Syndication+and+Aggregation+Technologies

 **Syndicationand Aggregation Technologies ** This Chapter will introduce you to syndication and aggregation technologies. By the time you have finished reading, you will know the purpose and power of these technologies as well as how they can be used in the classroom. Background information will be provided on what these technologies are including how they differ from the previous technologies that you’ve read about. A select sampleof these technologies will be discussed. Then, examples of how these tools can be used in an educational setting and considerations when using them will be provided.

 **Background Information **

The Web is a vast resource of knowledge. There are millions of website on the internet waiting to be tapped for education. It’s hard to keep track of all the constant updates occurring on these sites. In the past, one had to constantly check the sites to see if there have been any updates which is incredibly time consuming. Syndication and aggregation technologies have changed all this.

Dieu and Stevens (2007) summarize how syndication and aggregation makes keeping up with sites easier: “feed” pages which summarize the content from an associated web site or displays the full text. Whenever a posting is added, the "feed" is updated. This feature allows individuals to subscribe to the content of the site they are interested in through aggregators like Bloglines or Newsreader. A news aggregator is an application software that fetches and displays works syndicated as web feeds in RSS, Atom and other XML formats. Web feeds are typically offered by regularly updated sites such as weblogs and other newsmedia. (p. 5).

Simply put, these two technologies combine to streamline and organize the process of checking for site updates. Together, these technologies allow you to gather all the updates of a group of sites selected by you and display them in one place.

 **Syndication and Aggregation **  Have you ever seen a symbol like this on a webpage? In case you haven’t seen it, this symbol is usually found in your browser’s toolbar or on a webpage. It indicates that the web page you are viewing isu tilizing syndication technology. This makes portions of a website’s material available to other sites. These create feeds which show recent content updates on from the syndicated website. The types of pages syndicated include blogs,podcasts, and news sources. Many business organizations also use syndication technologies to keep consumers informed about their products. According to the entry on the history of web syndication (2011), RSS technology can betraced back to around 1996 and initially adopted sometime between 2000 and 2003 (Wikipedia: History of Web Syndication, 2011). The original and most common syndicator is RSS, which stands for Real Simple Syndication. Another type was developed called Atom in 2003 (Wikipedia: Atom (standard), 2011). For the purpose of this paper, RSS and Atom will not be discussed in great detail as it goes beyond the scope. However, you should be aware that most people refer to all syndication as RSS. Once you have identified RSS feeds that you would like to follow the next step is to put them in one easy place. This is where aggregation technologies come into play. Aggregation is defined byMerriam-Webster’s Dictionary (2011) as  1**:** a group, body, or masscomposed of many distinct parts or individuals <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;"> 2 //a//**:** the collecting ofunits or parts into a mass or whole <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;"> //b//**:** the condition of being so collected

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">In terms of the internet, feed aggregators take your collection of syndicated website feeds and put them in a single location. This creates an easy way for you to view all of your feeds at once. Again, this reduces the time and effort spent checking on website updates regardless of content type. See the example from Wikipedia’s entry on News Aggregation (2011) below: <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;"> …if there are many sites you visit frequently, without RSS the only way you can find out ifanything on the sites has been updated is to go to each site individually. This can take a long time. Aggregation technology helps you to integrate these websitesin one browser or page that can show the new or updated information from all the sites you choose, regardless of whether the content is text, music,pictures, or video. Customers only need to find an RSS feed on the Internet andadd that in their RSS reader. (Content 2.1)

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">The aggregator allows you to create a “newspaper” that only provides the information you want. It eliminates searching the web for information and instead delivers it straight to you. There are two types of aggregators. Client software aggregators are those that you install on your computer. Web-based are those that are hosted on the internet. These can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection. Regardless of what type of service type you use, the format is pretty similar. Most feed readers are very user friendly and the layout mimics that of e-mail clients. See the comparison below.

This video gives step-by-step instruction on how to locate RSS pages and put them into an aggregator service: media type="custom" key="10080149" align="center"

**<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Aggregators ** **﻿** <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">A list of the various sites that can be aggregated by friendfeed can be found <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">[|here] <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">. **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Uses in Education ** **﻿** <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">This is a great category of tools for use in the classroom, but obviously the usefulness will vary based on how much you want to integrate these tools into the classroom. The amount of webuse you have in the classroom will determine their utility. Because this tool is not geared towards a specific discipline, it can be used in almost anysubject area. The tools are useful from a teacher and student prospective. Med Kharbach’s blog (2011) gives some ideas:
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Google Reader **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">:An aggregator that touts itself as a place “where keeping up with your favorite websites is as easy as checking your email” (Google Reader, 2011). This site lets youkeep track of website and blog updates. This service also includes a feed search to assist in finding content that may be relevant or of interest to you.Your feeds can also be made public, allowing sharing with others and shows the content that you are sharing. This is a free service that can be used anywhere there is internet access and can be access from an iphone and android phones with the coordinating application. This can also be added to the iGoogle homepage. (Google Reader, 2011)
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Bloglines: **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Aggregates both blogs and websites. Bloglines calls itself “the fastest way to find and track your favorite websites and blogs in real-time” (Bloglines, 2011). This service comes allows multiple viewing options with drag and drop organization. The service is web-based and can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection. A version of Bloglines is also available for iPhone users. The site has recently released a beta version of Bloglines Local. This site allows you to follow blogs and websites organized by cities across the United States. You can even suggest or vote for your favorite local blogs. (Bloglines Homepage, 2006-2011)
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Friendfeed: **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Itis a free, web-based service. This isa social aggregator. It pulls together content from social media and social updating sites used by your friends and family that you can follow. It interfaces with sites such as Twitter and Facebook, updating these accounts as you update your friendfeed. The site also allows you to post the feed on yourpersonal website or blog. (Friend Feed Homepage, 2011)
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">As for students, they can use it to: **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Read items that their teachers share with them
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Use it in group work and in preparing for classroom projects by collecting, annotating and sharing interesting feeds from interesting websites
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">As for teachers, they can use it to: **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Share feeds and items of special interest with students
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Keep track of the students online work (blogs, wikis, sites etc )
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Promote continuing professional development.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Using these general ideas from Kharbach, you can narrow it down to your specific classroom needs. Let’s say you teach a political science class. You can construct a public RSS feed for your class by adding the RSS feed for the politics section of the //New York Times,CNN, Fox News, and the Associated Press//. Direct the students to read thefeed and then discuss in class or on a discussion board. More tips anddirections on how to incorporate the tools in the classroom can be found <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">[|here] <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">These tools can be used for professional development in a very similar way. The feed reader can be used as a directory of information for making sure that your employees keep up-to-date on changes in your industry. A great example is Merchandisers in the fashion industry. Trends are constantly changing and in order to stay profitable you must keep up. An aggregator can be used to get feeds from //Women’s Wear Daily, Worth Global Style Network, and Style Sight//.This would be easier than trying to pass around hardcopies of each publication. **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Considerations ** **﻿** <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;"> When implementing syndication and aggregation technologies in the education, there are some considerations that need to be taken. One is cost as some readers that charge for use of their services. These are mostly inexpensive; costing less than fifty dollars. There are even more out there that are free like the ones mentioned above. It is recommended to make use of a free reader in order to minimize costs (in this case nothing). Another consideration is the operatingsystem (i.e. Windows and Macintosh OS X) and web browsers (i.e Internet Explorer,Firefox and Safari) that the reader is supported on. If utilizing the reader isgoing to be a requirement, make sure to select a reader that is supported bymultiple operating systems and web browsers. (Pence & Pence, 2008)

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">As with any educational endeavor, the characteristics of the students need to be kept in mind. It isu nlikely that they will see an abstract in a reader and seek it out in hardcopy form. Therefore, make sure that the feeds you have provide access to full text articles when sent to a reader. It’s also important to have the websites match your students’ reading level. Making sure that the feed is easily accessible and readable will ensure smooth implementation of its use in your class. (Pence & Pence, 2008) **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Summary ** <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;"> You should now be able todiscuss syndication and aggregation technologies as well as how to utilizethese tools in the classroom. A few aggregator tools have been discussed foryou to get started on setting up a feed reader. From there examples have been providedon how to use these tools in the classroom and for professional development. Students can use it for group projects and to get information related to topics discussed in class. As a teacher, you can use it to keep track of students’online work and direct them to information of interest. These tools can be used in professional development by making sure your employees have access to the latest changes and publications in your field. When using these tools remember to minimize cost it is best to use a free feed reader. The reader used also needs to be available to use with various operating systems and web browsers. This is crucial in making sure that all your students will have access. As always, consider the characteristics of your students. Make sure to pay close attention to their reading level and match the feeds to this.

Syndication and Aggregation Technologies


 * PLAN**


 * Introduction to chapter (brief overview ofchapter)
 * Background on Aggregation and Syndication
 * Describe the tools listed (google reader, bloglines,and friendfeed)
 * Brief overview of each tool
 * Compare and contrast the tools
 * How the tools can be used in an educationalsetting
 * Problems that can arise with using the tools
 * How to work around the problems

(Flock is not listed as their services have been discontinued)

Websites that are being considered for use as resources:

Successful Content Syndication and Aggregation strategies: []

Section 4 and 4.2 describes the tools: []

Basic overview of RSS feed: []

Education use of RSS: []

Slide show of RSS in the classroom: []

Social media Aggregation: []

Google Reader: [], [],[], [],[]

Bloglines: [],[],[],[],[],[]

Friendfeed: [],[],[], [],[]

Looks good to me. I was curious how you are going to bring it all together and come to a succinct conclusion about the importance of these different tools. - Kyle