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!
If you find the secret to getting 30 hours a day..... do share! :) I have to confess to signing up for mooc courses then doing nothing. I love the idea, but I need the pressure of a peer group to keep me at it. Would be fun to get a group of folks to sign up for something together. Nice work on exploring all these! Keep up the good work of pushing your district forward.
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