Friday, February 8, 2013

Week 5

       I was really interested in the reading this week.  The chapter addressed a lot of issues that had been bothering me, and it went even further.  It more or less gave you ways to lobby for a networked school.  I was really fascinated by the cost effectiveness of introducing a true networked room.  If we just gave all our kids computers (in the way many districts have done for a long time), but not truly use them as the tools we could make them into, we do not only a disservice to our students, but really we waste money adding an unrealized tool into the room.  If we network the rooms the nice little chart in the book breaks down just how much money districts would save per child each year.  It is amazing to see what you wouldn't really need anymore once you network your students correctly. 
       One of the sites I looked into this week was http://www.edweb.net/.  I went through several of the suggested sites, and I think edweb is one of the better ones.  I liked the set-up process and how it helps tailor the info and content to your interests and teaching field.  I was pretty impressed with the capacity this site has to offer.  Within seconds I was able to connect with my interest in learning more about strategies for hearing impaired students.
       I also signed into google+ for the first time as well this week (although I was setting up this account Thursday night, so I couldn't join the class discussion and really see it in action!).  Until I get to try this out more I'll hold judgment, but everyone on Twitter seemed happy with it I noticed, and hangout seems to offer a LOT of professional and classroom potential.

2 comments:

  1. Sorry you missed Thursday night. Once I got my headphones & mic to work, it was a neat way to have a discussion. The idea of being able to work on a collaborative Google docs while discussing it seems like a great way to use the tool. I don't know if we are going to try again but I could see this as a way to expand your PLN if you could meet in a "face to face" electronic forum with teachers from all over. Jus one more thing to spend some time trying to use to improve my teaching.

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  2. I was impressed with Google+ as well. It seems very similar to Skype to me with the video part, but being able to work on documents and other aspects of teaching that may come across seems very helpful. If you had a group of teachers that were planning a presentation to the staff, they could get on Google+ and work on it together and prepare, instead of having to all meet somewhere together and find a right time.

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