Blog # 6-Jeffrey and Jessina's Google Reader in the classroom
RSS Readers for Extensive Listening-Google Reader
Google reader is a tool that can be used to post anything and share with anyone. So a teacher can post a reading, podcast, audio, photo, really any media, and then share with the students in the class. The students can access this from any computer, anywhere and then can also write comments and share the comments with the teacher and the classmates, what ever the teacher prefers.
You can subscribe to a number of RSS feeders online. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, it is basically a live feed of any new information. Here is a picture of what the RSS icon looks like;
You can also use the "bookmarklet" tool to book mark any internet page that doesn't have an RSS option, and you can include a note with what has been book marked.
The benefit of using Google reader in the classroom is the realia of the media used, interaction between the students, practice writing, discussion in the classroom, convenience, etc. One of the drawbacks might be whether or not students have access to a computer, but assuming that they do this is a great tool.
Below is the podcast of a dialogue between two teachers. One has experience using the Google Reader tool and is explaining the benefits and showing how to use this online tool to the other teacher.
Google's introduction to Google Reader can be found at http://www.google.com/support/reader/bin/answer.py?answer=113517
Google reader is a tool that can be used to post anything and share with anyone. So a teacher can post a reading, podcast, audio, photo, really any media, and then share with the students in the class. The students can access this from any computer, anywhere and then can also write comments and share the comments with the teacher and the classmates, what ever the teacher prefers.
You can subscribe to a number of RSS feeders online. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, it is basically a live feed of any new information. Here is a picture of what the RSS icon looks like;
You can also use the "bookmarklet" tool to book mark any internet page that doesn't have an RSS option, and you can include a note with what has been book marked.
The benefit of using Google reader in the classroom is the realia of the media used, interaction between the students, practice writing, discussion in the classroom, convenience, etc. One of the drawbacks might be whether or not students have access to a computer, but assuming that they do this is a great tool.
Below is the podcast of a dialogue between two teachers. One has experience using the Google Reader tool and is explaining the benefits and showing how to use this online tool to the other teacher.
Now that you've listened to the podcast, here are a couple of bookmarklets to get you started-> just drag them to the toolbar of your browser and you are good to go!
This one allows you to subscribe to feeds on a given page.
This one allows you to share any page on the web with a note.
Google's introduction to Google Reader can be found at http://www.google.com/support/reader/bin/answer.py?answer=113517
