Thoughts about Google Docs

I have to admit that this class was a really good excuse to fill in some gaps I had in my knowledge of Web 2.0 possibilities.

Looking at Google Docs was one area that I really hadn't explored at all. I looked at Google Docs and played around some. I am very intrigued, but this is one of those times when I fear my old habits are so deeply ingrained that I'm not sure I could change habits, even if the new tool were better. I really like the concept of a shared document or a shared slide show, I just don't know how or when I would actually use such a thing. I TOTALLY get how useful this would be for group projects. I will definitely promote these types of activities to the teachers and the students.

Did you try my form in the blog (below)? It's a quick yes or no question. It was one of the things I was exploring in Google Docs, which is a "form." I just can't figure out how to make the box bigger so you don't have to scroll to see the answer buttons!

One of the things I keep coming back to is how useful Moodle is. Moodle has much of these features (e.g. forms) built in to it, and in a format that the students are familiar with. I can see how these would be useful for my students when they create web sites, or for people without access to Moodle.

Now the trick will be to keep track of Google docs in my brain so that I remember it when I need it!

test survey

Wikis

I am embarrassed it has been so long since my last post. I got bogged down a while back and just couldn't get this blog updated.

I'm on the wiki week, whatever week that is. I have found wikis most useful in creating a common document where all the students contribute something. I typically have them write advice to next year's tablet recipients. Then I clean it up and include it in the updated tablet PC handbook. It is a great tool. I require it for class, so I use the history feature to see who contributed what to the document. It works great.

I have found that my favorite way to describe wikis is by showing the video you'll find at:
http://www.commoncraft.com/video-wikis-plain-english The video is called "Wikis in Plain English" and I've shown it to both students and adults alike. Enjoy!

My Bookmarks on Delicious

I've used Delicious before and think it definitely has uses. Problem is breaking habits. I am not at all used to using it or sending kids to it to see my bookmarks. I'd just as soon use moodle, which is a little more controlled and a lot less public.

Still, if you want to see my bookmarks, go to
http://delicious.com/ then click on the "people" link and type my school username.

Image Generators - My "fun" pic

This week was called "play week" and they told us to go explore something fun. I was curious about image generators, so I went to the cartoon site they list in the course and made a few cartoons with captions.

Basically, the site has hundreds of cartoon images with empty captions. You can put a title on the image (above the cartoon) and then fill in the bubble.

I have to say, it was not worth the effort. The site I went to was not ready for prime time. It took forever to load each image, then it took a lot of trial and error to get the image to look right, and if it didn't you couldn't just tweak it you had to START OVER! Then the only way I could actually use the image was to copy it to my hard drive. I could never figure out how to bring it directly from the image generation site straight into my blog. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be able to do that.

Still, it was kind of fun. If you want to see the results of my work, you can check out my moodle class (Tech Project). I decided to freshen up my page with new images. I like the result and finished all the images, despite the fact that it took so long.

In summary, it was a huge time sink and like I said, not worth the effort. I keep wondering how this might fit into a class. Sure you could have the kids generate an image with a slogan for a project, but does the learning match the amount of time it takes to create the projects? I have mixed feelings about this.

Flickr

I posted some pictures on Flickr. They are photos that my daughter took. She has an eye for photographing plants and flowers up close. (At least, I think she does!) Most of these were taken in Africa at a botanical garden in Cape Town. The plants are mostly indigenous to South Africa.

I can see the value of Flickr in the classroom. The students in 7th grade used it to share photos of their trip to Stone Labs. Each kid uploaded her photos, and other kids could download them for projects, such as the PhotoStory project they were required to do. They all ended up with far more photos to choose from than just their own, including pictures of themselves. (The person behind the camera rarely gets to be in photos, but sharing like this is one way to help insure that people get pictures of themselves.

You could also use it to search for images for projects or movies. I just did a search for Angkor Wat in Cambodia and found over 200,000 photos, mostly gorgeous, that could be used if a student needed some images of this historical temple. Just out of curiosity, I did a search with Google Images for Angkor Wat and also found just over 200,000 images. The difference is that the Google pictures are all on the web and may or may not be available to copy and use. Flickr, on the other hand, is free to copy under the Creative Commons License. This could make a good teaching point for students.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. I've never thought much about writing publicly, and never had much success writing a personal journal, but I'm participating in an online class that requires this. I will post my reflections about the various assignments we are working on, which area all focused on Web 2.0 tools.

Enjoy!