STEP 9: Introduction
How do you keep track of all the news, sports, weather and blogs you follow and still have time for play, family and hobbies? Answer: RSSIntroduced in 1997, RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication". RSS is basically a way to subscribe to a source of information, such as a Web site or blog and get brief updates delivered to you.
Discovery Exercise
1. View this Common Craft Show video -- RSS in Plain English.
Optional: What is RSS and How is it Useful? - very detailed video instructions on how to use RSS.
2. There are lots of News Aggregators or RSS Feed Reader.
Note: A RSS Feed Reader is a client software or a Web application which aggregates syndicated web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and vlogs in a single location for easy viewing. Source: Wikipedia
Let's look at a one Aggregator or Reader: Google Reader
View the Common Craft Show video -- Google Reader in Plain English.
3. Use your Google username and password to get the Google Reader.
4. Using Google Reader, subscribe to at least 3 RSS sources of your choice, or you can use the following three examples.
Remember: When you see the RSS icon
on a website, it means that the site offers its content through RSS.· The US News Section on Google News
· The Craigslist Fresno Furniture Page
· The Fresno State News to stay current on Campus news.
Note: Most blogging platforms (WordPress, Blogger.com, etc) have RSS capabilities built in. This means that you can subscribe to any blog through RSS. Also Newspapers usually have a special page dedicated to RSS feeds. They use this page to divide content into different sections, for example, Local News, Sports, National News, Local Life etc.
Here's an example of how you can find the RSS feeds to most newspapers -- like the Fresno Bee
Go to the Fresno Bee Website
Locate and click on the RSS Link (usually found at the bottom of the page)
Subscribe to one of the RSS categories (ex. Local News, California)
Did you know? The content you can get via RSS feeds isn't just text. Depending on the kind of feed it is, you might get images, audio and video.
5. Post your comments in the comment area below on your experiences with RSS feeds or Google Reader.
5 comments:
I have used Google Reader in the past. However, it can get overwhelming at times with the exorbitant number of articles getting posted via RSS feeds. Hence, one has to exercise extreme caution by subscribing only to a select few feeds. It is very easy to get lost in the world-wide-web!!
I have used RSS feeds earlier but its too much of information to go thru and digest..for news, weather and other websites there dedicated websites which can be accessed easily..im not much of an RSS person..
So, I've just explored Google Reader, which I found to be a bit superfluous. I don't really feel I need to be constantly updated when all of the things in which I am interested in are being constantly updated. I think I would be bogged down by so much content. I do think the concept of RSS feed is helpful in classroom environments. Last semester, it was part of my grade in a literature class to comment on the blogs of my fellow students. I would have loved to have been updated whenever they posted anything new, so I feel pretty good about being aware of this tool now.
I have been using RSS- Google Reader from several months and personally I found it very interesting . We can subscribe to any feeds that we are interested. the main advantage is that we can access all updates pertaining news, science& technology etc.1 by easily clicking links through the same web page. Sometimes we get so busy that we dont get time to surf though each and every web site to be updated. we can easily achieve this by simply logging into the google reader so that we wont miss any exciting stuff. I highly bolster this idea .
Anirban:
The concept of RSS is very interesting and at the same time very helpful and informative: particularly when it comes to important news and updates regarding events of personal interest and on Global level too. I have used the RSS feeds of BBC World and CNN in tandem with the RSS feed reader of Google. I am really appreciative of this feature..
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