It has not just revolutionized the way we search on the Internet, but also made education more fun and relevant in today’s technology-dependent world. With Google Apps, teachers and students can set up their own account and use Gmail, Google’s instant messenger GTalk to chat with teachers and fellow students in real time, synchronize their calendars so that they’re able to keep up with educational events, lectures, tests and discussions, and use videos for real-time lessons or conference study sessions when they’re not able to get together in one room.
If teachers are apprehensive about providing students with their own email and chat ids, the administrator has the option of turning these off, as well as any other applications that they feel are not suitable. One particularly useful aspect of Google Apps is the document sharer Google Docs which lets you share documents. This is great for working on shared projects where each student has edit and/or read options depending on their status in the group.
Another good tool is Google Sites that allows you to create your own class site where you can upload all the latest information and news that can be read and accessed by students from within the application. Google Sites is also a great tool for developing your own wikis, mini knowledge databases that are filled with information and data relevant to your learning and education.
Google Apps is a great way to stay in touch even if your students are scattered over the country or across the world, as in a distance education class. They help keep track of assignments, lectures and discussions and encourage collaboration between students and teachers.
The best part of schools and other educational institutions using Google Apps is that there are new and innovative uses being thought of for this technology. Students are getting more and more creative and utilizing this tool to enhance the way they and their friends learn and develop on a personal level and as a group. And so we see how technology becomes a great asset in the hands of the right people who know how to harness its power and derive the maximum benefits from it.
By-line:
This article is written by Kat Sanders, who regularly blogs on the topic of top online engineering degree at her blog The Engineering A Better World Blog. She welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: katsanders25@gmail.com.
A friend and I are going to make an interactive whiteboard based on Johnny Lee’s video. For about $40 in parts you can make an interactive whiteboard. When I went to the Maker Faire I got to try it out. Very cool.
Here is a video on Instructables giving a little more explanation about how to make the pen. The software for the program is free to download on Johnny Lee’s site, but it’s only for PCs. I did find a link for Mac compatible software.
Teacher Vicki Davis of coolcatblog created this excellent video about technology and the fear that people have around using it. It’s hosted on TeacherTube.com, a new educational alternative to YouTube.View this video file For more information on the reasons we need to teach technology in the schools, watch the presentation on 21st Century Skills.
I knew it wouldn’t be too long before someone got smart and created a YouTube-like site that was geared specifically to students and teachers. Anne Bubnic of CTAP emailed me to let me know about TeacherTube.com.
TeacherTube has 11 channels for teachers to upload videos about best teaching practices, student projects and tutorials. The channels include technology, professional development and subject areas. Like YouTube videos can be rated, shared or embedded on other sites. Users can also post comments. Unlike YouTube there isn’t any offensive material…And of course, TeacherTube isn’t blocked at schools. Yippee!
What are the skills that a student and citizen of the Information Age needs to have?
The Partnership for the 21st Century has conducted a survey to identify the key skills needed for success in the 21st Century. Every student in your school or district should be:
1. a critical thinker
2. a problem solver
3. an innovator
4. an effective collaborator
5. a self-directed learner
6. information and media literate
7. globally aware
8. civically engaged
Ken Kay, President of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, explains in his presentation at the FETC Conference about why these skills are important. This hour presentation includes 8 strategies that your school and district will want to integrate into the curriculum to best prepare your students for the quickly changing terrain, as well as why these skills are critical to our students.
I’m going to share this presentation with my colleagues. It will provide an introduction to discussing what are the skills necessary for success in the 21st Century. I would love to get a school-wide consensus about what skills our students need to have and how to best support them in acquiring these lifelong skills. If you haven’t seen Did you know?, you will want to watch this dynamic and thought-provoking presentation by Karl Fisch. It’s only about 6 minutes long. It’ll give you the inspiration and motivation to listen to the hour-long presentation, if you need a bit of a boost.
Did you know? The rate of change on this planet is increasing at an exponential rate. The amount of information on the planet has doubled in the past few years and continues to increase at an amazing pace. We can only begin to imagine what the world will look like in 10 years. We live in exciting and wondrous times - and perhaps, it’s a bit unnerving.
Did you know? As educators, we have an important role in preparing our students for a world that is only just starting to take form. We live in the Information Age, a time of connection and expansion.
Did you know? China will soon be the largest English speaking country on the planet.
Did you know? Karl Fisch, Director of Technology at Arapahoe High School in Colorado, has created an amazing video presentation entitled Did You Know? It takes us on a brief journey into the future world of astounding facts that will make you think about where we need to be as educators and as a society. He has some additional presentations that you will also want to see. (Note:The music in Did You Know? is a mix of three tracks from The Last of the Mohicans.)
Did you know? Scott McLeod, Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Policy and Administration at the University of Minnesota, has has an excellent blog, Dangerously Irrelevant. If you are interested in exploring the value and direction of education, you’ll appreciate what he has to contribute. He has also has links to Karl Fisch’s presentations.
For more information about the skills our students will need, read this post about 21st Century Skills.
Be in the know… it is the Information Age after all.
What is Squidoo? Squidoo is a website where people can create their own “lenses.” A lens is your perspective or favorite resources on a topic. For example, I created a lens on Fractions. It includes websites that have clear explanations of fractions, fun math games and practice, educational YouTube videos and books for further individual study. Squidoo lenses have great potential for teachers to aggregate helpful resources for students on a particular topic. I hope that this article inspires you to create your own and become a lensmaster.
You can build a site for free with the easy to use module-based templates. My first lens on integers took me about 3 hours to build. When I created it, I used my del.icio.us account to organize the different sites that I was interested in including. When I posted a site to my del.icio.us account, I tagged it with the lens topic. I’ve continued to add to it over the months and it’s now an excellent resource for both students and teachers. I’m delighted that it was included in the March National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) News Bulletin in the “Web Bytes” section.
There are a variety of modules that you can add to build your lens, including text/write, link list, amazon.com, poll, make a list, YouTube, Google maps and iTunes. The lens can be made more interactive by adding polls. I added a poll to my Ecological Footprint Education site about the size of people’s ecological footprint.
Most of the modules can be made more interactive with the “Plexo” feature. Plexo is a tool that allows your readers to rank or add to the data in your site. For example, on my Vedic math site readers can give feedback on which resources they found most valuable. The feedback automatically rearranges the sites from most to least popular. I’ve just started playing with Plexo modules this week. It feels like a nice way to help your readers sort through data and become an active learner. Plexo is also helpful because people can add other valuable resources to your site.
As the creator of the site, you can moderate how much interactivity you want. You can allow comments or not. You can also require that additions to your site be approved before they are published. So there is an element of quality control. As with most sites that allow rating, people must have a Squidoo account.
So what would you like to share with your students? What topic would you like to be a lensmaster on?
Del.icio.us is a website that allows you to bookmark sites. It’s called a social bookmark because, unlike bookmarks you add on your computer, you can access them from any computer. You can use social bookmarks to research information, collaborate or share sites with friends and family. The bookmarks are by default public information; however, you can change the settings so that others have no or limited access to what you mark.
Why Use Del.icio.us
Research on the Internet using social bookmarks is easy.
Bookmarked sites are accessible from any computer.
You can tag your bookmarks and organize them. You can use multiple tags for the same site. For example, I tag my Educating Millennials in the Information Age lens with millennials, information_age and squidoo.
Great sites can be shared with students or colleagues because social bookmarks are public.
You can “bundle” tags. For example, in my del.icio.us account I have a bundle called InformationAge and within it I have several related tags including wiki, blogs, squidoo and millennials.
Other people can benefit from your research. Instead of searching through an ever growing number of websites and blogs, I can search within del.icio.us and find what other people find valuable. Hence saving myself time.
You can share sites with other people using various features and tools. Del.icio.us has an easy to follow help section that explains the tools, such as networks, and includes why they are helpful.
You can also keep bookmarks private. You can still access your bookmarks from any computer, but others can have no or limited access to bookmarks.
5 Things to Know Before Using Social Bookmarks
Before you start to post things to del.icio.us, there are several things I highly recommend:
#1: Decide how you intend to use del.icio.us.
Are you intending to use social bookmarks for research or collaboration? Do you intend to share this information with others or is this for your own use?
Deciding whether you intend to have your bookmarks serve as a reference for others or mainly for personal use will impact how you structure your bookmarks.
#2: Choose your tags before you get started.
Before getting started put some thought into key tags that you would use. For me, the main things I was researching were math resources for students, Vedic math, Information Age and teaching technology.
#3:Think about some umbrella concepts that help you “bundle” your tags.
My bundles are EducationalVision, Math, InformationAge and Family. The last category being sites that members of my family created.
#4:Be mindful of the user name you choose.
When you bookmark sites and they are public, you are creating an on-line profile. You are identifying yourself with the information you mark as a favorite. Be thoughtful about the on-line profile you are creating and that this information is public. Even if you choose to use a name different from your actual name, note that the web is an amazing place and that information gets linked and connected. So be thoughtful of what you want identified with your user name, even if it isn’t your actual name.
#5: Allow for Private Savings.
Go to the “Settings” button on the top right and change to allow for private bookmarking. This will put a “do not share” button option on your page when you go to save a site.
As most students and teachers know, school servers block YouTube. Don’t despair. There is a way to bring good educational videos from YouTube into your classroom. You can download a video at home, carry it on a flash drive (or store it on a virtual disk) and then bring it to school.
Anne Bubnic, CTAP Region IV County Specialist, shared this link on how to download YouTube videos. She recommends following the directions exactly. Be sure to use the Firefox browser. One of her colleagues tried it in Safari and couldn’t get it to work. You will also need to download the VLC application for it to work.
If you haven’t heard of Metacafe, you’ll want to read this post about an alternative to YouTube. One fabulous benefit of Metacafe is it isn’t blocked at school. You may want to check if the video you are interested in is uploaded there too.
If you haven’t heard about Metacafe, you’ll be happy to know that there is another company like YouTube on the web. There are a couple of noteworthy similarities and differences between the two companies:
Similarities
You can watch a variety of home, as well as professionally produced, videos.
You can upload videos.
You can rate other people’s videos, if you have an account.
Differences
Metacafe videos are moderated. They aren’t immediately available on the web. I’m not sure how much they screen, but they do have a comment that says, “Do not post p*rn*graphic, excessively violent, illegal, abusive or hateful videos.”
Metacafe allows you to submit your videos for a “Producer’s Award.” If your video meets the criteria and is rated at over 3.0, you can be eligible to be paid for your video. The rating system is an algorithm, which includes viewer rating, comments and some other factors. You can earn $5 for every 1000 views, but payment doesn’t start until your video has reached $100 or 20,000 views.
Metacafe isn’t blocked at my school! So I can use it on my class blog and in the computer lab to preteach and reteach. I’m going to upload all of my videos. (I use rebeccanewburn and newburn as tags on all of my videos so people can readily find them.) I’d be interested to hear if other people can access it from their schools.
Here is one of my videos that I’ve uploaded to Metacafe about Vedic Math, the ancient mental calculating system from India. Whether you are “a math person” or not, you’ll enjoy this one. Promise!
