Using RSS Feeds in Social Science Education 

Cynthia Anast Seguin and Armand M. Seguin
Emporia State University

Introduction
     Why would social science educators want to know about RSS Feeds? Quite simply: To keep easily informed. Or as noted by Harrsch (2003), RSS is technology’s “next killer application” for educators!
    Just what is an RSS feed? “RSS” stands for “Real Simple Syndication,” and it is a means for a website to send “feeds” to a subscriber’s news reader program whenever the website is “updated.”. The “feeds” are collected into a single program, and this makes it far easier to keep up with your educational interests in websites or blogs (which are technically websites). For example, educators can have items arriving from the Chronicle of Higher Education, the U.S. Department of Education, and to keep up with technology, Wired News. More specifically, social science educators may also add an RSS feed for the University of Chicago Press to learn about new publications, or the “Social Science Information Gateway” for a multitude of topics. Figure 1 illustrates a collection of educational content from only three sample sites. However, each site may itself contain multiple items of educational interest. The “RSS feed” is shown as a short headline, and if interested, you simply click on it for the complete item/more information. Very easy. Furthermore, the bonus is that once you have “subscribed,” everything is collected into one news reader program on your desktop, so you no longer have to track down multiple websites or blogs to find the latest information.
Using RSS News Reader programs
     The most common “news reader” programs have three viewing windows: (1) feeds, (2) headlines, and (3) a display window that shows the current choice selected by the user, as shown in figure 1. This illustration of the layout of the Feedreader program is fairly representative, and provides an illustration of how easy it is to use a program and peruse the headlines of highest personal interest.
     The “feeds” to which a user subscribes are shown on the left side of the computer screen, the “headlines” on the top right, and the webpage you have chosen to view on the bottom right. The scrollable headlines would be different for each feed. The information in the window on the lower right, is presented as a webpage, and would change when you chose a different headline. With Feedreader, all the “windows” can be sized to suit the user. The news reader program is normally set to run anytime you are online (likely 24/7 for those with a broadband connection).
     RSS feeds are very useful with both regular websites and with blogs. When a website offers an RSS feed, it only sends a “headline” when something on the website has changed. Thus, with relatively static websites, say that of a bank, an RSS feed would not make much sense. But, for blogs or websites that offer news, there could be several items sent per day. Furthermore, if you were waiting for some kind of “announcement,” perhaps new grant proposals, using a news reader might be a real lifesaver. As mentioned, the headlines will be automatically received whenever the news reader software is loaded and running in the background. If a person had multiple interests, that could consist of many headlines arriving in your program every day. However, each is dated and the new headlines arrive at the “top” and eventually the “old” headlines are deleted. On this issue, it is important to understand that even if you didn’t “catch” an important headline and it eventually was removed from your news reader, the item is most likely still at the website or blog. The news reader is only a “collector,” and is sometimes termed an “aggregator.”
     RSS feeds are typically delivered as extensible markup language (XML) files; however RSS and XML are used interchangeably, and often shown at a website with this logo: . Users need to employ news reader software to “read” XML files. A web browser will “open” an XML file, but it will look like code and not be readable. As RSS feeds a relatively new programming technique, not all websites currently support this feature. However, the popularity of XML is growing exponentially and thousands of websites and blogs already support this RSS technology. The newspaper USA TODAY itself offers over one hundred different RSS Feeds.
Advantages
     The advantages to social science educators of using RSS feeds are simple, yet powerful. Beyond email, beyond frequent “checking” at websites, using news reader software allows users to take “keeping informed” to the next level. While most users will be recipients of “headlines” from websites, it is also possible for those who have websites to add RSS feed to the site. The coding to add is not at all extensive and users of the website could be better informed of any changes. Also at issue is the fact that both faculty and students need to know about this new technology. Both information and the Internet keep growing at a rapid pace and the use of RSS feeds is another way to manage “information overload.”
     A social science educator can select incoming RSS feeds from multiple websites and they are automatically delivered to their desktop. The educator can then easily determine which feed items are worthy of follow up and which can be brought right into the teaching and learning process. This is useful, whether the instructor is in a traditional classroom or teaching online. In fact, the Blackboard course management system for online learning allows educators to select and display RSS feeds they wish their students to monitor and consider in online discussions. With traditional textbooks being somewhat out of date even as they are published, RSS feeds bring ‘just in time” learning to more and more classrooms in ways that improve teaching and learning environments far easier than ever before. In a sense, it allows educators to ‘speed read’ in their area of expertise and interest. Another advantage is that RSS feeds are “spam-free” and easy and convenient, even for ‘non-techies’ to use.
Finding RSS Feeds
     While there are specialized search engines that focus solely on RSS feeds, it is now common to find RSS/XML information on the homepage. The USA TODAY homepage in figure 2 has omitted the middle, while showing the top and the bottom.
     When you follow that link you come up with a page full of both feeds and information on RSS as shown in figure 3:
     All news reader programs have ways to add RSS feeds and this varies somewhat with each program. In the example in Figure 3, note the statement, “Choose a news feed type:” While all reader programs will accept XML, the logo buttons starting with “MyYahoo” indicate that if you are using one of those programs, adding feeds of interest will be essentially a one click operation--a simple way to find and select RSS feeds.
     Yahoo was the originator of RSS feeds, and they have fully integrated the “reading” of RSS headlines into their MyYahoo website. MyYahoo is a personalized portal that any individual can easily customize to suit their particular interests in using the Internet. This includes a segment that displays your feeds and also includes tools to search for, add, and delete feeds.
     At this time, major search engines are just beginning to offer features for discovering RSS feeds. However, Robin Good (2005) with Master New Media states that there are now over one hundred RSS feed search engines. Among these are Syndic8 http://www.syndic8.com/, Newisfree http://www.newsisfree.com/, Moreover http://www.moreover.com/, Dayopop http://daypop.com/, Blogpulse http://www.blogpulse.com/, Bloglines http://www.bloglines.com/, NewsKnowledge, http://www.newsknowledge.com/. You can, of course, use your favorite search engine for terms such as, “RSS education,” and/or experiment with advanced searching techniques.
Recommended news reader software
     For Apple Macintosh users, the March, 2005 Macworld recommends:

• PulpFiction 1.1.1            $25
• Shrook 2.12                   $25
• NewsFan 1.6.0              Free
• NewsMac 3.1.3              Free

Further, Apple’s newest operating system, OS X – Safari, includes the capability to read RSS feeds.  Personal favorites of the authors for Windows platform include:

• FeedReader
• SharpReader
• Newz Crawler
• FeedDemon
• NewsGator (integrates with Outlook)
• Pluck (integrates with Internet Explorer)

    “MyYahoo” is not a separate news reader program, but is an extension of using MyYahoo as a personal homepage. As mentioned previously, it makes finding and adding RSS feeds very user-friendly. It is essentially a simple, “point and click” operation for users of MyYahoo.
Examples of RSS [XML] Feeds for Social Science Educators
      One of the largest sources of RSS feeds is found at the official website for the United States Federal Government is FirstGov, http://www.firstgov.gov. A search for “RSS” reveals a screen full of information regarding the “U.S. Government RSS Library.” Each category, starting with Agriculture, may contain several different feeds. The “International Relations” category is an example of interest to many social science educators, and among the choices is “Press releases from the Department of State”.  With such a selection, every time a new press release comes out, it would be automatically sent to the user’s desktop into the news reader program. The educator could then easily include this up-to-date information in appropriate curriculum and instruction. While news releases would typically also be at the State Department’s website, having one program that collects headlines from multiple sources is by far the easiest way to receive new information.
     There are thousands of feeds available for professional (and even personal) use, with new ones emerging nearly daily. A partial listing of RSS (XML) feeds for both educators in general, and social science educators specifically is provided in figure 4. As mentioned in the “Finding RSS Feeds” section, educators also have new tools for XML searching which can update and personalize the listings contained herein. Additionally, watch for the RSS (XML) logos at favorite websites.
Conclusion
     In today’s information age, access to and use of the timeliest information is increasingly important. Understanding and using the new RSS (XML) feature of the internet allows users to collect updates from websites and blogs into one convenient desktop location. Furthermore, news reader software tools help educators “make sense” of the Internet and keep up to date with subject matter content. So, whether an educator chooses a portal such as MyYahoo, standalone programs like FeedReader, or uses Apple’s Safari operating system, finding and using RSS feeds is an indispensable technology tool for today’s social science educators. It can bring the most current information and perspectives to the social science teaching and learning process.

Figure 1


Figure 2



Figure 3


Figure 4
RSS Feeds for Educators

Bibliography

 Good, R. (2005). Best RSS search engines and directories to submit to. Retrieved November 4, 2005 from http://www.masternewmedia.org

 Harrsch, M. (July/August 2003). RSS: The next killer app for education. The Technology Source. Retrieved October 10, 2005 from http://technologysource.org/article/rss/

 Webreference, (2005). Introduction to Rss. Retrieved November 2, 2005 from http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/intro/

 Wikipedia, (2005). Retrieved October 10, 2005 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rss