Information feeds and Blackboard

TIM LINSEY — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:56:41 GMT

In-bound Feeds
I have previously blogged on how it is possible to set up automatic data feeds into Blackboard modules using RSS (see http://one.swlacademicnetwork.ac.uk/etu/weblog/523.html). This involved using Feed2JS ( http://feed2js.org/) which basically generates some Javascript that can be cut and pasted into a Blackboard item. I have previously used this method, for example, to publish news feeds from the BBC and THES and also blog feeds from our ELGG based social networking environment. I have subsequently looked at other tools such as RSSinclude.com (thanks Colin) which additionally provides a number of template options. This method can effectively used to increase the channels by which students can contribute. RSS feeds can be created from external services such as Flickr, Youtube, Delicious and Twitter - from user accounts or based on search terms or tags.

As an example the following URL can be used to create a Flickr feed that returns public photographs with the Tags 'kingston' and 'university':

http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?tags=kingston,university&format=rss_200

Feed2js and RSSinclude can also be used in conjunction with feed aggregators such as Yahoo Pipes. Also see the list that Feed2js provide (http://feed2js.org/index.php?s=help#multi).

Outbound feeds
Both the Learning Objects Blog and Podcast tools allow public RSS feeds. In the case of the blog tool just remember to set the option 'Enable an RSS Feed' when creating the blog, and in the case of Podcasts, select 'Manage Podcast' from the Control Panel and set visibility to 'Everyone, available to the public'.These feeds can then be accessed via a students personal environments, e.g. iGoogle.

Blogging from Blackboard

Information feeds and Blackboard