Collect infinite relevant teaching resources with google reader

Google reader is an amazing way to aggregate information from a variety of sources from anywhere on the web! I am planning a research project on the New Zealand Winter Games, this is how I will collect the resources.

1) Sign into your google apps account - the black bar at the top has links to google products, go along to more and click on 'reader', this is the link to your google reader account and it is here that you can search and subscribe to rss feeds. (rss stands for rich site summary and is a family of web feed formats used for news and other frequently refreshed sites)

2) Type the topic you are searching for in the subscribe box and press enter.

3) The list of feeds will appear in the main part of the screen, some might not be what you are looking for but if you see one that looks good click on subscribe. Once you have filtered through the sites to meet your needs you can look at what you have selected by clicking on 'all items' on the left. A list of articles from all of your feeds will appear, any that look interesting can be read by clicking on the link. The whole article will appear or a link to the site will take you to the information.

4) Organisation - now this is the key part that will make your busy life easier in the future. By starring an item it puts it into the starred folder and allows you to find it again easily, this is by far the best and easiest way to keep things for later - you can also un-star things at a later date. On the left of the page you also have the option of keeping the feeds in folders, this is great as you can choose to read folders separately so you can collect info on different topics.

5) Adding new feeds - at any site where you see the rss feed button (at top of guide) or a link to follow the feed you can click it and it should give you the option to open it in google reader, from there it is a case of following the above instructions to keep the feeds organised. You can also paste the url, or web address into the 'subscribe' box. If you have an ipad visit the app store and download a slick rss reader like feedly. Good luck and have fun!

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