Blogs and RSS for Teachers and Administrators

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Blogs and RSSfor Teachers and Administrators

• Ray Schroeder
• University of Illinois at Springfield

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weB LOGS Blogs

• Blogs in simplest terms are web pages that
  display postings in reverse chronological order
• Commonly with comment capability
• Commonly posted via semi-automated software
• Commonly providing individual commentary
• Commonly with hyperlinks to news items or other
  sites
• Blogs can be used as the heart of an online
  course management system

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Educational Blogs

• EdTechPost Matrix of Blogs in Ed
• Matrix
• Educational Bloggers Network
• Weblogg-ed
• E-Learning Guru
• Rays Blogs
• Educational Technology
• Online Learning Update

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Blogging

• Wide variety of blogging software and hosting
  most are free or low cost
• Blogging Software/Hosting Listing
• Blogger.com - most popular
• Online posting
• FTP to local server hosting
• Comment feature
• Search feature
• Auto-generation of RSS feed

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Blogs, Google, and Blogrolling

• Blogs and RSS are becoming increasingly popular
  as sources for news and info
• Google purchases Blogger in 2003
• ET Blog Placement in Google - OLU
• Blogrolling
• Sites Linking to ET Blog - OLU
• Site Meter of Online Learning Update

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RSS

• RSS - Rich Site Summary
• RSS - Really Simple Syndication
• Aggregating News and Information on the desktop
• Sharp Reader and host of others
• RSS online aggregation News is free
• Custom online aggregation
• Microsoft Alerts on Online Learning Update RSS
  via email, IM, mobile

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RSS Enabling Dynamic Pages

• The RSS Feed from the Online Learning Update is
  used to dynamically construct instantly-updated
  pages at relevant sites around the country
• UIS Technology-Enhanced Learning
• The Sloan Consortium
• East Tennessee State University
• Portland Community College
• University of Aukland
• Commercial Site Tech4Teachers
• University of Illinois Online

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Future

• RSS and Blogs have not yet peaked
• We can expect more and more use of these
  technologies
• Dissemination of Information and Education
• Inter-institutional sharing and collaboration
• Already having impact on news sources
• All major news services and newspapers feed via
  RSS why not schools?
• Definable filtering may change the way we receive
  our news and information

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Contact Info

• Ray Schroeder
• Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning
• University of Illinois at Springfield
• One University Plaza
• Springfield, IL 62703
• Schroeder.ray_at_uis.edu
• 217.206.7531
• Download powerpoint
• http//people.uis.edu/rschr1/ietc.ppt