Academic Tech Tips

If you have favorite news websites or blogs that you like to visit everyday, it’s possible to automatically receive the latest articles on one page, almost like getting the morning paper delivered to your doorstep.  With Alesti, you can easily subscribe to blogs and RSS feeds and access them from any computer or mobile device.

How it Works

A feed subscription functions much like a magazine subscription; once you subscribe you will automatically receive the latest updates.  The presence of a feed icon indicates that feeds are available on a website. In order to subscribe to a feed, you can either click on the Add button from the Alesti Web site,  then add the URL of the website that offers a feed – or add the Subscribe with Alesti bookmarklet button to your Web browser.

How to Sign Up

Signing up for Alesti is easy – and free!  In order to register, you’ll need to provide your email address and create a password .  Once you sign up,  remember to subscribe to the ITS Technology Tips Blog!

With Kwout, a Firefox Add-on, you can take screen shots of any Web page that you’d like to display as an image.  The distinguishing feature of Kwout is the use of an image map, which allows hyperlinks within the screen shot to remain active and clickable. The image above is an example of a screen shot taken using Kwout; notice that the links are active within the image.

To start using Kwout, you will need to first install the Kwout Firefox Add-on.   Users can easily share an image that includes an image map on a blog or social networking site, using the embed code that Kwout provides. There is also the option to post directly to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and other sites.

As online tools such as blogs, Twitter and RSS feeds are becoming more widely used to share information, it’s helpful to know about resources that explain how these tools work, while still remaining interesting.  Common Craft’s In Plain English series provides fun and simple tutorials on several areas, including technology, money, society and the environment.  Each video features paper cut-outs and narration; some technology topics include podcasting, RSS and Wikis.  Even though these videos are lighthearted, they are very well-made and informative and definitely worth sharing with colleagues or in the classroom.    

 Video Source:  http://www.commoncraft.com/blogs

If you have favorite news sites or blogs that you like to visit every day, you may already be already using a feed reader to manage your subscriptions.  Web-based feed readers such as Google Reader, enable users to subscribe to and read multiple weblogs and news feeds all in one place, from any computer or mobile device.  If you are just getting started with using a tool like Google Reader or if you are just interested in finding new sites then you should check out Google’s compilation of reading lists.  Google’s second edition of Power Readers features top picks from prominent journalists, techies, fashion critics and foodies.  Visit www.google.com/powerreaders to explore and subscribe to any of their reading lists, or to any individual Web sites that they recommend. 

Read more on The Official Google Blog.