Sharing and Syndication

From email and forums to blogs and podcasts, there are many ways for young people to share their understandings and interact with others. Get teachers interested through family oriented sharing services such as digitial photo sharing. For example, MyFamily is a popular subscription service that allows families to share calendars, events, genealogy, photos, and family memories.

Remember that you don't need to use high-tech tools. Use practical, content connected services such as the USGS earthquake notification email and the PBS NewHour Extra Global Kids project current events discussions.

Why is sharing and syndication important?

1. Encourages non-traditional assignments
2. Provides an authentic audience
3. Promotes polished products
4. Allows feedback beyond the teacher
5. Enable parent and community involvement

It's easy to become overwhelmed by the information found in blogs, audioblogs, or vlogs. Most regular readers and listeners use a news aggregator and RSS feeds to help them manage their favorite resources. RSS stands for Really Simply Syndication (RSS).

Go to Big Read Blog from the National Endowment for the Arts and notice the option to subscribe.

For an example of a feed reader, check out bloglines and the example eduscapes bloglines.

Read Web Feeds Delivered to Your Digital Doorstep (PDF) by Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson in Teacher Librarian, April 2007.

Learn more about RSS feeds and syndication at Information Architecture for the Web: Syndication and High Tech Learning: RSS.

Brainstorm!
How could an RSS feed reader be used to organize content for a specific topic or subject area? What content areas would benefit most? Least?

 

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