Google Reader No Longer Social?

Google Reader

Change is Inevitable

As is typical of technology, Google introduced some changes to its Google Reader this week.  At first glance, I thought it was just in the visual aspects of the application but then I discovered something more significant.

Social Changes

With my recent investigation into various tools, I have been looking at the social aspects of Google Reader so that it qualifies as a Web 2.0 tool.  I have been getting used to using the share feature and even embedded my Google Reader share list into my blog so that I could share interesting blog articles with my blog readers.  This week I discovered that I can't do that anymore (or at least not in the same way).

The share feature is now gone and instead users have to use Google+ in order to share posts with other users.  I do not know a lot about Google+ but I have heard that it has some similarities to applications like Facebook and Twitter.  I decided that I should look into it more so that I can continue to share blog posts with others instead of just through Twitter.

Google+

Google+

I found an article by Ryan Tyler, If You're a Teacher, You're Nuts Not to Use Google+ outlining many of the features that educators can use in classroom settings.  I really like the discussion of Privacy and how Google+ allows you to share items with certain circles of friends so that you do not have to keep track of both professional and personal accounts.

I also found an article by Audrey Watters, Google Plus: Is This the Social Tool Schools Have Been Waiting For? that gives some of the "potentials" and "minuses" of Google+ for education.

In our district all staff and students have Google accounts but we do not yet have access to Google+.  Without having looked too far into it, I think it has good potential to be used as a Web 2.0 tool in the classroom with the added bonus that it isn't yet another account that we need to sign up for.  I'm looking forward to learning some more about this tool and hopefully Google+ for education will be available to explore in the near future.