RSS

RSS & RSS Management
Don't waste time going from website to website - have any new content come to you and be notified when new content is published.

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 * What is RSS?** RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication (or Rich Site Summary). It is a family of web feed formats used to publish[[image:rss_icon.jpg width="149" height="152" align="right"]] frequently updated works – blogs, news, audio, video, etc. in a standard format. This makes it easy to push and pull information from one website to another.


 * Why is RSS powerful?** It gives websites the ability to post information to a lot of different places at one time, pushing content without structure. In other words, I can pull the text of an RSS enabled page and leave the structure of the page (the HTML) behind.


 * How do I take advantage of this power?** Get an RSS Reader/Aggregator. It will make your life so much easier and save you valuable time.


 * So where does an RSS Reader fit into my PLN?** An RSS reader can be the primary tool that you use for your PLN because you are able to stay up-to-date on the information that matters most to you.

**How do I get started?**
1. Choose a Reader (i.e. Google Reader, netvibes , ...). Microsoft Outlook can also bring in RSS feeds.

2. Add the feed. Find Feeds of Interest (blogs, news, feeds from other web 2.0 applications) - look for the RSS symbol, or, depending on your reader just put in the URL and the reader will look for the feed on your behalf!
 * Even easier:** in Google Reader, simply click on the "add a subscription" button, paste the URL of a website, and Google will find news feeds of interest for you!

3. Make your reader one of the homepages that automatically opens in a tab when your browser launches.

Leverage the power of blogs and RSS feeds
Read about other educators' experiences, discover what they are exploring, enter into conversation around practice.

Don't have time to go from blog to blog and read posts? To go to multiple websites and browse, looking for what is new or of interest? Of course not! Use Google Reader (or a similar RSS Aggregator) to bring the content to you!

Many websites update content - how will you know about it? RSS - Real Simple Syndication.

To stay informed about those updates, use the RSS feed - the new content will arrive into your RSS Aggregator. Look for this icon, click on it, copy the url, then click on the Google Reader (or other RSS management tool) "Add a subscription" button.

Here are some blogs to get you started! You can read the author's entry, and then use the comment field to enter into a conversation with the author and other commenters. Like what you are reading? Use the RSS and subscribe to the blog's feed.

[|Cool Cat Teacher] - Vicki Davis [|The Edublogger] [|David Warlick's $.02 worth] [|The Fischbowl] - Karl Fisch [|High Techpectations] - Lucy Gray's blog [|Learning Blog] - Alex Ragone [|Moving at the Speed of Creativity] [|Practical Theory]- principal Chris Lehmann [|Weblogged] - Will Richardson
 * ed tech bloggers**

CNN Michigan Department of Education (note the RSS icon on the page - each page has its own RSS feed available to note changes) Michigan State University NASA New York Times
 * Interesting places with RSS feeds - many of these places have multiple feeds from which to choose**

iGoogle
An alternate to an RSS reader might be iGoogle, where you can set up your own start page with widgets. Each widget will have its own RSS feed. Google will provide you choices from many, many widgets and feeds and you can add your own too! iGoogle requires that you have a Google Account in order to customize your page. Use this handy Getting Started with iGoogle guide or click through this Getting Started with iGoogle presentation. media type="custom" key="9314682"

Google Alerts
Want to simply stay on topic of a particular topic? Set up a Google Alert. Google Account not required. Just enter the keywords for your search, and Google will scour the Internet and send you an email with relevant links. Helpful for research projects, trends of interest, etc.