Top 10 Tools
The annual Top 100 Tools for Learning came out for 2009. Many of them can be used by teachers in Henrico County (for non-Henrico folks, we have a 1:1 program but many Web 2.o tools are blocked). So, I’ll add how teachers can use these tools in their classrooms:
1. Twitter: #ff0000;">It’s blocked. So, how do you use a blocked tool? I’m big on extension activities. A teacher can set up an account for the class, and easily tweet daily occurances of content, homework, and such. This way, students at home or who use Twitter on their phone, can get updates.
Teachers at Henrico can use Twitter with their override or at home of course, and with TweetDeck, it’s much more useful. So finding a group of educators to share ideas with is still a good idea. This is a great link as to why teachers should use Twitter.
Microblogging however can be a tool used in SchoolSpace, the chat room and such, where you try to force students into a 140 character. That might be hard in a space that doesn’t count the characters for you, but http://todaysmeet.com/ is still unblocked. Just teach your students the rules first.
I’m http://www.twitter.com/techwarrior.
2. Delicious: unblocked. This is a great way for teachers to share links and find new links. Having a Class Delicious page for students to access is one way of eliminating the 20 minutes it takes 30 students to get to the page you want them on. All the extras of Delicious are always helpful: tagging, the online nature, and networks can also add to your resources.
I’m http://delicious.com/hcpssocialstudies.
3. Google Reader: unblocked. There are two reasons every teacher should be using this: 1) for their own learning. I’ve learned so much in the last 2 years with Google Reader. Being able to get a constant stream of updated information relevant to my needs has been invaluable. 2) Students can sign up and subscribe to their own sites, learn on their own, and present their self-directed learning to a class, or can share current events with the teacher and students with using the note feature. Imagine, having students subscribe to Newsweek or CNN and then reflecting on current events to show how they can connect the class content to today.
You can share with me by using mjhasley@henrico.k12.va.us in Google Reader.
4. Wordpress: unblocked. Many high schools use LunarPages to get at Wordpress to create blogs. At my old school, I had about 80 teachers signed up with accounts, where 20 or so regularly used their blog to communicate and share ideas with the class. One project had students posting a writing sample to their teacher’s blog, which then aggregated to a main page, so that all 2000+ students could have their writing posted on one web site. As you might guess, only about 100 students participated. You can see it at: http://henricowarriors.org/wordwarriors/.
5. Slideshare: unblocked. This site allows teachers to upload their PowerPoints and also annotate the slides verbally. Here’s an example of one I did with audio. By embedding, teachers can also post these PowerPoints in SchoolSpace to keep them private (for students only) if that’s an issue.
Some of mine can be found at: http://www.slideshare.net/mjhasley
6. Google Docs: unblocked. Another tool like Google Docs that I cannot imagine a teacher not using. This tool makes it much easier for students to collaborate on a PowerPoint or writing assignment. Students also don’t have to turn in work anymore. Just share with the teacher, and done. The Form function is also useful for keeping track of textbooks, polling your students, keeping track of info, and many other things. Another nice feature of this is that students won’t lose their work as much. Just the other day, I was observing a summer class where they were working on a PowerPoint in class and student didn’t save his work, his power went out, and he had to redo it. That problem is eliminated in Google Docs (at least after the first save) and then, of course, students can work on their paper on any computer.
7. YouTube: #ff0000;">semi-blocked. Teachers should be using YouTube, especially for Government, but there are plenty of other educational uses and videos for YouTube. Teachers can use the override to have students watch videos, and there are sites to help with the comments. I cannot remember the site now, but you paste the URL into it, and you can watch the video with all the surrounding “garbage” whited out. Of course, teachers can learn to embed and post YouTube videos in their blog or SchoolSpace.
8. Skype: #ff0000;">blocked. Skype is blocked but the county has purchased use of Elluminate, an online tool. While it’s a bit clicky and a little slow, it can handle most of what users of Skype would want. You can share documents, video conferece, use audio, text, and have breakout rooms. It takes a bit of understanding, but if used correctly, you can meet online to avoid driving, or once, we had students from my school interview students from a high school in Spain. Trying to get experts in your field would be a good use of Elluminate also, they can answer student questions from the office on their college campus for example.
9. Google Search: unblocked. Obviously, this gets used. One new feature though is for students search for images to go to the ADVANCED SEARCH feature and search only for creative commons photos. It’s still a good idea with this, to teach students how to evaluate web sites they find, and to not always use the first one that shows up.
10. Audacity: unblocked. This is software on our laptops that will allow students to record content and create audio projects. This can be used for podcasting, or for a single project. It’s free and easy, and can be used to replicate Fireside Chats, trials, and such.
Coming in at 20. Voicethread: unblocked. I’m a big advocate for Voicethread. As far as I’m concerned, every teacher should try to find a way to use this in their classroom. Whether it’s for presenting material or having students create their own stuff, this is a great tool for students to communicate, create, and collaborate (love c’s). I’m tempted to buy an account for every social studies teacher in the county. I believe in it that much.
So, these are the Top 10 and how it can be used at Henrico. Any other ideas for these 10?
