Below is a post that I posted to the VLE of the school I am currently at. I don’t make any revolutionary claims here, I would imagine that all of the tools have at least been discussed, if not used, in schools already; this was just what I thought might be useful for this school.
I spend far too long messing about with various websites and tools and I sometimes think whether they have any use in teaching or not. I’m going to post a few I think might be useful in certain circumstances but I’d like some suggestions and comments from other teachers and (more importantly!) students on the websites I posted and also if you have any others you think might be useful?
Twitter
If you haven’t heard of twitter now you must have been living under a rock. A cross between instant message and SMS, a user sends 140-character messages which everyone who “follows” them can read.
Although Twitter is great for the general public, it has a few problems in the school setting, namely it being public and mainly personal use. Interestingly, there’s an open-source version of Twitter which allows you to install you own hosted version of Twitter which would be really useful for schools (http://status.net/).
Possible Uses
- Homework deadline notices
- Getting help from other students
- Disussions/debates
Pros
- Easy to use
- Makes it quick easy to contribute
Cons
- Might be too public unless status.net is used
- 140 characters might not be enough!
12Seconds
The video equivalent of twitter in that your videos can only be 12 seconds long. They also have an iPhone app which allows you to record from your phone.
Possible Uses
- Mini presentations
- Short debates
Pros
- Encourages you to be concise and focused
Cons
- Like twitter, 12 seconds might be too short
Google Wave
Google Wave is a fairly new tool that has been described as “email done right”. “Waves” are stored centrally so there’s no forwarding and replying and people can be added in after the fact and replay the wave to read it from the beginning.
If you edit a wave at the same time as someone else you will see their replies happening in real time; multiple people can be editing or adding replies at the same time. Files and widgets can be added inlne with the widgets being all sorts of things from embedded videos and maps to full-fledge applications.
Possible Uses
- Collabarative creative writing
- Real-time minute taking
- Collabarative marking
- Surveys
- Organising school trips/activites
Pros
- Very flexible
- Collaboration is central
Cons
- As yet unfinished, still a way to go until it reaches its potential
Google Docs
An online suite of office applications with a focus on sharing documents. People can be invited to view, edit or comment on your documents. Not as full featured as Microsoft Office however.
Possible Uses
- Creating class/group projects
Pros
- All documents are available on any computer
- Very easy to share and collaborate
Cons
- Not as feature-packed as Microsoft Office
Pixlr
An online image editing program
Possible Uses
- Editing images!
Pros
- Free for anyone to use at home or school
- Features are close enough to other applications so it feels familiar
Cons
- Obviously not as good as Photoshop