The Collaborators
Team Members:
Alicia
Eichhorn
Angel
Deluna
Aaron Garcia
Ryan Fowler
Week 3 Assignment -
LiveBinder Web 2.0 Tools Collaborative Document
Alicia
Eichhorn
1.
Blog Booker- This is a way for students, teachers, administrators, or any
combination of an educational community to document and record thoughts which
can turn into a tangible product for exploration, collaboration, and evidence
of time well spent. Within a few minutes of production time, having followed an
intense period of research, collaboration, and reflection, there is a sound
byte of time well spent. Independent study, professional learning communities,
educational community outreach, are all avenues for documentation and
publication. Each member of the learning community could contribute depending
on how the curators want to proceed. Action research at large, or more intimate
study of a class assignment could be a viable option. Each and every content
area could utilize the application. One graduating class could even use this as
a living legacy for the next class to inherit. Grant money funding may arise
when it comes to usable data that is yielded in the process. Technology
students may document attempts to start an active, on-line public forum,
Literature classes could start their own on-line poetry slam, History students
could discuss the applicability of national documents and their impact on our
current public school system, etc. Control of ideas in a contained environment
are available for anyone to access 24/7. The possibilities are endless! I would
absolutely offer this idea to teachers on my campus in order to give people a
forum for an open dialogue which could very well allow them to answer and
trouble-shoot some of their own concerns. Moving toward and away from consensus
may yield more valuable Human Resource information than we have known before.
2.
Gone Google Story Builder- Is a fun, interactive way to tell events from
multiple perspectives or to rewrite history, better a conversation, begin a
team meeting, create song lyrics, or challenge people to free associate a
particular topic. Students could even challenge one another to solve story
problems or equations by seeing how fast it can be expressed. By having the
ability to manipulate sound, add characters, create lists, or see how fast a
team can work on its feet, it may be an interesting way to see how people work
together in a beginning of the year in-service or team-building meeting. This
may also be a way to differentiate learning and collaboration for those who
don’t like to work alone. It could very well spark the creativity and having to
think on one’s feet that some are hesitant to do if left on their own. It is
something of a non-negotiable which forces lively participation without having
to necessarily be in the same location to participate. I would absolutely
endorse this on my own campus and delight in what raw product we come up with.
By curating or giving specific directives, some stressors of what people labor
over in closed door sessions, may be worked on over extended periods of time in
a more relaxed atmosphere. Adult and student learning per educational community
could definitely gain from well-placed participation.
Angel
Deluna
1.
Edmodo- we use this tool school wide. We are part of a new tech
network and are required to use edmodo as a communication tool. This
keeps teachers, students, parents, and administrators connected to what’s going
on in the classroom. It’s a great collaboration tool for all parties that
use it however, It’s very beneficial for students when working on projects.
This gives the teacher an idea of who’s collaborating and which student
is not performing. Edmodo also gives many students the ability to
personalize their page and has them take a little ownership of the work posted
on the site. Students are very engaged because they can communicate with
friends even if they’re not in the same class. This helps them bounce
ideas back and forth and often helps them get started on their projects.
Teachers can access students homework, send messages to the
students/parents, and school notices are sent using edmodo. Basically,
this is the facebook used for teachers and students. My experience has
been great using edmodo.
2.
Wikis- On my campus, many teachers use wikis as a way to communicate and
establish project guidelines. A variety of teachers prefer wikis because
they are easy for students to navigate and can be very engaging. Wikis
include information such as the project/task, expectations/rules, directions,
comment boxes for questions between students and teachers, which automatically
creates collaborative writing. Wikis also simplifies teachers classroom
management. You can keep several different teaching tools or resources on
your Wiki to increase student participation. Some students prefer certain
applications or resources so it caters to their individual needs. Several
teachers also use wikis as a way to gage the learning progress. If an
assessment is added by the teacher, the students take the quiz privately and
the web tool gives the teacher immediate feedback. This is a great tool
for teachers to know where their students are academically and gives an idea on
what needs to be retaught. I personally enjoyed working with Wikis and
would highly recommend this tool for teachers looking to engage students or
create a collaborative culture.
Aaron Garcia
1. Animoto - is a good web tool. Animoto allows you to
create videos in a short time. Instructions are easy to follow; the type
of video you desire can be easily set up by selecting a background, music, and
animations. Photos, images, text, and/or video clips may be added via
internet or your very own collection. These items can be arranged in any
order of preference. Once the information that you have selected is
inputted and/or downloaded, you may create your video, preview it for editing,
and save your it upon completion.
Any created video can be shared via email, shared drives, and/or social
media websites.
Animoto, for any principal, can be a valuable web tool that can:
Enhance presentations through video
Create weekly/daily announcements through video
Create Motivational videos for teachers
and student body
Provide visual examples for set
campus/school rules and desired student behavior
Create Recognition videos for
school/student accomplishments
Create Preview/Highlight videos of
school activities
For teachers, Aminoto can be utilized to:
Create videos of classroom
expectations and daily procedures
Create presentation of syllabus
Promote Student Collaboration
Activities
Showcase Student Achievement and
Talent
Increase Student participation
through videos project presentations
2. Google Calendar - Is a great web tool
that provides an easy way for teachers,
administration, and students to share time-related information such as
team schedules, assignment deadlines, and school holidays. Teachers
can input all of their respective individual classes and share information such
as test and quiz dates, assignment deadlines, and class topics with a
designated group of students and parents. Teachers can also organize
their schedules with other teachers and administrators.
Administration can use Google Calendar to keep students and parents
updated about teacher-parent conferences, school activities, and school
holidays. Google Calendar also allows coaches and school club sponsors to
share activity schedules with students, teachers, and parents.
Ryan Fowler -
1. Google Drive (formerly GoogleDocs): Google Drive
is a free, web-based document creating program. It allows users to
create, edit and collaborate in real time. Similar to Microsoft Office,
users can create word documents, presentations, spreadsheets and more.
These documents can be shared to other users to allow for group editing
and collaboration both in the users’ own time and in real time. The
program saves changes within the document every few seconds to minimize lost
work.
For teachers (and administrators) this tool is great for creating and
storing documents. Teachers no longer have to worry about carrying around
a jump drive or external hard drive containing all of their instructional
documents and resources. Google Drive keeps all of your documents safe
are are accessible from school or home. Documents can easily be uploaded
or downloaded from Google Drive when needed. Google Drive also allows for
easy collaboration between teachers who might be teaching on the same team.
Teachers can easily share instructional materials between users.
Personally, I have used Google Drive to input student data for my
principal. The principal shared a the spreadsheet with all the members of
the Biology team and we could input our test scores for easy analysis.
Teachers can also utilize Google Drive much in the same way we have
utilized it for this course. If a team project or paper is assigned,
students would be required to create the document within Google Drive to
show group collaboration. The student groups would share their documents
with the teacher so he/she could easily monitor for progress and collaboration.
2. Wordle: A Wordle, also called a Word Cloud, is a visual
depiction of key words. Administrators can encourage teachers to utilize
word clouds in a number of ways in their classrooms. Some examples are as
follows:
- Create a Wordle with key words from a new
unit. Project the Wordle on the overhead as students are entering
the classroom. This will help start a discussion about what students
think the next unit will involve.
- Students create a Wordle to summarize main
ideas from a reading or unit.
- In Chemistry, students can create a Wordle for
each element to illustrate its uses. The element name would be bigger
than the uses.
- Biology students can create a Wordle to
describe the different scientific biomes.
- In a history class, students can create a
Wordle to summarize an event in history or a historical figure.
Administrators can also use Wordles in similar ways in faculty meetings
and/or professional development sessions to start large or small group
discussions.
