As a cultural anthropologist who teaches courses in the First Nations of British Columbia and the First Nations of Canada at Douglas College, I rely heavily on my RSS Feed Reader to collect for me current news items for my classes. I use both Bloglines and Google Reader to track everything from blogs to news stories containing keywords like ‘anthropology’.
Perhaps most valuable to me are the news aggregators coming from aboriginal news organizations in Canada and the United States. These sites distribute freely headlines and full news stories related to aboriginal people. The stories often end up in my classes. They provide me with a quick and easy way to track developments in specific communities. And they are not blog posts; most are links to news items in the print media. (For more on RSS and Feed Readers see the note, below.)
Here, then, is a list of the news aggregators I use. I am hoping others might add the sites they use for following specific kinds of news in the comments. I would find it helpful to see what other people use to find news items for their classrooms.
British Columbia
In-SHUCK-ch’s Space (http://inshuckch.spaces.live.com/)
News headlines and links to stories related to aboriginal issues in BC. The In-SHUCK-ch are an aboriginal organization in the Fraser Valley of southwestern BC.
Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/protecting_knowledge/)
From the Union of BC Indian Chiefs; general news from aboriginal BC.
Canada
Nation Talk (http://www.nationtalk.ca/)
News from across Canada.
Native News North (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NatNews-north/)
From the Union of BC Indian Chiefs; provides news from aboriginal BC and the Canadian north.
USA
Indian Country Today (http://www.indiancountry.com/index.cfm)
Publishes a number of RSS feeds and podcasts related to Native America including editorials, features, and lifeways articles. From their website: “Since 1981, Indian Country Today has been a persuasive voice in American Indian journalism, leading the way with accurate and timely reporting, incisive analysis and pointed commentary. Indian Country Today publishes more original journalistic content on American Indian issues than any other news source.”
Others
Anthropology in the News (http://anthropology.tamu.edu/news.htm)
General news from anthropology by the Department of Anthropology at Texas A&M. The site includes a list of other news sites and blogs for anthropology and archaeology.
National Geographic News (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/index.html)
Wren’s Nest News (http://www.witchvox.com/xwrensnest.html)
News related to religion, and discrimination on religious grounds generally, world-wide.
Note:
Most of these sites send out news stories several times per day. All of these sources publish RSS feeds so I receive the news in my news reader and do not have to visit the sites or receive the news in my email inbox. (For a useful summary of RSS and news feeds, watch this short video.)
For more ideas, you can also survey my long list of blogs in all subfields of anthropology by browsing my public blogroll on Bloglines. Please click here. And, in a future post, I will share my materials for teaching with blogs and RSS feeds.
-Tad McIlwraith, Douglas College
Monday, March 31, 2008
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6 comments:
This looks very very promising for bringing the real world to introductory students. But, how do you integrate the RSS feeds into your course?
The feeds provide me with news material which I use in conjunction with my lectures. I often start off a class with reference to current events related to discussions of the day or related to recent discussions. In some cases, I circulate the article and generate direct discussion of the story.
In other words, the feeds provide me with up-to-date news items which I use to supplement my lectures.
Wow, Tad, thanks for posting this list. What a great resource.
I also check some of the news sites you've listed here weekly or periodically, but I haven't yet used the RSS feed feature. I'm afraid of getting too many e-mails and my head exploding. Do you find the feeds manageable, in terms of the amount of information that comes in daily?
Another blog-related question... did you compose your post in HTML in order to create the embedded links? If not, can you explain how you did it to a non-HTML-user like me?
Thanks...
Scratch that question regarding e-mail. I went to the link you posted that explains RSS readers, and now I get that it doesn't come into your e-mail in-box like a listserv does.
The RSS reader link is hysterical, by the way. It is also the clearest explanation I have ever seen of *anything* regarding the internet.
Laura ... thanks for your comments and questions. I'm pleased you watched the RSS video. Like you, I find it fun, engaging, and very informative. And you are right: the best thing about using a feed reader is that none of your subscriptions find their way into your email. You can go to the reader when you are ready to sift through the latest offerings.
As to your question about HTML ... other than some basics, I don't know html. But I use blogging software for my own blog which allows me to compose in English and convert links easily to html. I composed my post in that software and then copied/pasted the post into this blog. Essentially, I faked it ...
I throw this question out more widely to the group: any suggestions for writing in html easily? Can it be done in Word, for example?
I read this posting way back but didn't post my thanks. I appreciate your posting. I provide my onling students with info on news aggregators, as they have discussion board assignments which involve researching news events related to various topics. :)
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