Journal 6: RSS

I have chosen RSS as my technology from the Classroom 2.0 website. I have to admit that I am quite intrigued by this technology, although I am not sure that I fully understand it yet.
In simple terms, RSS is a way to subscribe to blogs, news sites and podcasts. When something new is posted you are informed that there is something new. You have to have special software, called an RSS reader in order to receive the new content. You subscribe to certain sites and blogs, then your reader summarizes or sends the entire new information to you, whenever new information is added to the blog or site.

If you find a blog or site that you enjoy and would like to stay abreast of current happenings, you would subscribe to it by simply hitting the RSS icon ("") on the blog or site. This is a really great tool for everyone, but especially for teachers. It is a great way to learn new content from certain blogs and websites without spending numerous hours searching to see if anything new has been posted. I am currently researching whether or not to use a web-based RSS or a program-based RSS. The discussions on the Classroom 2.0 website go back and forth and are mostly about which to use. I like "free", but there are always downfalls.

I have included the Wikipedia definition because I know that my explanation doesn't quite grasp the potential of what RSS can do for you.

According to Wikipedia, "

RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts.^[2] An RSS document (which is called a "feed" or "web feed" ^[3] or "channel") contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner that can be piped into special programs or filtered displays.^[3]

RSS content can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader" or an "aggregator". The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new content, downloading any updates that it finds.

Basically there are two types of RSS readers: 1)Web based, such as the Google Reader. 2)Program based. There are lots of RSS reader programs you can download to run directly on your computer. In either case these RSS readers give you a handy interface to simultaneously monitor your favorite feeds from multiple sites and sources.. Just follow the directions for each reader.

The initials "RSS" are used to refer to the following formats:

• Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)
• RDF Site Summary (RSS 1.0 and RSS 0.90)
• Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91).

RSS formats are specified using XML, a generic specification for the creation of data formats. Although RSS formats have evolved since March 1999,^[4] the RSS icon ("") first gained widespread use in 2005/2006."