Weblogg-ed » 2004 » March

In my spare time (yuck, yuck) I’ve been trying to compile some of the ideas brought up here into some hopefully usable guide for teachers who might be thinking of diving into this crazy world. I’ve got a couple others in progress, but I thought I’d throw this first one on using RSS in the classroom up there for the taking and for feedback. It’s pretty basic stuff that might be a useful training piece for the uninitiated. But it does go into the whole area of search feeds with some depth. I’m thinking maybe I should wiki it (is that a verb?) so that others can add to it. But for now, it’s just a Word document that anyone can use if he or she feels so inclined. Let me know if you feel it’s useful and if you have any additions or corrections to share. And if anyone has any suggestions for future such “guides,” pass them along.

UPDATE: D’Arcy Norman was kind enough to post this as a .pdf in case anyone is document challenged. Thanks!

RSS: A Quick
Start Guide for Educators<o:p></o:p>

Will <st1:City><st1:place>Richardson</st1:place></st1:City>, www.weblogg-ed.com<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

What�s Covered:<o:p></o:p>

Setting Up an RSS Feed Reader<o:p></o:p>
Finding and Adding Feeds<o:p></o:p>
Using RSS Feeds in the Classroom<o:p></o:p>

RSS Feeds with Student Weblogs<o:p></o:p>
RSS Feeds without Student Weblogs<o:p></o:p>
RSS Search Feeds <o:p></o:p>

RSS Feeds for News Searches<o:p></o:p>
RSS Feeds for Weblog Searches<o:p></o:p>
RSS Feeds for Website Searches<o:p></o:p>
RSS Feeds for News Group Searches<o:p></o:p>

RSS Feeds for Other News Outlets<o:p></o:p>
RSS Feeds for Bookmarks<o:p></o:p>

RSS Resources<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

Introduction*<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

S<o:p></o:p>

o just what is RSS and how can it be
used in education? Depending on who you talk to, RSS stands for Rich Site
Summary or Real Simple Syndication. Either way, RSS is a real important
technology that information specialists and educators would be well advised to
harness sooner rather than later.<o:p></o:p>

In simple
terms, Weblogs (and an ever-growing number of other sites) generate a
behind-the-scenes code in a language similar to HTML called XML. This code,
usually referred to as a "feed" (as in "news feed"), makes
it possible for readers to "subscribe" to the content that is created
on a particular Weblog so they no longer have to visit the blog itself to get
it. As is true with traditional syndication, the content comes to you instead
of you going to get it, hence �Real Simple Syndication.�<o:p></o:p>

For
instance, say you’ve found 20 or 30 (or, like me, 120) Weblog sites on the
Internet that interest you. Finding the time to click through to those sites and
keep abreast of any new information on a regular basis would be nearly
impossible. But what if you only had to go to one place to read all of the new
content on all of those sites? Wouldn’t be so difficult, would it? Well, that’s
exactly what RSS allows you to do by using what’s called an
"aggregator" or news-feed collector. The aggregator checks the sites
you subscribe to, usually every hour, and it collects all the new content into
a folder that is just waiting for you to come and read it. Big deal, you say? Very big, indeed, for a variety of reasons. <o:p></o:p>

Take this
general scenario, for instance: You currently get the headlines from The New
York Times via an e-mail message that arrives each morning. But more and more,
your e-mail box is being clogged up by spammers selling everything from
pornography to mortgages. There are new virus warnings every day. That New York
Times content is getting lost in the morass that e-mail has become. Not so with
RSS. The feed your aggregator checks is virus free,
and you know that everything in your aggregator is something you want to read
because you subscribed to it. No ads, no spam, just
new content from the sources you read. You can scan the headlines, read the
entire post, click through to the actual Web site, and file the information
away for later retrieval.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

Setting
Up an RSS Feed Reader<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

Ready to start? First, you
need to set up a newsreader (feedreader, aggregator) to collect your RSS feeds.
I would suggest the Web-based service from Bloglines.com. Why? While there are
a number of great downloadable newsreader packages out there that can do wonderful
things, the main advantage to Bloglines is that you can access it from anywhere
you have an Internet connection. In other words, you don�t have to be on your
own computer(s) with special software installed to read your news. (Of course,
if you do only use one machine, there are many aggregators with more features
than Bloglines that you may want to consider.)<o:p></o:p>

�Registering for a
Bloglines account is easy. When you get to the site, click on �Register� in the
upper right hand corner of the homepage and follow the procedures. You�ll get a
confirmation e-mail to which you�ll need to respond, and then you should be
ready to go. <o:p></o:p>

Bloglines has a few ways to subscribe to feeds. First, you can
look at their listing of most popular subscriptions by clicking on the �Top
Blogs� link at the upper right hand side of the Bloglines homepage. It will
take you to a page of the 100 most subscribed to feeds among their users. You
can preview the content, and then you can subscribe to any on that list by just
checking the box and then clicking on the �Subscribe� button at the very bottom
of the page. Then, when you�re logged in to Bloglines and you click on the �My
Blogs� link, you�ll see the feeds you subscribed to with the number of messages
waiting to be read in parenthesis next to the name. Any time you come back, the
feed name will be bold when new messages are waiting.<o:p></o:p>

The other way to subscribe to feeds is to manually add them to
your list by using the �Subscribe by Entering URL� input form the bottom of
your subscription list. To use this, you�ll need to paste in the address of the
feed you want. (More about finding feeds in a second.) Once you paste in a
feed, Bloglines will ask you if you want to make a folder and whether or not
you want other people to see your feed. (You have the option of letting others
view your subscriptions. My public feeds are at <a
href=”http://bloglines.com/public/willrich”>http://bloglines.com/public/wrichard.)
And, when you have some feeds to work with, Bloglines lets you rename them
(among other things) by clicking on the �Manage my Feeds� link just above the
subscription box. It�s pretty intuitive, and if you start getting quite a few
feeds in your list, you might want to take the time to get organized.<o:p></o:p>

Finally, throw a link to Bloglines on your toolbar or in your
Favorites folder. Better yet, add the Bloglines notifier (<a
href=”http://www.bloglines.com/about/notifier”>http://www.bloglines.com/about/notifier)
to the bottom of your screen which will let you know when new content has been
posted to any of the feeds you are subscribed to. Either way, remember to check
back often. Collecting feeds only works if you read the new stuff regularly!
(For even more info, read the Bloglines FAQ at <a
href=”http://www.bloglines.com/help/faq#updates”>http://www.bloglines.com/help/faq#updates
.)<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

Finding
and Adding Feeds<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

Once you have your aggregator set up, it�s time to find some
relevant feeds to stock it with. Luckily, more and more news outlets and
standard Websites are adding feeds for their content, so there will be more and
more to choose from, but for now let�s just deal with blogs. First, understand
that most Weblogs have a link to their feeds on their homepages. On many, it�s
a text link in one of the side columns that says �<a
href=”http://krause.emich.edu/blog/index.rdf”>Syndicate this site (XML).�
Or it might be a link that says �RSS 1.0 (or 2.0).� But most often, it�s a
pretty orange icon that looks like this: <a
href=”http://www.weblogg-ed.com/xml/rss.xml”
title=”This is a link to this site’s RSS channel: Weblogg-ed News”><!–[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype
id=”_x0000_t75″ coordsize=”21600,21600″ o:spt=”75″ o:preferrelative=”t”
path=”m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe” filled=”f” stroked=”f”>
<v:stroke joinstyle=”miter”/>
<v:formulas>
<v:f eqn=”if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0″/>
<v:f eqn=”sum @0 1 0″/>
<v:f eqn=”sum 0 0 @1″/>
<v:f eqn=”prod @2 1 2″/>
<v:f eqn=”prod @3 21600 pixelWidth”/>
<v:f eqn=”prod @3 21600 pixelHeight”/>
<v:f eqn=”sum @0 0 1″/>
<v:f eqn=”prod @6 1 2″/>
<v:f eqn=”prod @7 21600 pixelWidth”/>
<v:f eqn=”sum @8 21600 0″/>
<v:f eqn=”prod @7 21600 pixelHeight”/>
<v:f eqn=”sum @10 21600 0″/>
</v:formulas>
<v:path o:extrusionok=”f” gradientshapeok=”t” o:connecttype=”rect”/>
<o:lock v:ext=”edit” aspectratio=”t”/>
</v:shapetype><v:shape id=”_x0000_i1025″ type=”#_x0000_t75″ alt=”XML icon”
title=”"This is a link to this site’s RSS channel: Weblogg-ed News"”
style=’width:27pt;height:10.5pt’ o:button=”t”>
<v:imagedata src=”RSS%20FAQ_files/image001.gif” o:href=”http://www.weblogg-ed.com/mainResponderResources/userlandIcons/xml”/>
</v:shape><![endif]–><![if !vml]><![endif]>��No matter which type it is, you�ll need to click on it in order
to get the address of that site�s feed. Don�t worry if the page that comes up
is a scary looking mass of code that you can�t make heads or tails of. All you
really need is the Internet address of that page (the URL.) Just copy the
address, go into Bloglines, paste it into your subscribe line at the bottom of
the left hand window on the �My Blogs� page, and subscribe. Next time you visit
your �My Blogs� page, the feed for that site should show up.<o:p></o:p>

If you�re not sure what Weblogs to subscribe to, you can always
use one of the blog search engines to find sites that might be relevant to your
interests. Some of the better Weblog search sites include Technorati.com,
Feedster.com, and Daypop.com, but there are many more listed at Weblogs
Compendium at this page: http://www.lights.com/weblogs/searching.html.
And once you find a few, Bloglines will also recommend some other feeds that
you might be interested in based on what you�re already reading. (Isn�t that
nice of them?) Just click on �My Recommendations� in the section below where all
of your subscriptions show up in the left hand pane.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

Using RSS
Feeds in the Classroom<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

So, you�ve got your favorite Weblog feeds in your aggregator,
and you�re starting to get the hang of this �getting the good stuff when I want
it� concept. How can you start using this in your school and in your classroom?
Well, there are a number of different ways that RSS feeds can add to your
knowledge base, help you communicate, and make your teaching better.<o:p></o:p>

�<o:p></o:p>

<![if !supportLists]>·
<![endif]>RSS Feeds with Student
Weblogs<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

If you already use Weblogs with your students, the uses of RSS
should be pretty apparent. Instead of checking out all 25 (or 30, or more)
student Weblogs every day, you could just collect their work in your aggregator
using their RSS feeds. That way, you can scan through all of the class content
in one place, make sure it�s all appropriate, and click through to a particular
post if you want to comment on it. My use of student feeds in this way has
drastically reduced my reading time and allowed me to make all of my classes
paperless. In addition, you can provide individual student Weblog feeds to
parents or counselors or whoever else might be interested in that student�s
work and be savvy enough to know about RSS. (Don�t worry, pretty soon most
people will know.)<o:p></o:p>

With some Weblog packages, you can even subscribe to feeds that
show new comments on the various sites, or even to just certain topics. In
other words, you can track just about everything going on in your student blogs
using RSS.<o:p></o:p>

In addition, Weblog software like Moveable Type and <st1:City><st1:place>Manila</st1:place></st1:City> allow you to import RSS feeds into pages you create for your
or your students� sites. While it takes a little bit of code to make it work,
the benefits of bringing topic specific feeds right into student (or teacher)
work spaces is something that you might want to explore.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

Even if your students don�t have Weblogs, you may want to have them
set up their own Bloglines account. With more and more news sources producing
feeds for aggregation, the breadth of current events and even topic-specific
research that students could collect could go a long way to assisting them with
research or further study. (It�s one reason why I think RSS could be a great
help for the lack of media and information literacy skills students have.) And,
if you use a Weblog, they can include your feed in their aggregator to stay
abreast of what is going on.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

The idea of aggregating research feeds is especially
interesting. Say you have a student that is doing a project or a paper on
global warming. That student could actually create an RSS feed that would bring
any news about global warming to his aggregator as soon as it was published. And
you can create a feed about any topic you want. Here�s how:<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

RSS Feeds for News Searches<o:p></o:p>

If you want to create a feed for what�s in the daily news about
a particular topic, the answer is the Google News RSS/RDF Feed Generator from XMLMania.com.
Here�s the address: http://www.xmlmania.com/development/googlenews/.
When you get there, just type in your search terms, click submit, and wait for
the result. The page that comes up will be that scary looking mass of code that
you can�t make heads or tails of. Copy the URL from that page, paste it into
your Bloglines aggregator, and you�ll start getting any news that�s in the
media about your topic right away. When you start getting results from your
feed, you may want to refine your search until you get a manageable number of
posts. And remember, you can create as many of these feeds as you like.<o:p></o:p>

Another way to get continually updated news about various
topics is to use the feeds provided by Moreover.com. It provides a huge list of
predefined topic searches at <a
href=”http://w.moreover.com/categories/category_list_rss.html”>http://w.moreover.com/categories/category_list_rss.html.
You can find even more of these types of Moreover feeds (including ones for
your favorite sports teams, the state you live in, and your favorite presidential
candidate) at this page on the Syndic8.com site: <a
href=”http://www.syndic8.com/feedcat.php?Scheme=Syndic8″>http://www.syndic8.com/feedcat.php?Scheme=Syndic8.
<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

RSS Feeds for Weblog Searches<o:p></o:p>

Searching the blogosphere is just as easy, but you need to
remember that the results aren�t always going to be as, shall we say,
appropriate. Obviously, the vast majority of Weblogs are not edited for content
by someone other than the author, and invariably there will be some questionable
posts that will land in your aggregator. Still, Weblogs offer up some really
great potential research, and you might want to experiment with searching them
on your own before bringing students into the fray. To do so, the easiest way
is to go to Feedster.com, type in your search terms, click �Search�, copy the
URL from the page that comes up with that scary looking mass of code that you
can�t make heads or tails of, paste it into your Bloglines account and start
reading. You can go through the same process at Blogdigger.com, Syndic8.com and
other Weblog search sites.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

RSS Feeds for Website Searches<o:p></o:p>

There�s more. You can even create an RSS feed from a search of
Google sites (not news, sites.) So, if there is new content about global
warming added to a site that�s already on the Internet, or if there is a whole
new site created about the topic, you�ll find out about it in your aggregator.
Here�s how. Go to Googlealerts.com and sign up for an account. It�s free. Once
your registered, you can create up to five searches that can bring back up to
150 results total. Just fill in the form with the search terms you want, click
�Run Searches Automatically,� and click �Update.� Then, click the link in the
left hand column where it says �Feed Settings.� All of your searches will come up,
and you can check the box that says �RSS Feed� next to each one of them, then click �Update� at the bottom. Then, take the feed
address that appears in each box and copy it into your Bloglines account. (No
page that comes up with that scary looking mass of code that you can�t make
heads or tails of this time.)<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

RSS Feeds for News Group Searches<o:p></o:p>

You can also search Internet news groups and get an RSS feed of
the results. (Where does it end?) To do this, go to Pubsub.com. (The specific
address is http://www.pubsub.com/nntp/.)
Put in your search terms, enter your e-mail address, and Pubsub will send you a
confirmation e-mail with a link to your subscription. When you click on the
link, you can either copy the RSS feed address, or you can click the cut little
�Quick Sub� link that will allow you to file it right into Bloglines (provided
you�re already logged into Bloglines, of course.) Pretty
cool. But beware that a search feed of newsgroups can bring back all
sorts of irrelevant content and you may want to spend some time refining your
search to match your interests.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

Now as I said, a number of more traditional news outlets are
starting to provide RSS feeds of their content including the New York Times,
Washington Post, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, US World and News
Report, Rolling Stone and many others. Many of these can be found at the
Weblogs Compendium site at this address: <a
href=”http://www.lights.com/weblogs/rssfeeds.html”>http://www.lights.com/weblogs/rssfeeds.html.
If you want to find out if your favorite publication has an RSS feed, do a
Google search with the publication name and �RSS� and see what comes up.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

One of the more recent uses of RSS has been to syndicate the
Internet bookmarks you keep of your travels. You can do this using a site
called Furl.net. With a Furl account (which is free) you can save, annotate,
rate, organize and share the best links that you find on the Internet. And,
even better, you can create RSS feeds for the unique departments that you store
those links in. Let�s use our global warming example. Every time you come to a
site that has information on global warming, you can �Furl it� and save it into
your global warming folder. (Instructions on how to do this are on the Furl
site�it�s easy!) Now, anyone who may be subscribed to the feed that Furl.net
creates for that global warming folder will get automatically updated when you
add a new link to it. Take it one step further. Say you set up a classroom
Furl.net account, and you and all of your students added links to a variety of
topic specific folders as you found them. You could all keep track of those
links by subscribing to the feeds that were most relevant in your Bloglines
account. And Furl offers a whole bunch of other ways to share your bookmarks as
well.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

RSS
Resources<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

There are a slew of great resources for learning about RSS,
some of which are mentioned above. Here are a few others:<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

RSS Resource page from Lockergnome: <a
href=”http://channels.lockergnome.com/rss/”>http://channels.lockergnome.com/rss/<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

For a great introduction to RSS, try Fagan Finder�s �Explanation
of RSS, How You Can Use it, and Finding RSS Feeds� at <a
href=”http://www.faganfinder.com/search/rss.shtml”>http://www.faganfinder.com/search/rss.shtml<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

Jenny Levine gave a great presentation at the Computers in
Libraries Conference, and it�s online at <a
href=”http://www.sls.lib.il.us/infotech/presentations/2004/cil-rss.pdf”>http://www.sls.lib.il.us/infotech/presentations/2004/cil-rss.pdf
<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

�RSS: The Next Killer App For Education�
by Mary Harrsch (<a
href=”http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=2010″>http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=2010)
is an article that has more scenarios of how RSS might be used by teachers and
students.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

*Portions
of the introduction excerpted from �Blogging and RSS � The
�What’s It?� and �How To� of Powerful New Web Tools for Educators� at <a
href=”http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan04/richardson.shtml”>http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan04/richardson.shtml<o:p></o:p>

—–

From the “Toe in the Water” Dept. comes this link to the Wake (NC) County Public Schools System Page that is trying out RSS feeds as a way of providing technology content to its teachers.

This is a beta test of an education news headline aggregator for WCPSS staff, and eventually, perhaps, the public. The idea is to make it easy for people to stay informed on what’s going on in the world of education. Headlines are updated every 6 hours.

There are feeds for ed tech, general news, librarians and miscellaneous. Cool to see some other K-12 districts catching on to this.
—–

“Since the admissions process has gone totally insane, it’s worth reminding yourself that this is not a particularly important moment in your life.”
–David Brooks

I don’t often share the views of David Brooks, but if you’re a high school teacher, his op-ed piece in the Times today is worth a look. It’s about how truly crazed many students are at this time of year when their college acceptances are hanging in the balance. And, as Brooks points out, this moment in their lives that seems SO huge is really not nearly as important as it feels.

Ironically, I was having just such a conversation with one of my students yesterday who was really upset by the fact that she was wait-listed for a semester at one of her top choices. She wants to be a journalism major, and I suggested that she might use the opportunity to do something interesting for six months, like travel a bit, or join an non-profit organization and do some good, or volunteer for a political campaign or…you get the idea. Not an option, she said. I said well, what about going to a community college for a semester and getting some credits. Nope. It was the $40,000 a year college…that was it. Too bad.

The Brooks essay isn’t kind to public education. He describes students being forced into what he calls a “a prudential attitude toward learning” that sacrifices passion for consistency, and says that what they learn most is how to play the game to get to a first class school. He accuses the system of “trying to whittle you down into a bland, complaisant achievement machine.” In large measure, I think he’s right. Public education in general just seems so locked in to standards that all we seem to be producing are standardly good students. There’s a surprise. So few of my students have passion, originality, or the motivation to figure out what THEY want as opposed to what we expect them to want. I know it took me a while to find my passions as well, but wouldn’t it be great if we could create an environment that nurtured that exploration in kids instead of deadened them with conformity?

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