I am looking forward to using my new RSS account. I chose to go with Google Reader mostly because it seemed the easiest to set up and follow. I chose to follow just 4 blogs to start since that is what the book recommended, but I know I will be adding more to my feed soon! I am excited about using RSS because it will be a way for me to follow all of the blogs I have found and enjoyed, but don't have enough time to check daily. I think this will be a great way for me to get more involved in the blogging world. We will see how it goes after the first few weeks.
I uploaded my first few pictures to Flickr today as well. To tell you the truth I am not sure how I will use my Flickr account in a school setting, but I am always open for trying new things. I can see my class using Flickr when doing presentations and it will be a great tool to teach them about Copyrights, but other than that I don't know how we would use it.
I am excited to spend more time on Google Sites. I created a Google Site for one of our previous classes, but have yet to do anything else with it. At the TIES Conference, that I attended last week, I went to a class on how one area high school is using Google Sites with their 9th- 12th graders. They have them create a portfolio site of their best work and then when they are seniors they sort through all of their work and pick their best work. When they are applying to Colleges they are giving the URL to the school in order for them to access multiple samples of their best work.! I thought this was a great idea. I can see in a few years all College asking students to provide them with a link to their portfolio instead of submitting them electronically or in print form. I hope to incorporate something like this in my classroom next year!
Kristy as I stated on Nate blog, I am excited as well about RSS. I too made a Google reader simply because Google is easier and more convenient to me. I like the idea you brought to our attention from the conference you attended. I think that is a dream come true for a lot of students. I always wanted something like that. While reading your blog, I am at work saying aloud, OMGoodness, Finally and cool, ha! Flickr was fairly easy to use, just been doing so much that I only uploaded one picture. Keep us posted if you do something with a URL in your classroom.
ReplyDeleteUsing flickr in school setting would not be too hard if you had a need for it. I have a few parents of some of our SE kids who want to know and see that their kiddos are doing at school. We have a shared account to a photo site and I can upload photos at school and parents from home. This way we are able to use the photos to get the kids talking about what is happening where. The pics speak volumes to parents and are away to open conversations with kids.
ReplyDeleteI really like that idea for using Google sites to create portfolios. My school's Language Arts department is currently trying to get portfolios up and running, but it would be great to put some of the onus on the kids- or just to let them have a say in what goes in there. At this point, I'd bet students handing over a url would really set them apart from the crowd. I heard somewhere about a job-seeker who would hand in a big qr code that lead to his resume. (I'm going to be really embarrassed if it was in our class that I heard that.)
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of accounts do your students use for Google? Personal or school Google Accounts for Education? If through the school then the school will have to decide how long to keep the accounts active after graduation or a student leaving the school. There is a way to transfer sites to a personal Google account. Share the site with your personal account as an owner. In the personal account, you need to make a copy of the site. Done (almost). Any linked Google docs must also be shared, copied and then re-linked/reinserted in the site. It's tedious but it can be done. This is the concern I have about using school accounts for portfolios. If possible, I would suggest having students use a personal account to create it. At the same time, have them set up a Google account for school/professional use only. Use this address for jobs/university applications ...
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