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RSS and education
R 
SS (REALLY SIMPLE SYNDICATION) is an easy way toautomatically notify anyone interested in your web site,blog or online course that you have put updated contentonline. Using a simple, subscription-based model based onXML specifications, anyone with a website, blog or onlinecourse can make their content available to subscribers,who will be notified whenever new content is placed onthe site.
What is RSS?
The common symbol for RSSRSS has been around since 1999, but really began beingused widely during the blog revolution of 2004-5.Blogger,the popular free blogging tool included an RSS feed. Thisfeed allowed anyone with an "RSS Reader" to subscribe toblog updates through an integrated RSS feed. Anytime asubscriber opened up his or her RSS Reader, it wouldsearch for updates to any feeds the subscriber iswatching. Once it finds updated feeds, the RSS Readernotifies the subscriber of the update, including a summaryand links to site itself, and often including photos andeven audio or video.
 
 
This is an annotated version of an RSS Reader, showingthe different components outlined in red.RSS is a big breakthrough in terms of integrating asuccessful "push" technology that delivers content tousers, rather than forcing users to go looking for thecontent. The web, at its core, is a "pull" technology, withall burden on the user to search for and find content. RSSis a mid-point that pushes enough content to the user toprompt the user to click on the site itself to get all theinformation.RSS was developed byNetscapeengineers in 1999. RSS2.0, the current version, was released in July 2003. Today,RSS can be found nearly everywhere there are Internetsites and applications. RSS plays a big role in the successof podcasts. In education, RSS can be used by instructorsto notify students of assignments and by students tonotify instructors of completed work (more on this later).
How Does RSS Work?
RSS works by creating an XML document that isassociated with your site’s URL. This XML documentcontains the site’s updates and links. It is almost alwaysupdated automatically when the content creator updatesthe original content source.
 
This diagram shows how RSS works, from both the content contributor andsubscriber's view.
When a message about updated content is placed in theXML file, it acts like the flag on your mailbox that says “the mail is here.” Content subscribers use an RSS Reader – there arethousands, most are free – to subscribe to and look forRSS feeds. Every time a user opens up his or her RSSReader, it goes out to all subscribed sites and looks forthose “mail flags that show updated content.The RSS Reader grabs the information from the XML file –usually a summary and a link, and often a graphic or evenvideo or audio – and presents it to the user in the RSSReader. The user can then click on a link in the reader andbe taken to the original web site to read the entire item.
How is RSS Used in Education?
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