Monday 25 March 2013

Module 3

I am LOVING Google Drive!!

Over the last couple of weeks I have been trialling Google Drive at work.  I had a situation last week where a response to an incident needed to be drafted overnight so a colleague (@raffgrasso) and I collaborated using Google Docs each from our own homes at the same time.  This was the perfect tool for the task, cut precious time off the task and meant we had one document we both worked on rather than multiple copies and drafts.

At our school we occasionally have more than one Learning Support Staff member working with a child at different times and recording notes from their session into the same document.  It has sometimes been difficult for the Learning Support Staff members to find an available computer or spare moment to record their notes.  I have initiated a trial of Google Docs in Term 2 for the Learning Support Staff to record their notes, which they can do from their school supplied iPads.  This will hopefully give them greater flexibility.  Also, more than one person can record their notes into the same document at the one time.

I’m really interested to hear how Primary Schools may have implemented Google Docs with their students.  I work in the Year 5/6 area so I can imagine Google Docs would lend itself powerfully to collaborative exercises.  Every student would need a Gmail account and I suppose using the school name as part of the username would mean you could be reasonably systematic about allocating usernames.  Anyway I will do some research but would also love to hear how schools are using this tool.

Sunday 10 March 2013

Module 2

I completed most of this module a couple of weeks ago Most of the study and searching which I really enjoy and where I learn so much I breezed through.  The last part, the actual writing, I postponed as usual for several reasons.  I've known for a long time that my preference is to think, reflect, talk and do rather than write, so it is no surprise to me that the act of writing a blog is not coming naturally yet.  We'll see how things pan out.

I loved the 'Blogs in Plain English' youtube clip.  It's very clear.  It is interesting the way 'news' is redefined.

I subscribed to Twitter some time ago after an IT PD and did not use it for so long that I forgot my username and password!!  Thanks to @raffgrasso who tweeted me a while ago I have rediscovered my details and am back on.  I am yet to tweet anything myself, but have definitely been enjoying reading and following some links to discover new ideas to think about.

Searching through the Award winning educational blogs was great.  I think Jaden's advice found here http://jadensawesomeblog.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/ten-things-ive-learned-from-blogging.html is excellent and I would definitely use his post with my Year 5 class.  Children receiving advice from children is usually more powerful than 'following the teacher's rules' right?
Also, the Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem Experiment blogs motivate me to find something current of this nature to use during our Antarctica unit next term.  Although, reading some of the posts further, I can see how they can be used in conjunction with some other resources/sites.