RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Aggregators

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Aggregators


RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Aggregators collates web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and vlogs into a single area called a reader (Wikipedia, 2009). This allows for you to be able to go to one page and check for any updates saving time and energy. I opened a Google Reader Image courtesy of Flickr because I already have a Google account but you can use other providers such as Yahoo if you prefer. All you need to do is log on and subscribe in order to be able to view all of the blogs and websites, you follow, on the one page.



RSS would be a useful tool in the classroom, enabling me to have my students connect to course content, news casts and weblinks via blog. Students can link a reader to their MP3 player so that it can synch with any multimedia files they choose to download for later listening. If students find a site or blog that they are interested in they only need to click on the feed button and they are automatically subscribed to it. If they later decide it isn't what they are after they can simply delete the relevant site feed from their reader.

Siemens (2005)stated that students today need to understand how to sort and filter the masses of information available to them. Connectivism presents a model of learning where the process required is one of coming to realise rather than one of knowing(Siemens, 2005). Students must be taught how to navigate the vast array of onformation available to them on the internet, and be shown how to organise and keep track of it.

RSS is an e-tool that supports students in their learning and prepares them for issues they will face in the real world. When combined with other social bookmarking sites students are able to highlight a website or specific detail from a webite and bookmark it with the RSS allowing them the option to get udates where available. Diigo is such a site. According to wikipedia "Diigo is a social bookmarking website which allows signed-up users to bookmark and tag web-pages. Additionally, it allows users to highlight any part of a webpage and attach sticky notes to specific highlights or to a whole page." (Wikipedia, 2009)

Students could use their own blog to reflect on their learnings and be encouraged to subscribe to other class members blogs. This would allow collaboration and engage them in multiple modes of information delivery. The RSS aggregator allow them to keep track of the various content and regularly update them with the greatest amount of ease and efficiency.

For example if you were doing a unit on another town or country you could subscribe to a weather and news channel and be given constant updates. Students could create blogs and reflect on their own and each others work. In fact you could use it in a jigsaw activity so that certain students would research specific topics and then students would refer to each groups blog in order to gather the information until the whole class had all the information they needed to complete the assessment task. That is a very simplistic outline of a unit of work but it certainly is something I will be thinking more about.


Reference

Wikipedia. (2009, November 27). Aggregator. Retrieved November 27, 2009 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggregator">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggregator

Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism-A learning theory for the Digital Age. Retrieved December 15th, 2009 from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

Wikipedia. (2009). Diigo. Retrieved December 15th, 2009 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diigo