Tool 6

Today we explored Today's Meet as a group and discussed how it could be used in the classroom. Basically it is just another way for students to respond as a group if they work together or individually.  It could make responding more engaging and hold the students accountable.  Most of us have seen this used in staff developments. Our discussion helped me to understand "back channeling" and "Hashtags" a little better as we compared this to other options like this.

The new Google Education that came out yesterday looks awesome! Lots to explore there. There are many, many lesson plans that use all kinds of different Google Apps. I used Google Forms today to respond to survey for 2012-2013 planning. Google is into everything!

Tool 2

PLNs are powerful! What an eye opener to go into our campus blogs and postings. Isn't it amazing what others have discovered, what they are doing, and the kind of impact it has on our students?  By posting, we can connect to others to ask questions, support, and share. It seems I did use a bit of a different approach to posting after reading the commenting advice. I am making more of an effort to engage the reader and extend the conversation. This is an exciting time in education. We are only a click away to new ideas and thoughts. I have had a Diigo account since this summer and the daily email of sites and blogs offer wonderful opportunities for learning and growing. There are so many and so little time that I try to just pick one a day to explore. If it has a special appeal to something that is relevant to something someone I know is doing at the time, I forward it on to them. Today there were three I just had to check out and share:

Diipo

an awesome upgrade from Edmoto

Smories - new stories for children, read by children

"TheYouTube Trick" - Videos - Viddler

How to use utube videos without the ads

The PLNs listed in Tool 2 are intriguing. My favorite is Josh S's, a 2012 teacher of the year in Educators PLN. I plan to check out: Learning is Messy Blog. It looks like something that may go outside the box.

Tool 1

Tool 1 is complete. The hardest part of doing this was deciding on a VOKI. I can see using this to engage readers and to share ideas. Vokis can empower reluctant speakers to speak in front of a web audience instead of a group a peers.

Initial Post

This is my second time to go through these 11 Tools.  I am looking forward to digging deeper into their applications.