Presentation on using RSS feeds

RSS feeds are at the heart of the concept of a Connected Learning Community which we define as a group of people having an online presence (like a blog) which has an RSS feed who subscribe to each others' blogs through RSS feeds.

Why use RSS feed?

1. a quick way to scan huge amounts of highly specific professional information.

Example www.bloglines.com/public/seanfitz

2. subscribe to blogs which gather information from a huge number of sources
http://www.technorati.com/
http://www.blogsearchengine.com/
http://portal.eatonweb.com/

3. You can see what experts in your field are reading and subscribe.
Example www.bloglines.com/public/clcommunity/ GO to Members

4. Can quickly see anything new anyone in your network has posted- an alternative to clicking through lots of blogs needlessly or overloading email inboxes.
Example http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs

Set up a feed for each class
www.bloglines.com/public/wendyzammit/
Set up a feed for family
Set up a feed for colleagues to share information
Set up a feed for emails.

USING BLOGLINES

Bloglines is one of a number of feedreaders.

1) setting up a bloglines account
http://www.bloglines.com/register
2) Creating folders
http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs
3) Subscribing to some of these feeds
http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs
4) Saving articles that you want to view later.
http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs

Let's loook at subscribing to a UK newspaper
http://dave.org.uk/newsfeeds/

This is a presentation Sean did a couple of years ago on blogs and RSS feeds for libraries
http://seanfitz.wikispaces.com/libraries

Here are some videos you can watch from home on how to use it
(Note Acces to Youtube has been banned by DET )

Bloglines Registration
1 min video on how to register for Bloglines-Good for very basic distance learners

Video Episode0011 - How to use Bloglines.com
A good starter video on how to use bloglines about 4 mins

Adding Web Feeds
a 2 min video on subscribing to rss feeds with bloglines-shows how to right click on shortcut button

Add RSS feeds to Bloglines
explains that you should only seleve one feed from each source- very useful for beginners.

Saving Articles about 2 mins. Good tip. Nice voice short video on how to check keep box on bloglines to stop article from disappearing

Subscribing to a Blog using Bloglines
about 4 mins- covers basics of rss feeds and how to set up and use bloglines. Also how to install an update notifier (if you're desperate for stimulation!!)