To learn how to use Google Reader to follow blogs of interest to you, there are a few things that need to be learned. You should understand what RSS is and how it works. RSS is simply a content provider's way of giving you a special address to use when subscribing to their information and it allows you to automatically receive any updates to their information in your newsreader. The newsreader you will be learning how to use is Google Reader. (Google Reader Help Page) First, watch these these videos which will provide you with an overview of RSS and of Google Reader. RSS in Plain English video from CommonCraft Google Reader in Plain English from CommonCraft Getting Started with Google Reader from GoogleReaderHelp Reading Feeds with Google Reader from GoogleReaderHelp Open your Web browser and type http://google.com/reader/ in the location box. You will be prompted with the box shown below. Put your entire email address in the email address field. (i.e. schrockk@nausetschools.org) and use your email password in the password box.  Once you log-in you will be prompted to watch a video, add a subscription, or take a tour. Take the time to go through the tour so you learn how Google Reader works. Once you have completed the tour, you are ready to subscribe to items of interest to you. You do this by choosing the "Add a subscription" button that appears in the upper left-hand corner.  Once you choose to "Add a subscription" the dialog box below pops up. The easiest way to add a subscription is to know the special address (called the feed address). To try this out, type feeds.feedburner.com/kathyschrock in the box, choose the ADD button, and you will be subscribed to my blog, as shown below.   You can see that the blog title shows up on your subscription list on the left, and the blog postings show up in the window on the right. If you would rather just see a list of the titles of the blog postings in the window on the right, simply choose LIST rather than EXPANDED from the SHOW menu located on the top right. Once you choose LIST, you will see something similar to the item below. When you click on the titles of the blog posts, you will see the full, expanded version of the blog post.  The next part of this tutorial is to introduce you to some blogs that might be of interest to you, and show you how to subscribe to them. Visit this Web page on which I have listed some popular educational blogs.  Once you click on one of the blog links, you will see the postings of the author, and, usually in the right-hand column of the blog, you will see something like the image on the left. These items are called "chiclets" and they are an easy way to subscribe to the blog using various newsreaders. Since you are using Google Reader, you would simply click on the Google button, and then you may be prompted to "Add to Google Reader". Choose that option and the blog will then appear on your subscription list in your Google Reader. If there are no "chiclets", you may see something that looks like this, which is the universal symbol for RSS.  However, the URL at the top of this special page will begin with feed://. Copy this special URL, open up your Google Reader page, choose to ADD A SUBSCRIPTION, and paste this special feed URL in the box. The blog will show up in your subscription list. What is great about using a newsreader such as Google Reader is you can quickly scan the titles of blog entries from your subscriptions, and click only on the ones of interest to you. It is much more efficient than visiting each blog every day to see what is new. You will start to notice these RSS feeds on all types of sites. Even Nauset's essgin homework application allows students to subscribe to homework updates of their individual teachers via RSS. In this way, they automatically receive the homework updates as soon as they are posted and do not have to visit the essign page for each of their teachers to see what is new.
You can even choose to add a feed to a search term in your Google Reader. For instance, if you are interested in knowing when Nauset Schools shows up in any blog entries on the Web, simply follow these directions. 2. Type the search term(s) you wish to follow (i.e. Nauset Schools) in the search box and choose to SEARCH BLOGS. 3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and look for a line which says : Subscribe to a blog search feed for YOUR SEARCH TERM in Google Reader! 4. Click on that link and then click on the SUBSCRIBE button in Google Reader.   Whenever Nauset Schools is mentioned in a blog entry, you will receive a link to that entry in your Google Reader! Extension Activity Watch the video below to learn how to easily share the items you find of interest with the public or via email with others. Tutorial created by Kathy Schrock. Last updated: 04/10/09. |
Google Reader |