You may have heard about aggregators or seen RSS on a website. This means you can set up a way to automatically collect information from many different places on the web. Perhaps you want to collect posts from several blogs you follow without having to type in the address for each blog and check to see if there is a post.

Now, it's easy to aggregate. Here's what you do. First,watch this video from Common Craft, that explains the basics of using an an aggregator like Google Reader. Here's another video which provides the same information in a slightly different way. Then follow the directions below.

First, create an account in Google (unless you already have a Google or Gmail account). Do this here .

Now, go to www.reader.google.com; you can click here . This is where you set up the blogs you want to follow. The easiest way to do this is – when you are in the blog - click on the RSS symbol in the blog/website that you want to follow. It looks like the symbol above. 

When you click on this, you'll then have the choice of readers you are using - here we are using Google Reader. You’ll be asked if you want Google Reader or Desktop; choose Reader. Sometimes you’ll be asked if you want to subscribe – say yes.

If there is no RSS symbol, then open a new Window on your browser, go to the blog, and copy the basic blog address. You'll do this by deleting everything after the .org or the .com or the .net. For example, if you want to follow Larry Ferlazzo's blog, you go to http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/ If there is something after the main address (example: http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/20091223/what-I-thought), you will need to delete everything after the .org. So you're left with http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org. Then copy the address, switch to the Google reader window, and click on Add a Subscription. Here paste the web address you just copied into the box in your Google reader and click on Add. Sometimes you’ll be asked if you want to subscribe – say yes!

Now, whenever you feel like it, to go www.reader.google.com and read what's there. You won't have to keep returning to websites or blogs to see if they have been updated - now they're all collected by your Google Reader.