Day 9 – Newsfeeds: Aggregating Content for You
09/25/2014
30 Days with Office 365 for Educators – Day 9
An Office 365 Newsfeed is one way of receiving updates about content and news from others. Instead of going out to a blog or to a personal contact every time you want to see what is new, you can simply “Follow” people and items you are interested about receiving updates in the form of a Newsfeed.
In Office 365 you can use Newsfeeds to follow a person, document, site, or tag.
When you follow a person, document, site, or tag you will receive the latest aggregated updates and activities in the associated newsfeed as a stream similar to a Facebook update.
Educational uses for Newsfeeds include following a document that is “living”, that is, a document that may change in the future. Following a document that may change allows for you to be alerted when changes do occur.
For example, a professor uses a Syllabus in a Word Document that is shared with the class with viewing privileges. Sometimes the best laid plans change and the professor may need to adjust the due dates for an assignment. If you are following that document in a newsfeed you will be notified when the professor makes any change to that document.
I think one of the more useful ways to use a Newsfeed is to follow a blog (site) that is active within the Office 365 community. I have used RSS feeds for years to follow blogs and podcasts so this should also be beneficial within Office 365.
Another case, you can follow tags. Think of how tags are used in Twitter. If you make a unique tag for the class you teach in Office 365 others can create a Newsfeed to follow that particular tag. I think I am going to start using the tag #eiuitc so that other faculty, staff, and students can follow or search for information regarding what we share here at the Instructional Technology Center.
If you create a unique class tag you may want to also put the year in the tag name. For example EDU2022-001-FA14 this represents the Course Number, Section Number, and Semester. You could also include your last name but tags should be short, unique, and easy to remember.
You can also follow individuals in a Newsfeed but unless you work closely with them I think it would get overwhelming with the amount of updates that would be produced. You may also get many updates that you do not care about so there is always a balance of maintaining a manageable amount of updates.
I just received my university Office 365 account a couple of weeks ago so I am still exploring the possibilities of Newsfeeds and how they can be used for teaching and learning. I am sure I will find new uses in the coming months.
Keep in mind that much of what you post in Office 365 is searchable and discover-able.
Office 365 was designed with sharing and collaboration in mind.
There are many social media aspects to Office 365 so always maintain a professional appearance. Since the Office 365 for Education service will have a mixture of faculty, staff, and students you will want to project a positive digital footprint at all times.
How do you use Office 365 Newsfeeds for teaching and learning?
Keep on Learning,
Tom Grissom, Ph.D.
Twitter: @tomgrissom
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