Sunday, October 18, 2009
BP14_2009103_Blogcomment
This looks like a great alternative to twitter. I would agree with you Nick that my administration would never let us use twitter as a tool in the classroom. There are two many cons to the tool that do outweigh the pros. It does look like yammer has many of the same tools that twitter has only in a more safe way. I think that it could be a useful tool the only problem I see is the students being lack luster when checking the site. Nick I am also amazed on the beauty of your blogs. I guess that I did not know how amazing you could make a blog look. I have never actually read a blog or posted a blog before a couple of weeks ago.
BP13_2009103_LiveDrive
Livedrive is a web 2.0 tool to back up and store all of your files. This is an online storage site that can be unlimited. It has an automatic back up and they guarantee never to lose your files. It also sync’s your files so you can go back and forth from a PC to a Mac. You can also access the information from any computer as long as there is Internet. Another function is the ability to share with whom ever you want to share the files with. A teacher could use this tool in many ways. Working on files at home is the first idea that comes to mind. Another function that really would fit me as a teacher is the sync function. I move from a PC to a Mac quite often. The ability to not have to worry about if a file will open on different computers is priceless. The only problem I see with this tool is that you need to pay for the space and students are not going to want to do that. I also wonder if the school district would be willing to pay for the tool so that teachers could use it. I also wonder if I could share files with my students without them paying for the service.
BP12_2009103_Ginipic
Ginipic is a web 2.0 tool for image finding. You can search Google, yahoo, and flickr all at the same time. This tool is designed to save you time looking for images. It is also simple to use. You can preview all of the pictures with just one click and start using the image instantly. You can also view hundreds of pictures on a single page so no scrolling through pages and pages of pictures trying to find the image you want. Another feature is that you can tag your favorite pictures so that you can use them over and over again. I see this as a tool teachers can use to enhance their presentations with visual images. I also see this being a tool that will save teachers a lot of time with its ability to put many images in front of someone with simple and easy ways to use those images.
BP11_2009103_SlideServe
SlideServe is a PowerPoint sharing tool. Anyone is able to share PowerPoint’s with each other and view each other’s PowerPoint’s. Some of the features of this tool include the ability to create friend groups and share PowerPoint’s with specific people every time you upload a PowerPoint or every time one of your friends up loads one it goes to you. There are also search features that are a key part to finding specific PowerPoint’s. You can do a tag search or you can search for PowerPoint’s by specific categories. The education category has over 160 pages of PowerPoint’s on it right now. After doing a few searches I found multiple PowerPoint’s dealing with agriculture and environmental topics. The way that I would see myself using this tool is go recruit a few other agriculture instructors and create a group that we can all share the PowerPoint’s we have already made with each other.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
BP9_2009102_Flickr Educational Resources
One lesson I researched was where a science teacher posted very interesting pictures and used flicker as a way for the students to see them and comment on them. After reading that lesson I thought that I could use this type of idea in my classroom. I teach a wildlife class and the ability to share pictures in many of my units would be a great activity. One of the units I teach is in forestry. I have already thought of having the students take a picture of all of the trees in their yard and then have the students identify each others trees. The class could have its own group and share with each other. I think that students could really get into this if all of the other students get to see the amazing pictures that they take. I also thought I could use this idea with many topics. I could have a competition with the best wildlife photo or landscape photo. We could also have a "tell me what this is section" where students can research and identify each others photos. The part of flickr that I am most excited about is that a student can take a picture at home or on their phone and put them right into flickr where all of the class can see it. There is great educational value when the students are using each other to solve problems and when they are challenging each other with new pictures and new problems.