Journal 7: "Mining for Gold" (NETS 1.3. and 5)

Bigenho, C (March/April 2009). Mining for gold. Learning and Leading with Technology, 36, Retrieved March 10, 2009, from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/200904/

"Mining for Gold" discusses three applications of RSS feed in the classroom. They are to subscribe to student blogs, subscribe to social bookmarks, and feed content to HTML pages. Subscribing to student blogs is made simply by use of bloglines (www.bloglines.com). Each student creates their own blog (www.blogger.com) and it can be set up so that the teacher is notified every time a student posts something new and all blogs feed into one place. Subscribing to social bookmarks, such as delicious.com, can be useful in creating a "class tab" in which all learning resources and research can be made available to the entire class with a click of a bottom. Feeding content to HTML pages can be done using http://feed2js.org/ through which information specific to a lesson plan or topic can be organized and referenced in one place, such as a web page.

Question 1: What is the difference between an Internet hosted and client based aggregator?

Answer 1: An Internet hosted aggregator, such as igoogle or Google Reader, allows the user to access their feeds from any location or computer. A client based aggregator, such as Safari or Windows Live requires the user to be at the PC to access feed.

Question 2: What does the author mean by creating a "personal copy of The Daily Me"?

Answer 2: Bigenho, the author, is referring to personally designed RSS readers or aggregators. Users can choose from a world of endless possibilities to subscribe to RSS feed and can directly manage the information flow based on their needs and interests.