RSS Feeds



Goggle Reader



This week our learning experience was about RSS Feeds. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS news feeds are explained using In Plain English videos at the SLJ Learning 2.0 wedsite. These In Plain English videos are hilarious. Someone with a sense of humor put them together. But they are also straightforward and simple - and I appreciate that! RSS feeds are new blog posts that come to you in a special goggle reader account. The first thing to do is find blogs to follow. I went to the 100 Best Blogs for Librarians and started reading. The website is located at http://www.onlinecollege.org/2009/07/07/100-best-blogs-for-school-librarians/

The two I chose were Bowllan's Blog and Librarian by Day. Bowllan's Blog is kind of like a "People" magazine; he showcases people and events in the news. He has a Rosa Parks post with websites for teachers to get additional classroom resources. For instance, you can click on the website and see photos from inside the bus. Great for teachers to bring experiences to the inside of a classroom. The second blog I chose was Librarian by Day. It had a very interesting post with a video link to Eli Neiburger talking about  e-books at a e-book summit. E-books are something I want to learn about, so I clicked on and learned more.

Next, I established a Goggle Reader account, since I already have a Goggle account. This one has a different address so I don't get my mail all mixed up. I now have 4 e-mail accounts! Establishing the account took just a few minutes and that is the account that the new blog posts will come to, without all the advertisements.

Then I went back to the blogs I had found and clicked the subscribe button. What a good idea - instead of you going out to the web to read different websites, the web comes to you - saving you lots of time! Now all my news comes to me.

I think this has great application in schools and libraries. Everyone is so busy these days, that rarely do you have time look for magazines with new ideas, much less, sit down and read them. Librarians and teachers could check their Goggle Reader quickly for new ideas and updates.