RSS Feeds - are they good or bad?

After some false starts, where I tried to do more than was expected (or possible), and having discovered that Chrome doesn't automatically display RSS Feeds,  I installed 'Feedly' into my Chrome Browser and entered into their wild and wonderful world.

Recipe RSS (RSS Number 1)

The first feed I have subscribed to is a recipe blog. Great because I like to eat, so this is like a fix every day and, because it is written by an American, Elise Bauer, the foods they eat, and the combinations, are interesting to say the least!

The site I found it on is http://www.simplyrecipes.com/ and she goes some way to describe her motivation for setting up the blog in the first place, and goes on to inform about the awards her blog has won, and how popular it has become.

 In case you are interested enough to want to take a look, the latest recipe is for these, delicious looking, Chocolate Chunk Cookies

This blog could be of use to Hospitality Students in search for some 'off-the-wall' inspiration for their menus.

Self Help RSS (RSS Number 2)

Following this I found another blog that interested me and added it to my growing list of sources of information. This one is called Dumb Little Man (http://www.dumblittleman.com/index.html), and purports to give 'Tips for Life'

It is full of Lifestyle Advice and Self Help Inspiration with articles called 'How to get off your Butt and Start Running this Spring' and 'Why Motivation is Overrated'. 

Having already said that this blog might interest me, I think I have changed my mind and will delete it. All a little too David Icke for me .....

Buxton Opera House RSS (RSS Number 3)

Finally, by way of a total change, I looked for an RSS Feed that would give information from the arts. I searched, using Google, for Opera Feeds, and found this one, which gives data regarding forthcoming shows.

It lists the next 4 shows, in chronological order, so that you can see if there is anything that you might fancy attending, and hopefully give you the time to get tickets.

Conclusion

All in all it seems that RSS Feeds can be useful if you want to keep abreast of news from certain areas without having the hassle of actually having to go to the site in question. I feel that in an academic sense it could be good if the student needs to be kept abreast of any changes to the object of their research. maybe they would be looking at a holiday company and want to know when the brochures are going to change, or if they are studying Performing Arts to be informed as to dates of shows etc. Hospitality students woule benefit from a recipe Feed, or from looking at hotel chains etc.

Too many, of course, will just confuse and distract them, so I think that it is a question of balance. I can see numerous sports students glued to the RSS Feeds from their favourite football teams, to the detriment of their studies, but this is always the case for students on less academic courses.

Holiday Countdown Widget

This widget, that tells me how many days that it is before I fly of to Oz, has come from:

http://widgets.hotelscombined.com/Vacation-Countdown-Ticker.htm

Just as easy to use as the other site, and again, it is a question of copying their code and placing it into the HTML tab of the post.

get widget

Not only can you set the destination and the date of departure, but you can specify what 'skin' (background colour) that you would prefer.

Australia here we come!!!

More Widgets

I have copied the 'This Day in History' widget from onlinewebgadgets.com.

Easy to do, just go to the site, choose the widget that you want to install, follow the instructions and copy the code. Open your blog post and click on the HTML tab at the top. Paste the code in and then update the blog.

When you View Blog, there it is.

Fish Widget

Hi all Just added my first widget. I took the easy route by using one of the ones that are ready for use within Blogger. Dead easy, all I had to do was:

• Go to 'Layout', when on the dashboard
• Click on one of the 'Add a Gadget's
• Select the one that I wanted, and voila!

I did edit the one I have chosen somewhat, in that I altered the colour of the background, and added a few extra fish, but that's all there was to it.

Happy days.......

Time Zone!!!

I have just realised that I have been working in the wrong time zone!

Blogger defaults to West Coast USA (California), so you need to change it, unless you live there, of course!

Easy to do.

• Go to 'Settings'
• Choose the 'Language and Formatting' tab
• Change the Time Zone (and anything else that you wish to)

Now your post will reflect the time and date that you published it.

Learning Styles

Well, I have done the test at BrainBoxx.co.uk (follow the link below).

Learning Style Test

The result is distinctly undecided! The Learning Styles, and my 'scores' are:

Learning Style	Points
Visual	6
Auditory	5
Kinaesthetic	7

So, as the three score are so close together, I must be able to learn in any of these styles! Kinaesthetic is probably the best for me, but only marginally.

Does this mean that I am more, or less, intelligent than someone with a definite bias to just one method of learning? 

Presumably it means that I am more adaptable.....

As for using these as a teacher/tutor I think that they are a fantastic asset for those times when teaching on a one-to-one basis or with a class where the learning styles are all the same, but if you have a class with students disparate styles it might cause problems, with some students feeling distanced from the activities taking place.

Creating a Link

No, not the missing one!

It is easy to insert a link to either a page, or section, in your Blog, or to an external website.

• Firstly you need to get the URL (Internet Address) of the page that you want to link to - simple go the the site and copy the address.

• Next, go to the position on the page where you want the link to go.....

• Click on the 'Link' icon on the toolbar and paste the address where directed. Then you can type the words that you want to appear in the post you have created.

Voila!

Here is a link to my 'Favourite Book' page

Here is a link to just one of the places I am going to this summer

The Start

Here we go!

This is the first post of my new Blog, and I will be recording my thoughts, decisions and progress as I work through the '21 Things' project this year.

The '21 Things' will help expand my knowledge of all things digital, and allow me to look at some of the applications that I either hadn't tried, or didn't even know existed! Hopefully I will find applications that will be useful to both staff and students that we will be able to implement over the next few years.