Use RSS to store and retrieve information

• library of resources
• learning activities

RSS webfeeds

Web feeds are a form of syndication in which a section of a website is made available for other sites to use. Commonly a regularly updated website will make a feed available so other people can subscribe to or display the content in another website, such as a personal news reader. This technology is mostly offered by news and web-log (blog) sites. Web feeds are very useful to people who obtain media and information from a number of online sources on a regular basis. The feeds help the reader to bring a wide variety of information sources into one place instead of having to manually go to each website to obtain the information.

• Video - RSS in plain English
• RSS feed - A good one is Bloglines.

Uses for web feeds

• Students can subscribe to a teacher's website and receive updated content to their personal web spaces (blog, start page, news reader).
• Teachers can subscribe to their student's personal web spaces and have student's work arrive centrally.
• Students can subscribe to each other's feeds enabling them to share resources and perspectives.
• Teachers and students can subscribe to other experts in the field, broadening their field of reference, building a personalised reading list, and bringing it back to their teaching and learning contexts.
• Librarians can subscribe to feeds relevant to topics taught by the school faculties, and filter information and offer quality assured resources to teaching staff.
• Professional development units can subscribe to feeds related to teacher training and filter information and build PD resources for their staff.

More information about web feeds

• http://blendedlearning.wikispaces.com/Learning+with+a+News+Reader
• http://networkedlearning.wikispaces.com/knowledge+sharing
• http://screencasting.blogspot.com/2005/05/everything-you-need-to-teach-and-learn.html
• Practical introduction to Web browsing and Web feeds

This unit is used in the following courses

• Digital information literacy
• Computer Literacy Resources for Teaching
• Peer tutoring
• Designing for flexible learning practice

Objectives

• Understand the uses and applications of RSS
• Set up a news reader and subscribe to RSS feeds
• Use RSS in a start page, personal web page, or weblog
• Combine RSS feeds to create a unique set of information