Presentation on using RSS Feeds to help supplement Staff Development. Presented to Wando High School faculty in Mt. Pleasant, SC.

1. RSS Feeds
Presented By:
Larry Crosswell
Wando High School

2. The Big Picture
• You want all the news about Wando High School
• How can you get it?
• Look in the Charleston Paper and the Moultrie News and
the Daniel Island News and WCIV and WCBD and
WCSC….
OR
• Do a Google News search on “Wando High School” every
time you want to check for articles and stories
OR
• Subscribe to an RSS feed through Google News and let
your computer check all the news sources and bring the
news to you
Which option sounds easiest?

3. What is RSS?
• Really Simple Syndication
• Small text file that summarizes a webpage
or article
• Revised every time a webpage is updated
• Since it is text, it requires very little
bandwidth
• Written in XML

4. We must revisit how we receive
information
Picture from www.deskshare.com

5. Why RSS is great for you
• Free subscriptions
• No disclosure of identity
• Cancel at any time
• Information finds you
• Stay on top of current educational ideas
• Quickly scan multiple content streams and
click on items of interest saving time

6. Things you can do with RSS
• News syndication • What your friends and family would
• Search for information via RSS like for Christmas
• Aggregate your feeds • Be notified of traffic conditions
• Display news on your website • Be notified of updates in police and fire
• Display news on your mobile device department logs
• Collect all your email in RSS • Web metrics
• Get RSS content through your email • Virus and security alerts
• Track Fedex packages • Events and happenings in your city
• discount air fares • Gaming statistics
• Bargains at Ebay • Search for jobs
• Get stock updates • Easing government bureaucracy
• Get the weather reports • Create your own news aggregator page
• What people are saying about you, your • Keep track of your notes
company, your products • Find recent photos taken near you
• Music, radio shows, TV clips • Build maps
• Stay updated on someone's schedule • Make Tag Clouds
• Get cinema schedule updates • All those sites without RSS
• Read your favorite comics • Become a comment blogger
• What other people are surfing • Patent Searching
• Automatically backup your weblog posts • Keep your acquaintances updated with
• Get software updates your latest contact details
• Get the latest bittorrent files and p*** • Ditch Your Girlfriend
• Shopping deals at Amazon.com and others • Print Your Feeds
http://www.timyang.com/wiki/doku.php?id=lists:thingsyoucando

7. How does it work?
• First pick an RSS Aggregator
• Browser Based - Mozilla
• Desktop Based – News Gator
• Internet Based –
https://www.google.com/reader/
• Now find information to subscribe to!
• Blogs, news, searches, podcasts, image
pages, social bookmarks

8. How do I set up for RSS?
I highly recommend Google Reader

9. Let’s get an account
• Go to https://reader.google.com
• Click on “Create an Account”
• Fill out all information
• Submit

10. Welcome to Google Reader
Click here to search
for a feed

11. Let’s subscribe!
Click here to
add the feed

12. Now you are subscribed

13. How do I subscribe?
• Look for the RSS icons
• Click on the icon

14. What does all this look like?
HINT: RSS links are often found at the bottom of a page

15. What does all this look like?
Click here

16. After you click on the RSS icon
Click here

17. Let’s Organize
• Folders are the key
• Group by topic
Click here

18. Folder Party!
Click here to
make a new folder

19. Example: Get specific news
• Step 1 – Go to http://news.google.com
• Step 2 – Type in your search in the search
box and click search
• Step 3 – Look on the left column for the
RSS link and click it
• Step 4 – Select “Add to Google Reader”

20. Google News for WHS
Type in your search
(should have been done
prior to this page)
Click RSS and add it to
your Google Reader

21. The future here at Wando
• Online discussion groups
• Shared pages via departments
• Shared pages via curriculum teams
• Shared pages via the school
• How do you do this?
• Subscribe to my blog and I will show
you over the next few weeks
• http://lcrosswell.edublogs.org/

22. Questions and/or comments