News
From CLEW Wiki
Contents |
News: Overview
What it does
The "News" tool uses RSS to bring dynamic news to your worksite. RSS is a data format used to syndicate news on the web. It allows continuously updated content from a remote news site to appear in another web site.
Key concepts
RSS: To set up your worksite to display news, you must specify a URL pointing to an RSS news feed. An RSS news feed is a specially formatted list of news articles. You can find RSS feeds by using an Internet search engine (e.g., Google or Yahoo). Sites that distribute news in RSS format are called "news feeds". The "News" tool is an RSS "news aggregator" (or "news reader") that reads and displays content from RSS news feeds.
Things to consider
- You can add more than one News feed either when you set up the site or at a later time.
- In addition to news, some web sites use the RSS format for information that is updated often, such as blogs (web logs that serve as publicly accessible personal journals), events listings, or the revision history of a book.
To complete the procedures in this article, you must be assigned a role having the necessary permissions. This often excludes Students and TAs by default. To determine your role and accompanying permissions, follow the directions in Permissions and Roles.
Adding, editing, or deleting a news feed
You can set up a site to display news by entering a URL for an RSS news feed (a specially formatted list of news articles). You can add more than one "News" tool at any time.
Adding a news feed
To add a news feed:
- In the left menu, click Site Editor, and then click Edit Tools.
- Check News, and then click Continue.
- In the Title field, enter a title for the news feed that will appear in the left menu.
- In the URL field, enter the URL for the news feed.
If the site already contains news feeds or web content, you'll see information about existing news and web items here. If there are no blank fields at the bottom of the list to fill in, from the More News Tools? drop-down menu, select the number of news tools you'd like to add.
- Click Continue. You will see a summary of your changes to the site's tools.
- Click Finish. You should now see a link in the left menu to the news feed with the title you provided.
Deleting a news feed
To delete a news feed, in the left menu, click Site Editor, and then Edit Tools. From the list of tools, uncheck the news feed you wish to delete, and then click Continue. Click Finish to delete your feed.
Viewing a news feed
If your site has a link to a news feed, you will find it in the site's left menu. To view news, click the title of the news feed from the left menu. Depending on how the site owner has set up the feed, you may see News in the left menu, or a more descriptive title, e.g., New York Times, CNN, or Yahoo! News.
The "News" tool in a course or project site is an RSS "news aggregator" (or newsreader) that reads and displays continuously updated online content from RSS news feeds. RSS is an application of XML, a markup language for creating web documents.
In addition to news, some web sites use the RSS format for information that is updated often, such as blogs, events listings, or the revision history of a book. You can usually identify an RSS feed URL by the.xml or .RSS in the URL (e.g., http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/RSS/nyt/Movies.xml or http://RSS.cnn.com/RSS/cnn_topstories.RSS).
If you have the necessary permissions, you can customize your course or project site's "News" feature by adding a web address for any RSS news feed. You can find many feeds by searching Google for RSS feeds in your area of interest or for a particular online publication or news source.
Related Articles
This article is based on the equivalent Sakai help article created by Indiana University found at: http://kb.iu.edu/data/arcr.html.
Additional sources of content include Brock University's Sakai / Isaak Wiki and the University of Florida Sakai / e-Learning Documentation with thanks and appreciation for the collaboration.
All respective sources used are under a free-for-reuse license and additional permission has been obtained.
Other articles about Sakai tools and how instructors can use them:
Core Tools: Announcements | Assignments | Email Instructor | Forums | Gradebook | Quizzes & Tests | Resources | Site Editor | Syllabus
More Tools: Polls | Chat | Drop Box | Home | Discussions | News | Feedback | Sections | Lessons | Site Stats | Web Content | Wiki
Related articles: How to add tools to CLEW | Using the Text Editor | Manage Groups | Permissions and Roles | Contact the CTL for help
We are constantly trying to improve the information in this Wiki.
If you notice any errors or omissions with this material, please advise the CLEW Team.
