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http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/show/merlot03/
MERLOT Internationa; Conference
Vancouver, British Columbia, Aug 5-8, 2003
paper
Learning objects repositories are growing in number with no end to arguments about definitions, meta-data, granularity, etc. The discovery process is ultimately limited to what one can search within a single collection. We propose that, with very little technical effort, the content of these repositories could be easily "syndicated" in numerous formats with existing RSS standard formats.
RSS, whether you believe it stands for "Really Simple Syndication", "Rich Site Summary", or "RDF Site Summaries", is a simple XML construct for describing web-based content. Its most pervasive application is in the syndicating of news headlines where the RSS file provides a headline, URL, and short description. Any news web site can "publicize" the summaries of their content via RSS, and other web sites or desktop aggregator applications can "subscribe" to a customized collection of these "news feeds."
The explosion of web-based commentary via weblogs is being fueled by the addition of RSS publishing features in blogging applications such as Radio Userland and MovableType. RSS allows blog sites to be constantly updated with "feeds" from related blog sites, building a vast interconnected network, a social construct of connected commentary.
This same approach can be easily applied to collections of learning objects as a vehicle for expanding the practice of discovery beyond the blast of a web search. RSS provides a dynamic publishing of say the newest 10 objects added to Repostory X. Any repository that houses its content or meta-data in a database can, in a matter of hours, generate properly formed RSS feeds for describing every object in that collection. In addition, our repositories have enabled a customized feed that provides an RSS route to the results of any search on that site. For example, a feed of all objects from Repository X in the subject area of "Psychology" may contain objects with reference to "reinforcement" in the description field.
This presentation will demonstrate how to create RSS views into the collections from different organizations. These views may be aggregated into user defined collections via desktop applications such as Amphetadesk and NetNewsWire, and even allow collections defined by academic subject.
Finally, blogs connected to the RSS feeds might provide a component of object contextuality that is beyond the meta-data. Faculty content developers find objects via RSS feeds coming into their blog site, and use "auto-discovery" tools to provide commentary on how the object might be or is used in an instructional context. "TrackBack" allows objects to record which external sites have blogged on these objects
Each presenter will describe how little effort it took to generate the RSS feeds into existing repositories and demonstrate ease of use of readily available tools for expanding the network of "blogged" objects.
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