Throughout the course of Technologies for Collaboration and Learning my personal learning network (PLN) has greatly increased over the last eight weeks. I have come to learn many new technology tools that I can use within my classroom with my students and with other teachers within my school district.
· Voice Thread-I found this to be a very handy discussion tool. I have participated in many online discussions throughout my college years, but to be able to actually record and listen to others’ comments makes the discussions much more interesting. I find it easier to say my comments rather than type everything out. Just like when I am responding to emails at school I find it much more personable and handy to just pick up the phone and make a phone call rather than type a conversation. This would be a tool that I will use in the future in discussion purposes.
· Blogger-I have never blogged before taking this course. I have found it to be a great tool to use for discussion purposes. I could see myself using blogging as a communication tool with parents in my classroom. It would be great to post a weekly blog to let parents know what is taking place within the classroom. Parents could also respond with questions or comments they may have at any given time.
· Wiki-This is another great tool to use for discussion, but also for posting documents to share with others. I could see using this tool at school, but there is one area that I am not too sure on. This area is that pages are not locked and others can make changes to the pages that are posted. Working with fifth graders this may be a problem. If they are not sure what they are doing or if they accidently delete something than someone’s hard work is all gone!
· Del.icio.us (Social Bookmarking)-I have found this bookmarking tool to be very handy. Just last semester I was bookmarking many websites that related to my research papers and class discussions. I would bookmark these sites on my laptop, along with e-mailing these sites to myself if I needed them at school. By using del.icio.us I can add it to one place and access this anywhere I am able to connect to the internet. This would be a nice tool to use with my students when working on a research project by setting up a del.icio.us page. I would set it by adding a few sites for students to use, and as they found related sites they could bookmark them for classmates to also use for their research.
· Google Docs-I was very surprised with this tool! It was great to be able to work on a group project without being in the same room as your group members (because everyone is so busy now days). There were many areas that could be used in this program such as documents, surveys, spreadsheets, and presentations. I could definitely see myself using this within my classroom. Students could sit at their own computers and work on a given project with others in the class. If they needed more time they could also work from home!
· Google Page-I have found this as a great tool that organizes all of my web pages that I use on a daily or weekly basis. Students could set up their own pages with easy to access sites used in the classroom.
· RSS Feeds-I have always seen the icon on my computer, but I never had set up any RSS feeds. I found these very interesting. I set up my blogs into my RSS feeds, and it was very easy to access classmates’ blogs when reading and responding to other blogs. Students could add these to their own Google pages.
· Web 2.0 Tools-There were many Web 2.0 tools that were introduced to me throughout the course. I researched timelines tools, which would be great to use while teaching social studies. Concept mapping tools would be great in so many subject areas to help students organize their notes and research. I also found the online story telling tools (creating a short video) and creating a website neat to use. There are many areas of the tools that I can use with my students in the future. These could be incorporated into so many subject areas!
· Flickr-I did not work with this tool much during this course, but it does look very interesting. I could upload my photos, manage the photos, and share with others.
· Online Conferencing (WebEx)/Scheduling (Doodle)-I found the online conference and online scheduling to be very easy to use. I could see myself using these tools when meeting with parents. My parent/teacher conference schedule could be used within Doodle to give parents a chance to sign up for a time that works the best for them. In the case a parent was unable to meet in person for conferences I could set up an online conference.
Even though there were many tools that I would use with my students within my classroom there were also a tool that I found interesting, but I could not find myself using this tool on a daily basis in the future.
· Twitter-I cannot see myself using this tool in the future. I did find it interesting to follow others in related topics of interest to me. But I am not a person who comments on what I am doing at various times throughout the day. I may use this tool to find information on related topics, but I will not use it for other purposes.
I have learned how to use many tools and programs that I can use in my personal learning network (PLN). I have explained above in each area how I will use each of these in the future, along with using them in the classroom and with my students. I understand some areas may be more difficult to use in the classroom, because of the internet safety and district policies. I will check these policies before using specific tools and programs. I now have many more tools to use in my classroom (more than I could have imagined learning in such a short time)! I will continue to build my PLN by adding new tools and programs as I come across them. I am excited to learn more about the CyberSmart tool bar that I have added to my computer. There are so many new tools that I have yet to explore!
