QR Codes

QR Codes are everywhere! Now that you know what they are, how to make them, and how to share them please share some ideas about how you might use them as a teacher. How will you use them to share your professional information with colleagues? What are some ways that you could use them with your students?

Google Alerts and Reader

Google Alerts and Reader are two applications that are are not used by educators and students nearly as much as they should be. Now that you are familiar with both of them how can you see yourself using them? How can you use Google Reader to organize the flow of information on the web? What are some ways that you can use Google Alerts? Do you think you will use either of these applications now that you know about them?

Evernote

Evernote is one of those tools that it might take a while to completely figure out. I know many educators who say if they could only keep one web tool to use it would be Evernote. What are your thoughts about this tool now that you have taken some time to explore it? How could you use it to get organized?

Diigo

It has happened to all of us. We are at home and find a great website so we add it to our favorites. But when we go to retrieve it in the future we are on a different computer. Arrgh! Enter Diigo. This application allows us to store our bookmarks in the cloud so they are always accessible no matter where we are or what computer we are using. Diigo can allow us to do so much more than simply store and share our bookmarks, but since we only had a couple of hours to devote to this fantastic tool that was the focus of the activity.

Now that you have had the chance to explore Diigo take a few minutes to share what you think about it. How do you see yourself using it in the future? What are some ideas you have for how you could use it to help get yourself organized and to possibly share resources with your colleagues?

Gmail

If you are like most teachers your experience with email has been limited to Outlook and possibly Yahoo or Hotmail. After getting up close and personal with Gmail do you think it has any advantages over the email provider you are currently using? What are some features that Gmail has that make it very different from other email? In your opinion, what is the BEST feature that Gmail offers?

Skype

Skype is one of the fastest and easiest tools you can use to help bring the outside world into your classroom. What are some ways you could use Skype in your classroom? Prior to taking this class had you considered using videoconferencing to bring in experts or connect your class to another one? Besides breaking down the walls of your classroom, what are some of the other benefits to using Skype?

If you want to connect with the other participants in this class please share your Skype name in your comment on this post. My name is beth.still. Please feel free to add me as a contact.

Google Docs

In the couple hours that you got to work with Google Docs for this class you barely got to see the incredible level of awesomeness that Google has to offer. The recent addition of Google Drive makes saving, organizing, and sharing all types of files "on the cloud" on the cloud easier than ever before. What are your thoughts about Google Docs now that you have had a little bit of time to explore it? Does Google Docs have value to you as an educator? What are some ways you could use Google Docs either as an organizational tool or with your students?

Wikis

Out of all of the tools you have learned about in this class so far, wikis are one of the most versatile. As you learned from the resources shared for this unit there are an unlimited number of ways to use wikis. What were some of your favorite ideas? What are some potential uses for wikis in your classroom?

Please share the link to your Google Site in your reply.

Facebook

Facebook seems to be one of those tools that causes a lot of controversy. Whether you love it or hate it, the fact remains it will probably remain one of the primary ways teens communicate for a long time to come.

Hopefully after reading the examples of how Facebook can be used in education you can see how it can be used as a legitimate communication tool. What do you see as some of the potential benefits and drawbacks for using a Facebook page to communicate with students and parents? (Notice I said using a page, not friending! That is an entirely different topic!)

If you have any experience using Facebook to communicate what is happening in your classroom or if you use it to communicate with colleagues or learn about things happening in education please share your story.

Nings

Nings are a great way for educators to network with other educators. After spending some time on a couple of Nings, what is your impression of them? Can you see yourself continuing to use them as resource? What were some things you liked and didn't like about this type of social network?

Twitter

There was a time when Twitter was seen by so many as a waste of time. Few people believed it could play any sort of significant role in education. Those beliefs have changed quite a bit over the last couple of years. Hopefully after completing the activity over this tool you will be able to see the value of using Twitter in a variety of ways in your classroom.

Take a few minutes to share your thoughts about Twitter and how you could use it in your classroom or to connect with other educators from around the world. Do you think you will continue to use Twitter? Why or why not? Please include your Twitter handle in your post to help your colleagues find you.

Resource Sharing

We are each others best resource. When teachers make the decision to become part of a community where they share and learn with other educators they become stronger and better teachers. This is a wonderful time to be a teacher because it is so easy to find others who are eager to connect and share. During this activity you got were introduced to many resource sharing blogs and websites. It is my hope that you will visit them frequently and encourage your colleagues to do the same When we share it is the students who ultimately benefit.

Now that you have had some time to reflect on the idea of sharing resources and ideas with other teachers, what do you think about it? Does the idea of sharing fit into your teaching philosophy? Had you given this topic much thought before this class? If you shared resources with other teachers before were the inside your building/district or beyond? Do you think you might be more open to sharing now if you were opposed to it prior to this class? Please share a link to one thing you learned while perusing one of the resource sharing sites that you think your colleagues in this class might benefit from seeing.

Moodle

Moodle is one of those tools that once you discover it you will wonder how you ever managed to teach without it. If you are already a Moodle user please share how you use it. If you are new to Moodle please take a few minutes to share how you could see using it with your students and/or to manage your content. Did you realize that Moodle could do everything that you learned about during this activity? How likely are you to use Moodle now if you were not using it before this class?

Screencasting

Chances are before you completed this lesson you had only seen screencasts. Now that you have created one and seen some examples of a few what do you think? Do you think you might make screencasts in the future or have students create them as a way to demonstrate their learning? When do you think screencasts would be useful?

If you were able to create a screencast please share a link to it in your reply to this post.

VoiceThread

Digital storytelling can be one of the most exciting things your students can do. VoiceThread is just one of so many tools that can be used for making exciting and engaging stories. The great thing is that it can be used with students of all ages! What are some ways you could integrate either VoiceThread or some other video or animation application into your lesson plans? What are some creative ways you think this could be used in your classroom?

Please share a link to the VoiceThread you created in your reply to this post. If you have some time please leave a comment on that someone else created just for practice.

Google Forms

Take a few minutes to share what you think about Google Forms. How could you use them in your classroom? What are some ways that you think you could use them to help get yourself organized? What are some possible uses with both of these tools with your students? Do you think you will use Google Forms to conduct surveys and collect information?

Please share a link to the form you created in your reply. If someone has already shared a link please take a moment to fill out their survey. You will be able to see the results in a spreadsheet in Google Docs.

Blogging

I hope you enjoyed learning about blogging and that you took some time to explore the list of blogs. Many teachers have discovered that blogging can be a fairly simple way to begin incorporating technology into their lessons in a meaningful way. What is your take on blogging? Do you think it is something you will do either with your students or for yourself? Was there anything new you learned?

Please share a link to the new blog you created in your reply and make sure that you added it to our class blog doc. Happy blogging!

Welcome to class!

Welcome to class! Since we will be spending the next month or so learning with each other we should probably share a little bit about ourselves to help develop a sense of community. Where are you from? Why are you taking this class? I'm also interested to find out about your experience with technology and your level of comfort with it. What, if any digital tools are you comfortable with? How do you incorporate technology into your routine? What are some specific things you are interested in learning about during this class?

Update on 7/2---I changed the settings on the comments so you should be able to post without having to log in. Please let me know if you are still having issues. Just select anonymous when promoted to select a profile.