Staying Informed
Personalize Your View To The World
RSS
It has become a daunting task to stay up-to-date on the immense amount of news, blogs, podcasts, and information available to us when surfing the Web. Many sites now send out a feed from their site in a standardized format called RSS.
RSS (really simple syndication) allows readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites, to aggregate (collect) the feeds from many sites into one place. There are a number of "aggregators" available to collect the feeds in one place.
Based on what is available in your county, select one of the following options for staying informed.
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Aligned to NETS-T: 1.a, 1.b, 1.d, 2.a, 2.b, 2.c, 3.a, 3.b, 3.c, 3.d, 4.b,
4.d, 5.a, 5.c, 5.d
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iGoogle
With iGoogle, you can collect your feeds and read them on your iGoogle page. You will first need a Google Account. After creating a Google account, you will locate Google Reader in the list of Google options. Google Reader allows you to add subscriptions from each RSS fead you would like to subscribe to. You copy and paste the RSS feed information into a short form in Google Reader. Then when you create your iGoogle page, you will select the option to include Google Reader on your page. Then each time you login into your iGoogle page you will be able to read the feeds coming from your favorite sources. Click on the iGoogle image for a tutorial on Teacher Tube.
Netvibes
Netvibes a "personal start Page" allows you to easily save RSS feeds (blogs, podcasts, etc.) in one location for quick reading. The following link will give you a complete written tutorial on Netvibes features and directions on how to set it up: http://www.masey.com.au/2006/10/netvibes-tutorial/
Bloglines
Bloglines' motto is "We track your favorite news, blogs, weather, and classifieds so that you don't have to." Bloglines is a very popular aggregator tool to keep track of all your RSS feeds. Click on the Bloglines image for a video tutorial.
21things Hands-On Activity and Assignment:
1. Select one of the RSS aggregators above and create an account.
2. Navigate to three of your favorite sites which could include: blogs, news sites, and/or podcasts. Select those that you want to subscribe to and add them to your RSS aggregator.
3. Capture screen shots of your RSS aggregator page, showing some of the feeds you subscribed to, and write a reflection for your portfolio about how this can be a useful resource for teaching and learning.
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