This was a huge assignment that I started and stopped numerous times....but I finally got my act together...visited quite a few the learning Management Systems/learning environments and was happy to see how many I was already a part of!
When I was the MS librarian I had a science teacher that used Edmodo and LOVED IT! I had checked it out looking over students' shoulders and thought wow...very cool tool. Fast forward a few years here it is again...better than ever. I did check out Schoology which I thought was a great tool as well but I'm leaning toward continuing with Edmodo. I liked that students did not need an email address to sign up....super user friendly and lots of bells and whistles. I am creating a class for my teacher book club so they will all become students and I can give updates because we only meet once a month...I can push them along with their reading and quiz them along the way! LOVE IT!
I have been using GoodReads for a few years now and my student book club uses it as well. It is a great way to keep track of what you want to read and what you have read. I love checking it out for suggestions and it comes in real handy when you are standing in the book store and can't remember what the next great book you wanted to read was. I think I am going to have my students book club switch over to using Edmodo for our discussion...especially over the summer! I love Good Reads but I always have a tendency to get sidetracked on their website
I love Edutopia....I have been signed up for their email updates...they always provide great articles and up to date news events in education. I very often find myself forwarding articles to teachers I work with. I highly suggest a look at it!
Just recently I started looking at MOOCS - I love the idea of it...very exciting opportunities but I need 30 hours in a day!! edX is the one I took a closer look at and would like maybe take a course over the summer when I have a little more time on my hands.
I have been a fan of facebook for years and I always felt it would be a great tool to touch base with our students but our district has unofficially let us know that they did not want us having facebook contact with students or facebook pages linked to the school. Recently our district switched over to gmail and all the tools that go along with Google. We are a bit slow with our technology...for a while google docs was blocked but we are coming along and I hope to see all that google has to offer.
I just came across www.remind101.com - a safe way to text students/parents...I'm thinking overdue notices!!! WOO HOO!
Monday, January 27, 2014
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Thing 11 Mapping & Geolocation Tools
Yikes...nothing like starting the race in last place!! Better late than never. I have figured out a few things just trying to access the blogs of my colleagues (like I hate the filters at my school) and google's purchase of BlogSpot really screwed up my access. After much frustration....I am finally on!
Mapping & Geolocation Tools:
I loved google maps before...and I just fell in love all over again! Their tutorials are extremely well done but run hit or miss at school. I had done much of my research at home...found somethings I wanted to share with teachers at school and they wouldn't work. That is something I have to talk with IT about.
I really enjoyed the phototours - the street views of places I will probably never get to sucked up quite a bit of my time. Kind of like pinterest for me. I did share it with my dad who then spent hours visiting places he used to live and work...it was really fascinating.
I added Leonardo's Horse in Milan to the collaborative map...I am going to try and incorporate that into a project with the foreign language classes...haven't quite thought it all through yet but they all study a Spanish speaking country of their choice and I believe the geography of it gets lost. This piece might help!
I loved Sepiatown and whatwasthere.com! When looking up Valatie & Kinderhook there were no historical pictures...this could be a great opportunity for our photography class or anyone studying local history. The opportunity to contribute to the site is something my high school students would love. I plan on also introducing photo sphere from google to them. I think they would enjoy participating and making the world just a bit smaller! :-)
And when your kids need something to do...geoguesser.com is so much fun! It is tough but after a few you realize what clues you should be looking for to figure out where you are. Give it a try!
Mapping & Geolocation Tools:
I loved google maps before...and I just fell in love all over again! Their tutorials are extremely well done but run hit or miss at school. I had done much of my research at home...found somethings I wanted to share with teachers at school and they wouldn't work. That is something I have to talk with IT about.
I really enjoyed the phototours - the street views of places I will probably never get to sucked up quite a bit of my time. Kind of like pinterest for me. I did share it with my dad who then spent hours visiting places he used to live and work...it was really fascinating.
I added Leonardo's Horse in Milan to the collaborative map...I am going to try and incorporate that into a project with the foreign language classes...haven't quite thought it all through yet but they all study a Spanish speaking country of their choice and I believe the geography of it gets lost. This piece might help!
I loved Sepiatown and whatwasthere.com! When looking up Valatie & Kinderhook there were no historical pictures...this could be a great opportunity for our photography class or anyone studying local history. The opportunity to contribute to the site is something my high school students would love. I plan on also introducing photo sphere from google to them. I think they would enjoy participating and making the world just a bit smaller! :-)
And when your kids need something to do...geoguesser.com is so much fun! It is tough but after a few you realize what clues you should be looking for to figure out where you are. Give it a try!
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