A free RSS reader or aggregator allows you to scan quickly through new articles posted on your favorite sites that include an RSS feed. RSS simple means "Really Simple Syndication" so it sound scary but is really......well, simple!!

For a simple article explaining RSS and how we educators can use it, be sure to visit this Infinite Thinking Machine blog post! Visual learners - be sure to watch this video from CommonCraft!!

Once you have your RSS aggregator set up - most will allow you to customize them by category or customize what the updates looklike (headlines or full article). But the beautiful part of an aggregator is that you no longer have to search out your favorite sites to read - they find you!! This allows you to take reading breaks much faster!!

One site that allows quick RSS aggregation is Bloglines (and knock-on-wood it is not yet blocked from most schools to read, you may need to set it up at home!).

Bloglines is free and quite easy to set up. Once you have registered with Bloglines and replied to the confirmation email, click on the My Feeds tab at the top of the screen. Then, click on the Edit link. At the bottom of the left panel will be a link to import subscriptions.

When you want to subscribe to a site, look for the symbol that indicates an RSS feed is available. They often look like this:



If for some reason you are blocked from Bloglines, another alternative is PageFlakes. This is another free site that allows you to define your own webpage (which can be shared with others) that includes blogs, weather updates, sports (Go Sabres!!), and more. Again - very easy to set up and a nice visual for those of you who need that!! Visit my PageFlake and you can see that I have created separate pages for the types of blogs that I like to visit.