Tool#4 Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a new way of sharing in which one doesn't clog up another person's email. I have created multiple documents to share with my colleagues. One was a copy of the teachers' planning times to share with district personnel who are visiting our schools. Having a document that I could edit easily and have the changes easily accessible was convenient. I didn't have to remember to send the revised version to anyone. My colleagues view the document through their mobile devices when necessary and can see the changes the next time they open up the document.

The second document I created was a spreadsheet of student data that I shared with math lab teachers. Again, being able to access the information easily from different locations was great. When I was working with the teacher, I didn't have to log on to her computer to access the data file. I simply asked her to retrieve the file from her Google Docs. It was a very convenient way to retrieve information.

Ways in which the teacher could use Google Docs in the classroom include any projects in which students have to collaborate in groups. Students who engage in group work often have the problem of having to email one another or share information view jump drives. Now, students can begin creating their research on Google Docs and work on them from home.  The forms that students can generate could also facilitate any kind of survey that wanted to conduct in an effort to collect data for creating graphs and charts.

Tool #3 Videos, Stills, and Fair Use

Finding media to use such as videos and still clips is easier than ever. Using the resources responsibly, however, is one's duty as a citizen of the world wide web. The Fair Use policy allows users to use short clips of material as  long as the video or picture has been re-purposed. For instance, using a short segment of an article to illustrate a point in a presentation is valid while circulating the entire article for reading without the consent of the author is not acceptable.

Fortunately, there are videos and pictures where the author or photographer has given creative license for its use to the public. Flickr Creative Commons is one example of such as resource. Another would be new sites such as CNN or Fox News that provides streaming video that can be used for social studies or science classes.

I am currently exploring the use of student created video tutorials which give students a real life application for learning mathematics. Teaching others is a very rewarding experience for students. Giving students opportunities to consume student generated videos is an important instructional input that teachers should incorporate into their lessons as students learn how to create their own videos. To this end, I am going to use videos that I have found on Math Train.Com and some Khan Academy videos to give students some examples to emulate.

To the right is a Khan Academy video and check out the Math Train link to view student generated videos.

Tool #2 Working with PLNs

PLNs are a way of allowing educators to take control of their own staff development and learning. As I was browsing through multiple bookmarks on Diigo and reading blogs that were referenced, I realized that there are many on-going conversations that exists on-line, and they are active twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. Although I have always danced around the fringes of the on-line educators' community, I never quite felt comfortable with interacting with the "dancers" out there already in mid-performance.

Discovering new ways to manage the information out there has allowed me a new entry point to participating in on-line communities. Starting with our own district's community has been a great way to start. I have been following Sara Wilkie, Richard Fanning, and Karen Justl on Diigo as they post new material for several months now and it is an ideal tool on which we collect information for sharing without inundating mine and other's email accounts. Wouldn't it be exciting if all teachers in SBISD were members of an SBISD Diigo so that they could begin sharing on-line resources?

I am presently comfortable with commenting on the blogs of people I know, but I am still a bit uneasy with leaving comments for unknown bloggers. I guess I that will be my next step. Perhaps I will begin with Daniel Dkurapatwa's Blog, "A Difference."

Tools #1

Creating my blog and avatar was easy enough. Playing around with the blog will take some time.