Web 2.0 applications are a constant source of wealth for educators, and are something that I use consistently throughout my teaching. When reflecting back on Web 2.0 applications from throughout this course, I reflected on Google Drive and Blogs.
Google Suite is probably one of my favorite resources to use in education. I not only rely on it for my personal documents and documents related to my lessons, but I incorporate it into my students work-pieces. Google Forms allows for a quick access to student thinking, such as exit tickets, while Google Drive allows for a broader range of student thinking. I constantly use Drive for my students writing pieces along with presentations that they create. The major benefit of Google Suite is that it promotes socialization. Students are able to share their writing directly with myself, their parents, or other students. This "increases the enjoyment and motivation for many kinds of work" (pg. 302), which helps students to feel positive about their work pieces. It's always fun to watch the students reflect directly on someone else's work, all while seeing the suggestions and reflections others are placing on their own pieces.
Blogging is another of my favorite Web 2.0 applications. I currently use blogging in 2 ways, one that is used as a classroom communication tool between parents and myself (showing what we've been working on, what's coming in the future, etc.). The other way I currently use blogging is through student blogs. This allows the students to reflect on a discussion lead that I created, but also to reflect on each others thinking. We also open up the blog to other classrooms in our building, which allows "expanded privacy beyond just the classrooms comments." (pg. 303). In a similar lite, I also use LiveBinder for student portfolios, which allows for public access to work for comments and such beyond our classroom walls. It takes time to get them set-up for student use, but the portfolio's that come out of it are always worth the time!
Hi Erica,
ReplyDeleteI love that you are using blogs with the parents and the students. Do you feel each group is using it appropriately? I think that the communication via blogs is quick and efficient and would love to try it out in the future!
Cassie
I have used the Google Suite quite a bit as an educator and included it my blog as a favorite as well, but I hadn't thought about housing my students' writing allowing me to access it anywhere. This could be a great benefit as I have students looking for more to do at home and I could use it to access their writing at home. I often take draft books home on the weekend, this might save time and my back!
ReplyDeleteHi Erica,
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of using Google Drive. Sharing personal work on Google Drive is a good way to let student feel positive toward their works. Also, since student can read each other’s work, they will have opportunity to exchange ideas, and then some new idea might come out. By this way, they will get improvement together. But sometimes, this also will cause a problem that maybe someone will copy ideas from others sharing. This kind of thing happens always. My friend, who is a TA in some University, complains this to me so many times.
Xiao
I have to agree with your reflection on the google apps. I use them on a daily basis at work which makes life quite a bit easier when accessing work and creating documents etc. I really like the way you apply this to your daily teaching! Best of luck on the rest of your school year!
ReplyDelete