Gold

Bigenho, Chris (2009, March/April). Mining for gold. Learning and Leading with Technology, 36 No. 6, Retrieved May 6, 2009, from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/200904/

Rather then browsing through multiple webpages looking for content you're interested in, RSS or "Real Simple Syndication" makes it easy to compile all of your blogs, news articles, websites and more into one easy to read digest. RSS technology consists of two parts, aggregators and feeds. Feeds use XML that contain channel tags for the individual items. Aggregators read the tags, track each subscribed page and notify the user when new content is added. There are two categories of RSS readers: internet hosted and client-side.

One of the main advantages to using RSS feeds in an educational setting is that it make it easy to monitor student blog posts. Rather then visiting each of the students individual blogs to see if he or she has posted, the teacher can subscribe to each of the individual blogs, and the aggregator will notify the teacher of whenever new content is added.

Another way RSS feeds are useful in the classroom is with social bookmarking tools such as Delicious. Delicious allows users to bookmark websites and add multiple tags. Teachers could create a class tag and have students subscribe to it, which can be a great way to share information and collaborate with fellow students.

Question #1 Why are RSS feeds so useful?
RSS feeds are a huge time saver! Instead of having to go to each individual site or blog to gather information, RSS feeds allow the information to come directly to the user. RSS feeds are also a great way to access news and other information of a particular interest. For example, if your class is studying the Middle East, many online news sites allow you to subscribe to individual topics, so whenever a new article is posted regarding the Middle East, you can read it with your aggregator.

Question #2 What are the differences between internet-based and client-side aggregators?
An internet hosted aggregator, such as Bloglines or Google Reader allows you to access your RSS feeds from any computer. So you could keep track of and read your students blogs from your home computer or at school. Client-side aggregators, such as Safari for the Mac, and Windows Live for the PC are saved to the individual's computer, so you can only access feeds from one machine.