As I proceeded through the many online tools in this week's work, I was struck by how many new technology upgrades are out there since I completed my master's at Stritch in August of 2009. I had some familiarity with Google Docs and social bookmarking but did not really see how they could be used in middle or high school classrooms (regular or online) until now.
In talking with our school's library media specialist, I now see how social bookmarking would be a great way for our middle school students to share their web resources with each other. These 7th and 8th graders so love to be connected online, as I have discovered by their strong use of our new SchoolFusion blogging tool. I now see where research projects could be greatly enhanced, regardless of the topic, by the sharing done with social bookmarking. I envision where my job, as well as our library media specialist, might be to teach our students social bookmarking so that they can utilize it in any class. I so wish that our proposed high school Digital Media course had been approved because that would have been an ideal way to present social bookmarking. However, I will certainly add a unit on this in my expanded (going from a quarter to a semester) Computer Applications course next year. I was also impressed with the many variations of social bookmarking sites. I thought they were all like Delicious and Diigo but now understand that there are alternatives such as Digg, StumbleUpon, and ClipMarks. I look forward to investigating these and others more so that we find the right match for our middle school students.
I had used Skype before, but only the audio version. Adding the webcam opens up a whole new world of engaging communication. I practiced using the webcam with my cousin in Texas. He was using his iPhone, which also has the ability to Skype with video. More importantly, I used Skype to converse with his 6-year-old daughter, just to get a feel for how she would react to it. As you can imagine, she loved it, demonstrating to me how this audio and video technology tool might work for online learning at even very young ages.
Online storage was interesting to learn more about as I had no experience with it. I tried out Dropbox and saw how easy it is to create an account and post public documents. In addition, it does save the need for jump drives, as you can access your files (I tried Excel spreadsheets and Word documents) anywhere. One major issue that came up in my school was that .exe downloads are blocked, meaning that I could not download Dropbox onto my classroom computer. This meant that I could not save a spreadsheet back into Dropbox after changing it without renaming it. Otherwise, I could see how Dropbox could also be a great collaboration tool, with some final results similar to Google Docs.
All in all, I am impressed with these new technology tools and the great potential they have in teaching and learning. If indeed I teach online courses in my district, I will be utilizing these and other similar tools in order to make the learning experience as rich and convenient as possible.
I think that it is great that you are considering teaching an online course. After talking with Louis he told me that we are endorsed by the state to teach online once we complete the program. That is a requirement to teach online, according to him. I too find myself thinking of way to use these online technologies, as some are hard with my 2nd graders. I am excited that my Summer academy class can use drop box as I will have the older kids in my classes!
ReplyDeleteHi Mike,
ReplyDeleteYes, it is good to know that we will receive the DPI endorsement for taking CEdO 501 and 502. Our district is hoping to offer some online courses, beginning this summer. I hope to be in on the ground floor. I also hope to have a job! Good luck with incorporating what we are learning with your 2nd graders. It will be interesting to hear how they do--in any case, I am sure they will be most engaged in the process!
I don't know if your School Fusion blogging is set up the same way mine is, but my kids really reacted well to the nicknames. They were a bit reticent at first, but I think a few of them really relished the opportunity to be a different person and share their thoughts without people realizing it was them. I'd be interested to hear how your kids take to it.
ReplyDeleteI am also not able to download dropbox to my school computer, but I could add files to it onl-line. It's not quite as convenient as having the box right there on your desktop, but it's still pretty slick.
ReplyDeleteI already have some of my students using it. Many of them have their own e-mail addressess, and when they come in to check-out a flash drive from the library I use it as an opportunity to start the discussion. Those that have opened an account really like not having to worry about forgetting their flash drive at home since they don't have access to the school servers when they aren't on campus.
Rob,
ReplyDeleteMy students also reacted very well to creating their own nicknames. In fact, so well that it is a good thing that they can only change it one time, that being the first time they post to the blog. If they had more opportunities, they would probably change it most every time. The variety of colors and animals is quite expansive. Certainly giving students the choice provides them with ownership and better buy-in to the school blog. I have had over 250 students participate so far and not one showed any hesitancy in participating at any point.
Deb,
ReplyDeleteEven though we cannot download DropBox at school, I agree with you that the online version is still helpful. However, using this tech tool made me realize that my students can use SchoolFusion to download their files and access them from anywhere. I am going to make sure they are all trained in its use within the next week.
For those of you who cannot download and install Dropbox on your computers at work I suggest the service I tried out, Tonido ( http://www.tonido.com/ ).
ReplyDeleteIt is a personal cloud/storage hosted on your own computer (at home). It has too many features for me to list but here are the basics.
-Client application is installed on your personal host computer/home computer ( must always be on and connected to internet).
-Public or private (via guest login) sharing of folders and files. Files are accessed from any web browser - thus you don't need to download/install anything at your work computer.
-You can remotely login to your personal host and access your entire hard drive (only for uploading or downloading files).
- For $30 extra (one time) you can remotely mount your host disk/drive as a local disk, therefore being able to create, edit files (not download and sync).
Give it a look. There are a lot of other things it can do as well. Available for Win/Mac/Linux/iPad-Phone/Andriod/Blackberry.
I can use my phone to download files from my home computer!!