RSS feeds

Q: How using RSS feeds can assist students here at UCD.

RSS feeds can be very useful to students at UCD who are researching information on a certain topic or trying to follow developments regarding a specific event or issue. RSS feeds are basically simple text files that, once submitted to feed directories, will allow subscribers to see content within a very short time after it's updated. This removes the time consuming process of checking up on various websites relating to the students topic of interest and instead enables the students to receive notification when the site or page has been update (saves on web surfing time) .RSS feed comes in the form of headlines and a brief description so students can easily scan the headlines and click only those issues/topics that interest them. Students can choose which feeds they wish to subscribe to and if at any point they are unhappy with the content contained in the RSS feed they can simply unsubscribe and no longer receive feed updates. RSS feeds are very helpful to students and assists them in making their research process that bit easier.

Social Networks

Q:What do you like/don't like about your experience with using these tools?

In my own personal opinion I think that social network sites, such as Facebook and Bebo, can be very useful in a lot of different ways. I find sites like Facebook, which I am a member of, to be very useful in normal everyday life. It is a way of keeping in contact with friends and family, whether they life far way or next door. I'm able to stay in touch with my school friends, which now since I'm in college I don't get to see as much, but with facebook I can have instant messaging conversations with them or simply receive or sent comments. Also on these social networking sites you can post pictures of events or even just nights, an example of a networking sight which is dedicated to the posting of pictures is known as Flicker.
On the other hand there is also a negative side to social networking sites. This negative side includes issues such as invasion of privacy, bulling and also not knowing who can see or use the information or pictures which you post~user rights. I think with any Internet sight you have to be careful with what you post or upload to your profile and always adjust the privacy settings to suit you.

Setting up a blog

To begin with I didnt really no what to expect when I was told we were going to set up our own blogs. But I found creating my blog to be alot easier then I initially thought it would be. I firstly had to set up my own personal account by entering my email address and a password. After doing this I was then able to personalise my blog. I chose the particular template I wanted and also entered in personal information such as my name, gender, age etc. I then was able to rearrange the layout of my blog and organise it in a way that suited me. After completeing the "house-keeping" on my blog I then turned my focuse on actually posting to my blog. To do this I clicked on "new post" and a text box appeared on the screen. I then began to write and the once I had finished I clicked on the "Publish Post" option. To make sure that I had posted to my blog correctly I then went to "View Blog" and my new post appeared. To my suprise I found the process of creating and posting to my blog to be very straight forward as there is very easy to follow step by step instructions.