Getting Aggregated
One of the challenges of sorting through information on the web is accessing it in a way that is organized and efficient. Many webites and blogs, this one included, use syndication feeds like RSS (Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) or Atom to send updated material to one central site. These central sites are called aggregators, newsreaders, or feed readers and include Bloglines, Google Reader, and Netvibes.
Let’s say you look at five or six different websites on a regular basis. Instead of clicking on each site to view new information, you can set up a free account on an aggregator, through which you can subscribe to your favorite sites. In this way, you need only log onto one place to view new content.
To learn more, take a look at the slideshow, The New Information Pipeline about RSS feeds created by Dave Jakes for his recent presentation at the CUE 2007 conference. In addition to being informative, the slideshow is a nice example of how educators and students can create presentations and make them accessible online using sites such as Slideshare and Picasa.
Also see Jakes’ site for a compilation articles, educator guides, and resources on creative ways to use feeds for learning at www.jakesonline.org/rss.htm, especially Quentin D’Souza’s Web 2.0 Ideas for Educators, A Guide to RSS and More, and Will Richardson’s RSS Guide for Educators.