Be a part of the excitement!

I have been thinking about this for some time now and at ISTE Conference in Denver in late June I pre-ordered the  new book RETOOL Your School; The Educators Essentail Guide to Google’s Free Power Apps.” It arrive a week or so ago, as usual, I flipped through it, got excited, then was off to something else that needed doing.  Today, I really sat down and took a good look at the book.  I was enthralled with Chapter 1, How Google Transformed a School.  OK, so I am hooked now.  Actually, I think Hook, Line and Sinker would be more accurate. 

http://www.isteconnects.org/2010/08/08/retool-your-school-with-free-google-apps/

Collaborative means that students work together, view each others’ work, and/or are included in all class conversations. There are so many ways to share information and enable collaboration these days, it only makes sense to include them in my pre-service technology class.  Remember, my students are all going to classrooms teachers very soon.

I have not done a ton with collaborative projects and such in my class because the minute I bring up collaborative projects, the whining begins and I usually buckle under pressure.  Well not this semester!  I have been researching ways to collaborate and here are a few ideas.

Do you have suggestions or ideas for collaboration and collaborative type projects I  might try with these soon to be teachers.

1. Google Docs: (http://docs.google.com) I have used it off and on for this or that, but haven’t really gotten invested in Google Docs. I think the new shared folder feature in Google Docs could be quite useful. I am really swamped with email and worry I might miss something important from a student, I am thinking I could create a shared folder for each class and it might keep me more organized.  It is even possible add folders within a shared folder. I plan to use Google Docs for creating online forms/surveys, maybe even a way to take attendance.  I am in a 1:1 laptop situation, so that might work.  We do a peer review of their portfolio website, I think this might make that task much easier.  Just need to figure out exactly how to set it up!!
2. WallWisher: (http://www.wallwisher.com) I been seeing lots and lots of teachers using WallWisher lately, I think I could use it for discussing key concepts and ideas, then I will embed the “wall” my the course page for that week of my website. Looks easy and is a great way to share thoughts and view them in an interactive environment.  I think my students might just really get into this.
3. Twitter: (http://twitter.com/cyndidannerkuhn) I have been using Twitter for quite a long while now and I love it. For me, Twitter is my professional development every day when it is convenient for me.  But I have discovered that convincing my pre-service teachers that Twitter is useful has been a huge struggle, so, I am looking for ideas of how I can “turn on” these education majors to the power of Twitter. Yesterday in day one of class, I mentioned Twitter and there was a huge growl from the class, and it was clear they were not excited and dreading it.   HELP, ideas please……
4. Delicious: (http://delicious.com/cyndidannerkuhn) I have been using delicious for years and couldn’t get along without it.  But my personal delicious site is a bit of a mess these days. I do lots of professional development workshops and am constantly demonstrating how to use it.  I just created one especially for my Honors section of my tech class that will be using iPads  http://www.delicious.com/coeksuipad. I told my students to tag anything relevant to our iPad experiment in our class.  I think maybe I need to make a delicious feed for  my regular sections of DED 318 that is not iPad specific and have all of them (160+ students) tagging sites to it?  In the past I have had each student create their own delicious account, which I may still do toward the end, but maybe a collaborative one would be more effective in the long run.  It might do a better job of getting the point across.
5. Google Reader: (http://reader.google.com) I have a Google reader account and it is useful, but I just read about Google Reader “bundles”.”  They can subscribe to just one feed with all the blogs I suggest or even that they suggest.  I have to think about this one some more and do a little more research before I jump in neck deep.  I tend to jump before I look, get me in hot water sometimes.
6. My Blog: Technology Bites, Bytes & Nibbles: (http://www.technologybitsbytesnibbles.info/) If I can get them to subscribe, I really hate to require it, it needs to be a choice. But if they do subscribe or I include it in the Google Reader Bundle, they will receive daily (well I miss a day now & then) with resources and new technology stuff I find.  This is another way for students to stay informed.
7. Podcast: I think it is time I have a podcast.  We just got a server with Podcast Producer and I am so excited.  Not that I could not have created podcasts before, but now, I am more motivated, everything I have learned about Podcast Producer just makes the entire process seem so much easier.

So for now, those are a few of my goals for my  Technology for Teaching and Learning class of  soon to be teachers this fall.  I guess time will tell how many of them are successful.  I would appreciate any advice or suggestions you might have.