As I continue the hunt for those
precious gems of technology and groups who are using them the progress is
slower than I thought. The main reason
is not that I cannot find anything, but that I am finding too much. My searches bring back memories of the Bing
commercials from a few years back related to search overload. For fun (and practice) you can watch a few in
the following YouTube video Bing:
Cure for the Search Overload (Teccom747, 2009):
In looking for the right programs,
blogs, and communities I have been sorting through suggestions from classmates,
colleagues, and stuff I have found through search engines. Now, I am working more about narrowing down
the searches and finding the best, most useful stuff. The following is a synopsis of my findings
thus far.
Standard 1c) “Promote student
reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual
understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes” (ISTE, 2008).
Last week I discussed collecting
all of my findings in a document on Google
Drive. The goal of this is to allow
a place where I can store my findings and research in a way that I can easily
share it with others and allow other to add to it as well. I have set up the basics and thrown a few
resources on a document, but am not quite prepared to open it up to the
public. More to come here.
Speaking of Google Drive, last week
Hansen (2012a) directed me towards the specific use of Google Groups. My research into it is limited, but essentially,
groups can be set up based on invitation or interest and members correspond
using threaded discussion. As the
discussions can be public or private, it is another interesting piece of
software to add to our collaborative arsenal.
Check out Hansen’s blog for more updates at They Just Call Me “Hansen” (Hansen,
2012b)
Another classmate, Brunswick (2012)
also directed me to a great blog that often has information about collaborative
tools. The blog is called Blogging about the Web 2.0 Connected
Classroom (Anderson, 2012). I
actually like enough of the content in this blog that I linked it on my own
blogs home page (over on the left under My Blog List). There are many useful tips on how to use
technology for all sorts of things, including collaboration. This is the type of resource I am looking for
to enhance my own knowledge of the tools available.
While clicking through several
other educational technology sites and blogs I came across another gold nugget
that I will share. In a blog post titled
50
Free Collaboration Tools That Are Awesome for Education (Accredited Online
Colleges, 2010), you find a list of exactly what the title says. It is broken down into five groups of ten
sources each by category of what you would like to accomplish. Examples are completing Group Projects,
Social Networking, and Note taking. Many
of the programs are ones you have heard of before, like Wikispaces and Twitter.
However, there is a large list of software I have not heard of that seem very
useful too. Though geared for college-aged
students, almost all of these look feasible in high school classrooms.
Although I am finding good
resources, they are more in the form of databases. The piece I am still missing is finding a
community to belong to and communicate with.
I understand that blogs are a form of community and that by subscribing and
commenting you are becoming part of that. However, not being in a classroom right now I crave
a little more communication than that. Any
suggestions on where to look? Or even what
media format would be good to search through?
Standard 2b) “Develop
technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue
their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their
own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own
progress” (ISTE, 2008).
Educational technology is often multifaceted.
The same goes for resources associated with
educational technology. Many of the resources
I have mentioned in relation to the last standard are also useful here. One distinction I mentioned in last week’s post
is that this standard seems to tie in very well with the Universal Design for Learning
(UDL). (see Sticking
with my G.A.M.E. Plan for more details) Therefore, I wanted to specifically seek out resources
and communities that link UDL and educational technologies.
One great source I found is a blog called
Universally Designed: AT, IT
and UDL Tips and Tricks (Universally Designed, 2012). It would have been nice to find this last week
when we were studying UDL, but it is still superb. It gives you excellent walk-throughs of technologies
and techniques. Some posts even have step-by-step
photo tutorials with screenshots. Another
feature that is not as common as it should be in blogs, is the ability to search
posts by category. For example, you can look
for Apps, Instructional Strategies, UDL, and more. Well worth your time to check out.
Again here, I would like to find a more
interactive community. I also need to look
through and pick out some specific tools and strategies to try when I get back into
a classroom again. I am creating a database
on Google Drive with this category as well, though I have both of my resources in
the same document as of now due to their relatedness. Any more
resources or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Resources:
Accredited
Online Colleges (2010, April 7). 50 Free collaboration tools that are awesome
for education (Web log post). Retrieved September 25, 2012 from http://www.accreditedonlinecolleges.com/blog/2010/50-free-collaboration-tools/
Anderson,
S. (2012). Blogging about the web 2.0 connected classroom (Web log). Retrieved
from http://blog.web20classroom.org/
Brunswick,
S. (2012, September 23). Sticking with my G.A.M.E. plan (Web log reply).
Retrieved from http://hiscitech.blogspot.com/2012/09/sticking-with-my-game-plan.html
Hansen,
R. (2012a, September 23). Sticking with my G.A.M.E. plan (Web log reply).
Retrieved from http://hiscitech.blogspot.com/2012/09/sticking-with-my-game-plan.html
Hansen,
R. (2012b). They just call me “Hansen” (Web log). Retrieved from http://justhansen.blogspot.com/
ISTE
(2008). NETS-T. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers
Teccom747
(2009, June 8). Bing: Cure for the search overload. Retrieved September 25,
2012 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAwUUgnBhCU&feature=related
Universally
Designed (2012). Universally Designed: AT, IT and UDL Tips and Tricks (Web log).
Retrieved from http://www.systemsofsupport.org/udlblog/
