I really enjoyed my first class, but being the eager beaver that I am, I read a lot of the session material ahead of time. I am currently an avid user of Google docs, so it will be fun to collaborate with others who have not used it and see what they think.
I am hoping to learn about a lot of useful free tools that I can use in my classroom and bring back to my district, as we are trying to save money in the technology arena. We are trying out OpenOffice right now and I'm using the drawing program with my 3rd graders. If I move back to the middle school level, I would love to give all students a Google account and use the Docs for their classwork.
I'm just really excited to be back in school and am so glad that I found a program that fits my needs and will challenge my brain!
Sarah,
ReplyDeleteAt my middle school and elementary we use Gaggle. It is a Google product that has email and other features that access is controlled by the teacher and you can set the accounts up to control who the students can email and recieve email from. It is free
I share your excitement "to be back in school." This online program fits my needs...as for the brain...steam is coming from my ears!
ReplyDeleteI too hope to learn about a lot of useful, free tools for classroom use. Would your district allow you to give all students a Google account? As of last year, we were told we couldn't do this...I am hoping to change their minds!
I share the excitement of being back in school again! I agree with Trish there is steam coming from my ears also, but am so eager to eat up all this information and use it to help my students.
ReplyDeleteWe have the support to use as much technology as we can in the classrooms. I wrote a grant and received a SMARTboard from my district this year and am learning more and more about that as I go.
The problem I face when it comes to technology is we do have a computer class which meets in the computer lab, our library only has 8 computers in it, and our laptop mobile cart is hit or miss sometimes it works, sometimes not. This makes it hard to plan a fully technology based lesson/assignment when I never know if the computers will cooperate. Also, I can't rely on the fact that the students have access to computers at home. Many of my students do not have that resource at home.
But as always, I'm willing to try and learn new techniques to have the students try!
bjgrady, I haven't heard of Gaggle before, but sounds interesting! I also haven't heard of OpenOffice either Sarah.