Thing #6 - Discovering & exploring Web 2.0 tools

I love Google Calendar!  I have found that it is a great way to communicate with parents regarding classroom assignments and daily schedules.  I was able to create our classroom schedule for the entire school year and embed this into my classroom website.  Then, as you click on each daily subject, that day's lesson/assignment pops up.  If you need to make changes, you just log into Google Calendar, make the changes, publish it, and then it all shows up on your website page.  It does have many other useful features.  One includes sending you email reminders of upcoming events or adding schedule pop-ups to your page.  I think the entire school could use it to post lunch menus, upcoming school-wide activities, and so forth.  After using it for the first couple months of school, one of the only drawbacks for my purposes is the fact that if you are not careful you could erase a subject for the entire year from your classroom calendar.  Thus, erasing any plans you might have already taught or any future ones you have already created in advance.  If there is a way, I haven't figured out how to retrieve something I accidentally removed.

Google Calendar

I have also utilized Google Docs in my graduate classes.  It provides a great way to collaborate on assignments or projects.  All you do is share the document with the people you will be collaborating with.  You can decide who will be editors or just readers.  If there are more than two people, each person can choose a different text color for their input.  Then, when the assignment is finalized, the text color can be changed to one color.  The only thing I disliked about the tool was it takes a little time for each person's ideas or changes to be visible to the group.  I think that it would work better if you were able to hear add voice to it in realtime.  If you can, I haven't figured it out yet!

Google Docs

The other two tools I have played with a little are Skype (only used once) and Picasa.  Skype reminds me of one of the technological tools dreamed up in the cartoon show The Jetsons.  It was really neat to be able to see the person and talk to them at the same time.  Since I have only used this tool once, I still have a lot to learn.  One feature that I really thought was neat was the ability to show the person you are talking to your computer screen.  I could see exactly what was on the other person's screen and see their mouse movements.  I would like to explore this tool more to learn more about exactly what features I like and dislike.  However, I don't know very many people who utilize Skype.  Picasa was very easy to use and upload pictures to.  I liked how you are able to resize very easily, do touchups, and create effects.  It is definitely a tool that I hope to explore even more.  When I think of using either of these in schools, I think they offer a lot of potential.  As I have stated in a previous post, I would love for my class to Skype another class and collaborate on some project or standard together.  Picasa might be a great way to share pictures of classroom activities without posting these for the world to see.  If I am correct, I think you could share picture files only with certain people.  However, on these two tools, I still have lot to learn and explore!

Skype
Picasa