Erika Eich presented on RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds, indicating that the real benefit of this tool is that the information comes to you. She used this libguide to support her explanations: http://newtrier.libguides.com/RSSFeeds The examples centered on Google Reader, but Bloglines and My Yahoo were mentioned as alternatives.
Classes which have used this tool include AP Junior English (in support of their Junior Theme) and some Senior writing classes. A few students have experienced problems with their student emails when trying to set up RSS Feeds. Several of our databases have RSS Feeds (including Gale Reference Center Gold). For students, ProQuest may be best – they are able to make it specific and then also unsubscribe over the course of the year. Another factor to consider is when the feeds are set up – since they can appear daily, weekly or monthly so if students need some input every Monday, they may want to set up a weekly feed to appear over the weekend to get the latest information.
We also talked about how the choice of keywords is important, especially for database sources, although feeds can also be set up for individual web sites, such as The New York Times. We talked about how Google Fast Flip has a daily update, too. (See bottom of the page for RSS Feed link after you do a search). Another way to have updates come to you may be using paper.li, especially if you follow people on Twitter. Gressel’s daily paper is here.
Looking at that, led us to Mashable’s weekly post on 100+ upcoming social media events and then we started talking about the possibility of a social media or digital literacy course. If the group wants, we may explore that further in December. We also reminded attendees about this week’s 2010 Global Education Conference, with numerous keynotes presentations archived here.
Our next meeting is Tuesday morning, November 30th at 7:30am in Jim Foster’s office. The topic is social bookmarking, especially diigo and delicious and Raquelle will lead that discussion.
In attendance: Raquelle Brennan, Erika Eich, Jim Foster, Judy Gressel, Linda Straube and Matt Stuczynski.
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