RSS Blog Reflection

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) has become popular because it allows you to streamline the sites that you view on a daily basis. Here’s how it works. You subscribe to content like a newspaper, a blog, or a podcast usually by clicking on a button found on the website labeled RSS. The website’s content is stripped down to a URL, a headline, and a brief summary. You view the summarized information on a single page called an aggregator along with other content you have subscribed to. Using RSS feeds saves time because you don’t have to visit each source individually to find out if a site has new content that you’re interested in.
It’s easy to get started with RSS. You just need to choose an aggregator like iGoogle, Google Reader, or Bloglines, find the RSS feeds of the sites you want to follow, and add RSS feed URL to your aggregator and you’re set.

Here is my aggregator for CEP 810 that made through iGoogle.

I generally use RSS to keep track of websites that I’m interested in that don’t update on daily basis, or websites that only occasionally have content that I’m interested in. I don’t place frequently updated websites that I automatically visit on a daily basis in my aggregator. For me, these sites go in the browser’s tabs or bookmark bar.

In addition to the required feeds, I’m tracking The Rapid eLearning Blog, Leaning in Hand, Speaking of History, and a pair of Twitter Searches; #sschat and #edapp. I followed these blogs a while back but had lost touch with them. I’m glad that CEP 810 has inspired me to reconnect with them.

The Rapid eLearning Blog, which give tips and resources for developing online classes, receives 1 or 2 new posts on a weekly basis. During this assignment it received 3 new posts:
• Let Others inspire your Interactive Elearning, Here's how.
• How to Create a Learning Journal to Go with Your E-Learning Courses
• 5 Free Online Image Editor for Rapid E-Learning
I found this resource a couple of years ago when I was actively developing learning objects in BlackBoard, and I check in every so often. I learned about Paint.net and PhotoScape from the 5 Free Online Image Editor post. Although affiliated with Articulate, I found a fantastic resource in myUdutu through The Rapid E-Learning Blog. myUdutu is a free course authoring tool that is a great alternative to expensive tools like Articulate.

The second blog I posted to was Speaking of History. This blog was updated twice during the assignment. The author of the blog is eight grade US history teacher Eric Langhorst. Eric was the Missouri teacher of the year in 2007 and played a big part in my successful 2008 student teaching experience.

The final blog I subscribed to was Learning in Hand. This blog was not updated over the last few weeks but I commented on the last post about teachers learning to develop apps for iOS devices.

RSS aggregators are a great way to keep abreast of trends about a large topic like educational technology, but they can also help you delve deeply into a specific topic like Mobile Technology. In the future I plan to use blogs in my classroom, and I intend to place my students’ blogs in my aggregator so I can easily keep track of their updates in the same way I’m tracking the blogs in this class. Now that I’m moving back into EdTech RSS will be one of the ways I stay on the leading edge.