What is RSS?
RSS stands for Rich Site Summary. It is designed for sharing web content. I read about 50 sites a day - some news sites, some Blogs, some other sites of interest. It would take me hours if I have to sift through the sites. Some people realized that they could summarize the new information on their site in XML files - a kind of structured data. The people who are interested in the site could then subscribe to these XML files. This XML file is called a Rich Site Summary feed. The good thing is that you don't have to know anything about this XML thing to use the feeds. It is fairly simple to subscribe to the feeds from a site as the next section explains.
How to View RSS feeds?
You need software called a Feed Reader. Feed Readers can be downloaded and run from your computer or you can subscribe to web based feed reader. A good sime web based feed reader is Bloglines. You can register for it at http://www.bloglines.com
The feed reader software can make sense of the XML file and renders the content as heading and summary. If the user finds the chunk interesting, he can then click on the link and go to the actual article.
More about using Bloglines on this page
How do I find RSS feeds?
More and more websites and web Blogs now publish feeds. You can look for
an icon than looks like this - 
.
To subscribe to a feed, all you have to do is right click on this icon
and select the "Copy Shortcut" option. Now go to your feed reader software
and select ADD feed. The feed reader will ask for the feed address. Paste
the copied short cut here.
On some websites instead of the 
image,
you may find a text that says "RSS" or "Syndicate this site" etc. Again
you need just right click on this text and copy the shortcut.
How to view a feed from inside Blackboard?
Say one of the subjects I teach is "Doing business in China ". One of the sites I often visit is China Tech News that does very good stories on IT sector in China . I want my students to follow the latest news from this site from within my Mel Environment.
Step 1
The first thing I will do is got to the China Tech New Web ( www.chinatechnews.com ). I will find the RSS feed button and copy the short cut by right clicking on it and selecting "Copy Shortcut"
Step 2
The Mel Environment does not have a built in RSS reader but with a bit of JavaScript code we simulate a RSS reader. Luckily, we don't have to write this JavaScript, the kind people at Maricopa Community Colleges have set up a web service that packages our feed address with JavaScript code that we can add to our Mel page. Go to this website
http://jade.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/feed/ Click on the Build tab.
You will see following fields here:
URL Enter the web address of the RSS Feed
(Paste the address that you copied from Step 1 into the URL field.)
Number of items to display.
(select 0)
Show item descriptions? How much?
(select 1)
Show item posting date?
(yes)
Open links in a new window?
(yes)
You can preview the feed and if you like what you see, you can generate the JavaScript.
Select the text and copy (CTRL + C) it.
Step 3
Log in to your Blackboard course. Look for the TOOLS tab on the left hand side. Click on the " Personal Information ". Inside this section click on the "Set Text Box Editor Options". Disable the WYSIWYG option. We have to do this because the default WYSIWYG text box in Blackboard seems to ignore JavaScript.
Now Click on your module. Click on Control Panel from the left frame of the page. The first section on the new page is Content Areas . From here click on "Course Documents". It is better your feeds to a new folder. Create a new folder using the "Add Folder". Inside this folder we can add a new item.
Paste the JavaScript you copied in step 2 inside the Text field. Click on Submit. The feed will now be shown inside your Mel. This feed will keep updating itself as the China Tech News site gets updated.
You may want to go back to your Personal Settings and Enable the WSYWYG settings again.
What other types of feeds can I use?
Learning Object Repositories
Some Learning Object repositories are now maintaining feeds of their content. By subscribing to their feeds, you will know what new learning object has been submitted to the database. You can also subscribe to topic related feeds. Run a Google Search on Learning Object AND RSS Feeds and you will find several repositories that offer feeds.
Library Resources
Some Libraries have started publishing feeds. They broadcast information on their latest acquisitions. So you can subscribe to say "history" feed and have it appear on your Mel page. Whenever a new history book is added to the library's catalogue, its details show up on your Mel.
Furl bookmarks
Furl is a web service (furl.net) that allows you to bookmark sites that interest you. The bookmarks can be archived in different categories. Furl automatically publishes feeds of each of these categories. And just like we added the China Tech News feed to our Mel page, we can add our Furl archive feed too. So whenever you find an interesting article on the web, bookmark it using Furl, and the link shows up on your Mel.