Google applications in the classroom!

The four applications I took a look at were google calendar, Picasa, knoll and igoogle. All four of these tools can be very useful in a classroom setting for both teachers and students. I loved the google calendar and I think with my major being special education this will be a great tool to use. Every student that I will work with is different and this tool can be used to make individual calendars for them that fits their needs. Then the students parents can use it as well. Igoogle can be used to pull up things that you are interested in. I thought it would be a good tool to you use if you are doing current events, or learning about the weather. Each student can pull up information and then share it to the class. Picasa is used for finding pictures, you can use this tool find as many pictures as you want and you can use them for assignments or just to have in your classroom. I think this is a great tool for art teachers because they can pull up pictures and have students interpret what is going on or try to draw how the picture makes them feel. Lastly, knoll can be used to get background information on topics. Knoll is great when you need answers fast and do not need a credible source.

Wikis!

The use of wikis are becoming more popular among society. You can do so many things such as planning trips, writing letters, planning lessons or school projects. You can even use wikis outside of school or work to do fun things such as plan that trip you are going to take and then you can write about your trip and send it to your friends and family. Using wikis at school or work can be extremley helpful and creative. You can come up with so much to do that can make learning fun! I always thought as wikipedia as a bad thing because that is what my college professors have taught me. But I think it can be useful to use but I wouldnt use it as a source for big research projects or formal papers. But if you need to look up something fast it is a great tool!

Course Management Tool

Course management tools such as D2L, Blackboard, and Moodle are taking over teachers grade books. These tools allow teachers to upload assignments, give out quizzes, do students grades and communicate. All three of these tools are very similar except D2L is geared more to college students whereas Blackboard is used in High school. The only downfall to these programs is that it can be a bit confusing to get started but in the end it saves so  much time. I love D2L because I always know what is going on in my classes and I don't need to worry about keeping a bunch of papers together. I also like seeing my grades calculated right in front of me. I think this is easier for teacher as well because all they have to do is punch in a number and the computer program calculates everything for them and there is not math and no mistakes. Programs likes these just make life easier!

ZOHO VS GOOGLE

I did not like the zoho!! I tried printing my graph about 7 times and it still didnt print. The google one was very easy, if I knew about these applications I would have not bought microsoft office, it works just as good!!

Dancing!

Dancing!
Originally uploaded by stone0206

I thought this was really cute!!

RSS feeds for teachers

RSS feeds I think would be extremely helpful in the classroom. Say for example in the classroom you follow up with currents events in the world, state, or community and by having these websites send you the news, it saves so much time rather than trying to search for them.

Trading Cars

Using trading cards in the classroom can really get students involved. For example on the first day of school the students can create one about themselves and then other students can view them. You could also use it for research, if you are presenting on famous people the student can make a card for each famous person they are researching.