Setting Up An RSS Aggregator

Greetings Bloggers,

This post I will be discussing how I have set up an RSS Aggregator. I have discovered that RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication that is a single website that acts as a hub for several websites that you may view (LeFever, 2007). The particular website I chose to act as this hub, Google Reader, was chosen as it links with Blogger so you do not need to create a new account and to add the website you wish to follow it is as easy as copying the URL and pasting it into the 'Add a subscription; section of the site Google Reader (Central Queensland University, 2009).

I find the idea behind the RSS quite appealing. It is much like having a one stop shopping centre instead of going out to several different stores for everything you need. It is a simple yet effective tool that saves time and hassle when checking on web sites that have constantly changing information, such as Blogs.

One use that I can see for a schooling environment that I would look to put into practice is for Science. In today's Science classroom I use the Primary Connections website which advocates the use of science journalling in its assessment (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2007) and I believe a Blog could be effective for this task. Instead of having students keep a hard copy of a Science journal through their learning experiences they could instead keep a Blog Journal for their learning. I believe this would have several advantages such as being able to gain feedback from their peers about their thoughts and to view the entries of other students. An RSS Aggregator would also be an effective method for students to be able to keep track of an entire class rooms' Blogs.

It could also be possible to work with classes from other parts of the same town or further out that are completing similar units and collaborate together on an even larger scale. I think this could be an effective way for students to display their thoughts and gain feedback from both peers and teachers in a quicker, simpler way. As this would also make it easier for educators to keep track of their students work.

Thank you for your time,

Alex Ricks

REFERENCES:

Central Queensland University. (2009). An Introduction to teachers' Delivery Technologies. Retrieved July 19, 2009, from http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=671

Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. (2007). Primary Connections linking science with literacy. Retrieved July 19, 2009, from

http://www.science.org.au/primaryconnections/index.htm

LeFever, L. (2007). Video: RSS in Plain English. Retrieved July 19, 2009, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU