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RSS - Really Simple Syndication

What is it?

RSS allows you to subscribe to constantly changing web content. Think of RSS as a magazine subscription. Once you subscribe to the magazine, subsequent editions are automatically delivered to your door. Many news sites and web blogs offer RSS feeds that allow you to stay in touch with the constantly changing content on their sites. RSS is often represented on sites by an RSS icon shown above.

Why would I use it?

RSS can save you time by bringing website updates to you as opposed to you having to visit sites to see if they have been updated. Blogs, Wikis, news sites, forums and even Facebook are just some of the sites that provide RSS feeds to their readership. It also can help alleviate email congestion by removing the need to use email subscription to sites such as Blogs, Wikis and forums.

How can I use it with my learning and teaching?

Probably the simplest method for using RSS in the CQUniversity teaching context is the RSS block in Moodle. This allows you to add content syndicated using RSS into your Moodle course site. For example a journalism course may include an RSS feed containing the latest news items from the ABC website and this makes your Moodle site more dynamic as the RSS block is updated automatically.

Dedicated RSS reader (also called News Aggregators) applications are available for all operating systems and devices and allow you to stay in touch with all the web sites you follow. RSS feeds can typically be categorized and grouped using these applications and this allows you to stay in touch with rapidly changing web content. Feeddemon and Newsfire are examples of free standing RSS readers.

Where can I get more information?