1-minute iGoogle video
Images used by permission, Jupiter Images, Inc.
Music used by permission, Apple Corporation
Sunday, November 15, 2009
bp16_2009113_Blog_Web2.0Tools_Google_Tools
It may be generational, it may be a personality thing (With a high “J” at the end of my Myers-Briggs type indicator, it’s clear I like order), or it may be that my work has wired me this way. Whatever the reason, I’m compelled to try to find a Web 2.0 tool to help corporate learners to organize all the wonderful Web 2.0 tools that are available to them.
Over the last three weeks I’ve been exposed to a head-pounding assortment of widgets, tools, resources, sites, and electronic instructions. I’m excited about the possibilities of putting many of them to use, at the right time and in the right way, but I see forward a dizzying experience for learners without a consistent method of getting to relevant learning resources when they need them. Corporate employees, at least where I work, don’t generally have continuous learning on their minds, and formal learning experiences are much fewer and farther between than perhaps they should be. When employees do engage in formal learning, time is usually short. For these reasons, I strongly believe that a consistent learning platform is needed for learners to manage all of their learning.
I have heard about Personal Learning Plans, and thanks to my professor, Rena Hanaway, I now have created one of my own, using the iGoogle tool. What I’ve created is fully my own, but I want more; so I went back to Google for help. Google University ate their own dog food and used Google tools to create a Learning Platform and experience that is incredible! Julie Clow presented at the Learning 2009 Conference, Learning in the “Cloud”: Foundations of Leadership & Teamwork.
Only two tools in Google’s Leadership program are purchased outside of the free Google accessible tools: One to help manage automatic deployments of emails to learners, and one to enable Web Conferencing. Some of the Google tools used to enable the learning platform include these:
- Wikis
- Profiles
- Moderator
- Knol
- Forms
- Spreadsheet
- YouTube Video
The Google University method of delivering web-based learning is loaded with the benefits my corporate organization needs to make learning 2.0 work:
- Easy, open, web-based access to content
- Learner driven content
- Inexpensive to create and deliver
- Easily updateable
- Effective, according to the results in the report.
The main hurdle to overcome with my corporate clients will be to break out of the paradigm of secured content. There’s nothing proprietary in learning opportunities we find out in cyberspace; so the minor risk of placing our method of organizing out on Google’s servers, while it may be a shock to the system (which is Sharepoint based), does not jeopardize any company secrets.
It’s time to harness the Information Age! I intend to recommend using Google Sites and tools to launch an employee cultural development program within my organization. Wish me well.
Reference
Clow, J. and Onstable, J. 2009. Learning in the "Cloud": Foundations of Leadership & Teamwork. Learning 2009 Conference.
Over the last three weeks I’ve been exposed to a head-pounding assortment of widgets, tools, resources, sites, and electronic instructions. I’m excited about the possibilities of putting many of them to use, at the right time and in the right way, but I see forward a dizzying experience for learners without a consistent method of getting to relevant learning resources when they need them. Corporate employees, at least where I work, don’t generally have continuous learning on their minds, and formal learning experiences are much fewer and farther between than perhaps they should be. When employees do engage in formal learning, time is usually short. For these reasons, I strongly believe that a consistent learning platform is needed for learners to manage all of their learning.
I have heard about Personal Learning Plans, and thanks to my professor, Rena Hanaway, I now have created one of my own, using the iGoogle tool. What I’ve created is fully my own, but I want more; so I went back to Google for help. Google University ate their own dog food and used Google tools to create a Learning Platform and experience that is incredible! Julie Clow presented at the Learning 2009 Conference, Learning in the “Cloud”: Foundations of Leadership & Teamwork.
Only two tools in Google’s Leadership program are purchased outside of the free Google accessible tools: One to help manage automatic deployments of emails to learners, and one to enable Web Conferencing. Some of the Google tools used to enable the learning platform include these:
- Wikis
- Profiles
- Moderator
- Knol
- Forms
- Spreadsheet
- YouTube Video
The Google University method of delivering web-based learning is loaded with the benefits my corporate organization needs to make learning 2.0 work:
- Easy, open, web-based access to content
- Learner driven content
- Inexpensive to create and deliver
- Easily updateable
- Effective, according to the results in the report.
The main hurdle to overcome with my corporate clients will be to break out of the paradigm of secured content. There’s nothing proprietary in learning opportunities we find out in cyberspace; so the minor risk of placing our method of organizing out on Google’s servers, while it may be a shock to the system (which is Sharepoint based), does not jeopardize any company secrets.
It’s time to harness the Information Age! I intend to recommend using Google Sites and tools to launch an employee cultural development program within my organization. Wish me well.
Reference
Clow, J. and Onstable, J. 2009. Learning in the "Cloud": Foundations of Leadership & Teamwork. Learning 2009 Conference.
bp14_2009113_BlogResponse_Peer_Review_of_Tara's_Post
T.Roe's video blog post about a tool, On the Road, sounds great. I'm convinced that it could be a very helpful tool to for those Disney employees who, her, travel a great deal for work. Furthermore, I think that the opportunity to share these stories within groups of employees who travel to the same regions could help improve overall effectiveness of cross-cultural work.
Thanks so much for sharing! I Googled "On the Road," but I didn't find it. I'd like to find the URL so I can share this new tool at work tomorrow.
Reference
Roe, T. November 2, 2009. Web 2.0 Tools. Retrieved on November 6, 2009 from http://blogsintheclassrom.blogspot.com/2009/11/bp720091102reflective-media-asset.html?showComment=1258319722636#c1589875417376179268
Images used by permission, Jupiter Images, Inc.
bp15_2009113_BlogResponse_Peer_Review_of_Kaye's_Post
Another Nice Set of Web 2.0 Tools for Education -- From Kaye
Kaye shared a great new tool, ClassTools.net She suggested that it may be her new favorite, and I can see why. Classtools.net is full of great learning activities! I personally got all engaged in the Venn Diagram activity. With sites like this one, there's really no excuse at all for incorporating technology into the classroom.
One of the really nice things about the way this site's tools work is the easy-access style, whereby teachers nor students have to log in or sign up to engage with it. That was really nice. I was able to embed my Venn Diagram onto my Personal Learning Plan mock up in just a few short minutes! Furthermore, as a parent, it wouldn't be difficult at all to click on that Class Tools logo and find other activities for further study.
The only challenge I had with Class Tools was in finding just the right activities, but I'm sure even that would come with a little more effort.
Thanks for the great gift, Kaye!
Kaye shared a great new tool, ClassTools.net She suggested that it may be her new favorite, and I can see why. Classtools.net is full of great learning activities! I personally got all engaged in the Venn Diagram activity. With sites like this one, there's really no excuse at all for incorporating technology into the classroom.
One of the really nice things about the way this site's tools work is the easy-access style, whereby teachers nor students have to log in or sign up to engage with it. That was really nice. I was able to embed my Venn Diagram onto my Personal Learning Plan mock up in just a few short minutes! Furthermore, as a parent, it wouldn't be difficult at all to click on that Class Tools logo and find other activities for further study.
The only challenge I had with Class Tools was in finding just the right activities, but I'm sure even that would come with a little more effort.
Thanks for the great gift, Kaye!
bp13_2009113_BlogResponse_Peer_Review_of_Cristina's_Post
Cristina wrote about Web 2.0 tools and blogging.
Blogging has become very big in education because removes the technical barriers to writing and publishing online and the journal format encourages students to keep a record of their thinking over time. Blogs also facilitate critical feedback, by letting readers add comments that could be from teachers, and / or peers.
I’ve been using blogs for quite a while now and I use them to present my lessons to my students and they do their writing right on the blog. I have wikis which I find them very useful. I have a delicious account which I think is the best bookmarking site there is. While exploring the Web 2.0 applications I found quite a few applications that can be use with my classes. I like Kideos, which has lost of videos for kids.
Thanks for this solid advice. You're quite a few steps ahead of me in this technology for learning exploration; so I truly appreciate your perspectives.
In particular, I'm glad to hear that you're actually using the blogs to provide assignments to your students. I'm curious about how you're allowing them to post their writings to your blog. Can students see each other's work? If so, have you seen any changes in the quality or content of work as a result of this dynamic?
At Full Sail, for me, having other students see my work has been very stressful, but I'm coming to grips with it. Ultimately, I think it's a very good thing, it's just a major learning culture shift for me. I'm just not naturally that transparent. I wonder if your students might have expressed a similar impact/discomfort with this practice and how you advise working through that.
Reference
Navarrete, C. November 2, 2009. Web 2.0 Tools. Retrieved on November 14, 2009 from http://tech-tools-cn.blogspot.com/2009/11/bp420091102web20tools.html?showComment=1258315533931#c8409340007440707865
Thursday, November 12, 2009
bp8_2009112_ResearchingandBloggingWeb2Tools-BuddySchool
Buddy School Tries to Address Tutors' Basic Needs
I'm still looking for that ideal platform for online learning, and I thought that perhaps an e-tutoring platform might do the trick. It seems that with all the great, free Learning 2.0 tools gaining popularity, there would be a leading platform for managing all this learning. Even though the black and white clip art Buddy School logo made me think the resource could be a bit old-fashioned, because the site was promoted as a learner management system (which is exactly what we need), I checked it out to see what it could do.
BuddySchool.com offers web based tools for effective tutoring. It provides a vehicle for educators to advertise their services and to manage all of their students and schedules. These are a significant benefits for tutors looking for connections, and students could also find the tool useful for shopping for the best tutor for them because the rating system makes it relatively easy to compare tutors. With well-categorized lessons, profiles and ratings for educators clearly visible, and even the ability to time lessons, I imagine that the site could make the tutoring much easier.
Buddy School leans heavily on other Web products like Skype and Google chat. Unfortunately, when it comes to the actual learning itself, this tool offered little help during my trial. While the site tutorials touted a new feature, Lesson Plans, which supposedly provide the new ability to share text, video, and other media during classes, I could not get this feature to work, over multiple attempts/hours. It wouldn't allow me to access tools to upload multimedia inside the platform; so for me, that was a bit off-putting. The platform has to be reliable, at a minimum.
My experience with this site inspired me to think again about a number of things: how important it is for sites like this one to be well integrated with existing online tools, how many learning resources are available online for modern students (which raises the stakes significantly for what happens in the real classroom), and how interesting it could be to hang out a shingle and try to make a living as a professional tutor. Buddy School isn't for me right now, but I sure learned a thing or two from testing out the site.
Image used by permission, Jupiter Images, Inc.
BuddySchool.com offers web based tools for effective tutoring. It provides a vehicle for educators to advertise their services and to manage all of their students and schedules. These are a significant benefits for tutors looking for connections, and students could also find the tool useful for shopping for the best tutor for them because the rating system makes it relatively easy to compare tutors. With well-categorized lessons, profiles and ratings for educators clearly visible, and even the ability to time lessons, I imagine that the site could make the tutoring much easier.
Buddy School leans heavily on other Web products like Skype and Google chat. Unfortunately, when it comes to the actual learning itself, this tool offered little help during my trial. While the site tutorials touted a new feature, Lesson Plans, which supposedly provide the new ability to share text, video, and other media during classes, I could not get this feature to work, over multiple attempts/hours. It wouldn't allow me to access tools to upload multimedia inside the platform; so for me, that was a bit off-putting. The platform has to be reliable, at a minimum.
My experience with this site inspired me to think again about a number of things: how important it is for sites like this one to be well integrated with existing online tools, how many learning resources are available online for modern students (which raises the stakes significantly for what happens in the real classroom), and how interesting it could be to hang out a shingle and try to make a living as a professional tutor. Buddy School isn't for me right now, but I sure learned a thing or two from testing out the site.
Image used by permission, Jupiter Images, Inc.
bp7_2009112_ResearchingandBloggingWeb2Tools-Edmodo
Edmodo Might Harness the Power of Web 2.0 For Education
Edmodo is billed as a platform for education. It's a tool conceived to allow educators to bring together all the great Learning 2.0 tools, in one place, for their students. I want to be so enabled, but I haven't yet
found the full solve promised by this tool.
Edmodo leverages popular online tools and functionality to enable teachers to both share their unique content online and to connect their students to the world of knowledge available on the Internet. Teachers can create their own student groups, assignment posts and polls. They can upload files and leverage Web 2.0 tools like RSS feeds, alerts, links (including embed code), and polls.
One teacher's Edmodo experience with a student makes it clear that there can be positive outcomes from Edmodo use. The key is that teachers and students get in the habit of using the Internet together, to enhance learning.
Indeed, the Web 2.0 functionality that I've come to expect from a site is available here. Edmodo leverages popular online tools and functionality to enable teachers to both share their unique content online and to connect their students to the world of knowledge available on the Internet. Teachers can create their own student groups, assignment posts and polls. They can upload files and leverage Web 2.0 tools like RSS feeds, alerts, links (including embed codes), and polls.
The only challenge with Edmodo was the clunky, difficult interface. While I was able to publish an assignment with embed code relatively quickly. It wasn’t easy for me to find the link to share with students, nor to organize the assignments. Online tutorials are few, so this tool doesn’t appear to be made for the novice. While there are lots of features, the interface is difficult to master quickly. This is a big challenge, because of the way educators can confuse students and parents by misusing homework/assignment tools like this one.
Educators who have a good base of understanding about Internet platforms designed to manage the classroom or who are determined to make it work could have an easier time getting up to speed and doing wonders with Edmodo, but new users like me will need to commit a good deal of time getting acquainted with this interface to make using it worth their while. Edmodo does have some promise.
Image used by permission, Jupiter Images, Inc.
found the full solve promised by this tool.
Edmodo leverages popular online tools and functionality to enable teachers to both share their unique content online and to connect their students to the world of knowledge available on the Internet. Teachers can create their own student groups, assignment posts and polls. They can upload files and leverage Web 2.0 tools like RSS feeds, alerts, links (including embed code), and polls.
One teacher's Edmodo experience with a student makes it clear that there can be positive outcomes from Edmodo use. The key is that teachers and students get in the habit of using the Internet together, to enhance learning.
Indeed, the Web 2.0 functionality that I've come to expect from a site is available here. Edmodo leverages popular online tools and functionality to enable teachers to both share their unique content online and to connect their students to the world of knowledge available on the Internet. Teachers can create their own student groups, assignment posts and polls. They can upload files and leverage Web 2.0 tools like RSS feeds, alerts, links (including embed codes), and polls.
The only challenge with Edmodo was the clunky, difficult interface. While I was able to publish an assignment with embed code relatively quickly. It wasn’t easy for me to find the link to share with students, nor to organize the assignments. Online tutorials are few, so this tool doesn’t appear to be made for the novice. While there are lots of features, the interface is difficult to master quickly. This is a big challenge, because of the way educators can confuse students and parents by misusing homework/assignment tools like this one.
Educators who have a good base of understanding about Internet platforms designed to manage the classroom or who are determined to make it work could have an easier time getting up to speed and doing wonders with Edmodo, but new users like me will need to commit a good deal of time getting acquainted with this interface to make using it worth their while. Edmodo does have some promise.
Image used by permission, Jupiter Images, Inc.
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