In The Clouds

Educational Technology Wordle from David Warlicks 2 cents Worth blog.  

Cloud computing has become an important aspect of the educational community.  Economic times have forced schools to look for services that can be provided which bear little cost for the school.  Cloud computing allows for collaboration and sharing of ideas, projects, etc. between users without having to "store" the file on a specific computer.  Storage on "the cloud" means that anyone can have access to the file without having to open an email attachment.  Many everyday tasks can be completed "on the cloud" and many smart phones provide capability of using cloud computing. 

In my particular setting we use Google Docs for many of our teacher collaborations.  We jointly collaborate on a weekly newsletter and use Google Docs for our jr. high team discipline and missing assignments.  Our students use Google Docs for presentations and to share word processing documents.  

Another site that we've used before that is consider "cloud computing" is Kerpoof Studio!  My younger students use it to create pictures, story scenes and even movies.  They love the interactivity and if they create a login, they can use it at home or at school. Kerpoof offers teachers the chance to create a class login and assign students to different classes.  We've been using this for awhile and it has continued to add more features every year! 

Also, we use Museum Box.  Our 5th graders who study the American Revolution can create boxes about different faces of the revolution.  They can then share their box with the rest of the class.  Along with this project, they are also reading novels about the American Revolution. Use of an online tool like Museum Box allows us again to focus on collaboration and cross-curricular technology projects!

Overall, these cloud computing websites have allowed us to continue to encourage our students and staff to collaborate with each other and share their work!  

I don't regularly use bookmarking sites like Diigo or Delicious.  Mostly because I don't have the time to maintain.  I can generally share sites with my students by linking to our school website, which is easier for me and I don't have any filtering issues.  I can certainly see the value in tagging different bookmarks or blog topics and I do use tagging that is done by others.  It saves time when I'm looking for a specific topic, like "web 2.0" or "elementary".  

Many of our students have created word clouds in different classes.  There are teachers who have had their students create class word clouds about what they hope to learn that year.  Our junior high students created word clouds about the school that were used for an Open House and given to prospective students.  Personally, I use word clouds when giving presentations about technology to other teachers.

Blogging & Twittering

I guess it's time to dust off the blog and begin again! In looking back, the past year has been truly busy for me. So busy that I forgot to blog!! I created this blog a couple of years ago in order to mostly organize what was going on in both of my classrooms. When I began the blog, I was (and still am) very interested in personal learning networks. I think that every teacher has a personal learning network and I had hoped my blog would become part of mine. I spend time each day reading the blogs of others in my field and learning from them, sharing ideas and resources, and generally stay connected professionally to those not close geographically to me, but those who shared my educational technology philosophy. I never really intended the blog to become a tool of communication for the parents of my students. We have numerous other ways that we communicate with them on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. I can see the value in me keeping up with my blog to expand and maintain my professional learning network, which again, is extremely important to me!

I've been on Twitter for awhile and while I don't "tweet" as much as I could/should, it is again something that I use professionally as a part of that PLN. It allows me a quick peek into ideas or thoughts of those I read regularly without having to go to multiple sites. If someone posts a link, I can get to the site quickly and if someone poses a question, I can answer, if I feel compelled! I understand that the communication on Twitter is a two way street and I probably should respond or post more than I do, but again, it's the dreaded time crunch I find myself in all the time! In one of the linked resources for Week 2, David Pogue shares his frustration with Twitter. I think, like David, I eliminate many of the tweets that have to do with people's personal lives and try to remain focused on the professional aspects of the application.

I've mostly chosen to follow other Ed.Tech. people on Twitter, but I do have some personal "tweeters" as well. I do have the app installed on my phone and iPad, so I do check into Twitter regularly! Again, its a wonderful professional tool and an important part of my PLN.