I am a member of SimpleK12 educational technology community and I cannot say enough about the Webinars they have. I have promoted their free Webinar days before but I've taken several outside of the free days and today I want to share information from one I took with Kyle Pace. Pace is a Google certified teacher and instructional technology specialist who works in the Kansas City, Missouri area for the Lee's Summit School District.
Pace says educators are often too quick to ban technology tools students are using outside of the classroom, like Blogger, YouTube, Twitter, Skype and Facebook, just to name a few. He emphasizes students are learning outside the normal classroom because these tools allow them to be mobile and educators are missing a great opportunity. A networked teacher is able to share digital photos; use blogging (like Twitter and Blogger); use technology to communicate with colleagues across the school, the district and even the state, nation and world; chat using typed words, audio and video with colleagues and students via various methods; share bookmarks/favorites from the Web; . . . and we could go on and on and on . . .
Here are eight popular tools Pace suggests -
1. Blogging - use blogs to help students find their voice, even if they don't have a voice in class; blogs are user-friendly, have security built-in, and are a great way to communicate; some ideas - WordPress, edublogs, and KidBlog
2. Google Apps for Education - Lesson Plans - search plans by subject or grade level
3. Twitter - use to send out short communications to students and parents; only 140 characters allowed (forces you to be precise and to the point); parents can check without a twitter account because they can go directly to your twitter Website
4. Skype - a great way to communicate with homebound students; also a great way to communicate with authors, experts in fields, artists, etc.
5. Sophia - the description for this site is "social teaching"; some people describe Sophia as a mash up of Wikipedia, YouTube and Facebook, focused solely on teaching and learning; the site is organized by learning packets, which are small, bite-sized tutorials focused around a specific learning objective
6. Popplet - Popplet is a graphic organizer tool; there is a short introductory video on their homepage worth watching to find out more
7. Linoit - this is a free sticky and canvas service; you can try it for free; basically it is a blank canvas where you can "post" sticky notes; once something is posted, you can edit it, assign a "due date" to it, or peel it off (remove it); you can add images, video, etc.
8. Type With Me - a place where many users can contribute to a conversation online; use for collaboration; simply click on New Pad and share the URL (Web address) with students; then type away! (Another similar site - Todays Meet)
I hope you will try some of these in the near future!
This week will be a busy one for me. Wednesday and Thursday will be two days of learning and networking with other Infinite Campus users across the state of Kentucky when we meet at the annual Interchange in Louisville. On Friday I will attend the monthly Region One TIS meeting in Lyon County. This is a wonderful group where lots of information is shared and discussed with time to actually practice and use some of these Websites and technology integration ideas. I hope your week will be just as busy and productive as I hope mine will be!
