Well, I'm in the throws of the first week of assignments. Balancing staying ahead of the kids at school, staying involved with the family, and finding a place to get some work done has proven to be a bit challenging.
Now that the Google Docs assignment has been completed, I have lost a bit of the enthusiasm I initially felt for the application. The idea of online storage was one that had huge possibilities in the area of parent communication. I was beginning to envision having the class notes, assessment rubrics, assignment answers, etc. available for parents to access for their kids and for their own understanding. Online storage could provide a hassle-free, efficient way for me to make these sorts of items available on a daily basis. I am, however, discouraged by the change in formatting that occurs. This could make the communication something that is more frustrating than helpful. Until I become more confident in using Google Docs or until the application improves, I will probably continue to make some of these items links of my class webpage . ...Actually, I may experiment with the idea of linking within Google Docs... ...linking to links... ...it sounds like it will be a bit more work than what I do now.
I'm not new to the idea of blogging, but I have only tried it once or twice on my MySpace page. The only practical application I think I may be able to implement would be to have students post their math reflections. Posting the periodic reflections would require each student to type (and assumably spellcheck and grammarcheck) their papers. I would, however, have to make sure the technology would be available to the students... ...a huge challenge at the high school, a bit of a challenge at the middle school... ...AND it would take up more class time. I'm not sure we can afford that luxury; there's always the concern about covering enough content. I'll have to put a bit more thought into the management aspect of using blogs for this reason.
Now, I am off to pursue the idea of social bookmarking... ...wikipedia, here I come!
Great Job Danelle,
ReplyDeleteI like the look....and the spacing...and your enthusiastic voice. It sounds like you already use quite a bit of technology in your teaching. At the start new information creates a bunch of possible uses and then with time and application of the technologies comes understanding of how and where they will be most beneficial. How do you balance student access to technology in a public school system where the availability is not guaranteed?
Danelle, In looking for a tool for parent communication you may not want to use Google Docs because I don't think you would want the parents/students to be editing your posts. Plus you would need to invite all of your students and their parents to have Google Docs access, and they would all need gmail accounts. I've done some work on this in the past, and it can be an organizational challenge.
ReplyDeleteOn a more positive note, there have been some people within my school who have had a lot of success in using a blog like this one as a communication tool for parents and students. They have used it to keep track of assignments, announce upcoming events/projects, and to send non-student specific messages to parent groups.
Danelle, it was nice reading your post. I too have found so many ideas for the Google Documents application. I would also caution about making the content available for parents through Google Documents. Our school uses both Blackboard and Moodle to get our information out to students and staff. While each have their flaws and perks, Blackboard is expensive and Moodle is free, as of now. I would suggest looking into Moodle, if you haven't, because you can utilize it to help convey information to you students and parents with ease.
ReplyDeleteThe other conept that I could see using with blogs would be placing links to specific documents. That way you could post activities that were done for the day and place a link to a specific file for the students to download.
Hi Danielle,
ReplyDeleteI think you are correct in your observation that Google Docs is a great tool for creating basic documents. Note the word basic. As with most technology, this product will most likely improve. Though it probably isn't one you’d want to use as a means of communication with parents (the collaboration issue), it seems that there are many other circumstances that it would prove to be useful tool—you just have to figure out what circumstances!. Just the fact that you can access your Google Docs documents from any computer is a plus.
Meanwhile, you have a great web page!
Blogs are new to me too. Again, how one applies what is learned in this program depends on one’s situation. For instance, what grade level do you teach? What is the age of your students? How does your institution rank as far as an up to date IT department? Your idea about students posting reflections sounds like a nice idea to me. We are finding at MATC that many in-coming students are poor writers. Blogging is a nice way for students to get practice with this skill. Reflecting is a good way for students to learn how to think.
So, keep up the good work!
One nice thing about Google Docs is you can publish without collaboration - so you can make web pages and give to parents - and actually make quite a good impression. Play more and you'll see.
ReplyDeleteWhat a good start!