RSS Really Simple Syndication

Hi everyone,

Throughout my learning journey I am constantly discovering a variety of new acronyms such as RSS and feel as though theses terms are another language that I cannot yet fluently speak. The first time I heard “RSS/ feed aggregator” I felt lost and utterly confused, I had no idea what people were talking about.
After discussing with friends and searching the Internet I realised I have been staring at the RSS icon most of the time I made a new search on the Internet. I honestly had no idea what the icon was for and never thought to press it. Until now thanks to Managing E-learning simple things such as a RSS defined as “Really Simple Syndication” are becoming a lot clearer and I now understand how useful that little orange button actually is.

There are many different reader programs, Google Reader is a feed reader that allows the user to subscribe and read RSS and Atom feeds from news, blogs, websites or any other allied favourites while online or offline (Gil, 2009).
Creating my own Google Reader account was a simple process as Google Reader allows me to easily monitor and retrieve information automatically and instantly from other blogs and websites that I find appealing and wish to follow.

I simply click the RSS button to subscribe and it automatically keeps me updated to my subscribed feeds. I have found this tool very useful for this assessment task and many of my additional studies, as I can easily follow any new posts made by my peers by opening one web page instead of having over twenty web sites open at a time on my task bar. This is a fantastic time saving tool for navigating your searches on the Internet!

Like Jane I too have “herded” all my e-friends and followers to one place. This is great as I like things to be kept in order and easy to access which is exactly what you can do using Google Reader, by creating category folders to make posts easier to view.

How can this be incorporated into the classroom?

Personally I feel there are multiple advantages this tool can provide to support and enhance students learning within the classroom. For example students can use this collaborative resource to approach assigned tasks such as researching a chosen country. Enabling students to collaboratively contribute to the set task and share their own thoughts and gathered findings about the countries attributes such as weather, language, foods, tourist attractions and many more without having to navigate their way to multiple web pages.

As a class, students can each create a blog to help one and another with their homework, developing deeper understandings of what is being taught at school allowing student to use higher order thinking to achieve set tasks. Kearsley & Shneiderman’s (1999) Engagement Theory discuss that technology can aid the engagement level of students when providing opportunities for collaboration amongst a community of learners, as it enhances active processes such as reasoning, problem solving and reflecting.

Learning managers can monitor each individual’s progress and answer questions through the incorporation of an RSS. This is a fantastic e-learning tool for those introverted students who sometimes struggle to get a word in during class time. Providing students a chance to become actively engaged with online discussions without having to dread the face to face contact in the classroom is an excellent basis to cater for all learners.

Until next time,

References:

Forysthe, M.(2008). RSS Icons.Retrieved August 12,2009, from http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://comingupforair.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/rss-icons.jpg&imgrefurl=http://comingupforair.net/2008/01/rss-icons/&usg=__iU8bpyV3f2IDNK3kLttXIVt44BQ=&h=447&w=500&sz=35&hl=en&start=14&um=1&tbnid=XQfcMykPGuiz0M:&tbnh=116&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drss%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4SUNA_enAU298AU299%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

Gil, P. (2009). What is a RSS?: Internet for Beginners. Retrieved August 12,2009, from http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/rssandlivewebfeeds/f/rss.htm

Kearsley, G., & Shneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement Theory: A framework for technology- based teaching and learning. Retrieved August 12, 2009, from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm

Blogs

What is a blog?

Blog short for Web Log is a publicly accessible online journal that can be frequently updated by the author, allowing interested followers to view and comment on the author's listed posts (Gunelius, 2009).

After creating my own blog account, I discovered that blogs are very easy to navigate and that I thoroughly enjoy reading others.
I am constantly thinking of ways how I can incorporate blogs as a meaningful educational tool within the classroom. I have found that the ideas and opportunities are endless across all year levels and key learning areas (KLA's), as they all can easily incorporate the use of this effective e-learning tool.

For example learning managers can provide students the opportunity to write reflective journals about a chosen topic such as 'On the holidays', or create a blog as a class website for easy access of recommended resources. Providing them the opportunity to communicate with their peers by sharing ideas and thoughts outside the restricted classroom environment.

Kearsley & Shneiderman's (1999) Engagement Theory supports these suggestions as they state "students must be meaningfully engaged in learning activities through interaction with others and worthwhile tasks."

Therefore allowing students the opportunity to publish a class blog about a chosen topic enables the students' control of their learning creating a sense of meaning behind the task. This type of learning tool would require constant monitoring from the learning manager and assessment or criteria guidelines would have to be discussed prior to students' engagement with the learning tool.
Until next time,




References:

Gunelius, S. (2009). What is a Blog?: An essential Introduction. Retrieved August 13,2009,
from http://weblogsabout.com/od/startingablog/p/What IsABlog.htm

Kearsley, G. & Shneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved August 13,2009,
from http://home.sprynet.com/%7Egkearsley/engage.htm

E-Learning Journey

Dear Followers,

It is so rewarding viewing the wonderful creations everyone has achieved in such a short amount of time.

Time, which is something I am sure we all would agree upon there is never enough of it.
My e-learning journey so far has been quite addictive, something I did not expect from myself at all. I find myself researching and experimenting with a variety of wonderful e-learning tools to all hours of the night. I would like to share my findings as I bubble on unscrambling the words in my head to explain the engaging, exciting learning tools that I have been exploring and how to incorporate them into the classroom.
Until next time,

Wordle

Dear Followers,
this is one of my many experiments that I have been making using Wordle.

Wow what an excellent site, it is so fun and addictive.
I will definitely continue to explore this wonderful site!
This experiment was created simply by going to:

• www.wordle.net
• select create
• I pasted my personal interests (ctrl c) copy (ctrl v) paste in the selected text box
• click go and by playing with the colours provided

Check it out it's an awesome site!
Cheers,

The First Bubble

Welcome to my first ever blog!

Let me share a little about myself,
I am currently studying full time a Bachelor of Learning Management (BLM) Primary at CQU Noosa, whilst working part time at a local doctor surgery.
I treasure the opportunity to work with children as i feel to become a teacher is such a rewarding career and I enjoy most spending my time with the ones I love.

Only today is real tomorrow may never come and yesterday has gone forever....

As a part of Managing E-Learning we are required to create a blog and analyse a variety of E-Learning tools using a variety of different frameworks!
So here is the first bubble of my journey stay tuned for my thoughts and analysis on E-Learning tools and how I can apply them in the classroom.
Please feel free to place any comments along the way, as I will be blowing a few blog bubbles on this learning journey!
Cheers,