Exciting Writing Tools

I have just come across some very exciting writing sites that will be fantastic to use in the classroom.

http://www.squidoo.com/multimediamuse

Module Ten

It was great exploring wikis. I haven't used these with a class yet but plan to next year. We had a lot of trouble accessing wetpaint from school, no matter what filters I submitted we just couldn't seem to get complete access to it.

The Bloom's Digital Map was awesome. I emailed it to all members of staff and I plan to use it myself to link to the curriculum next year.

Module Nine

We have been using Scootle at school for a while now and I love the site. The learning paths are an excellent way of managing the endless amount of resources available. When I was playing with the site I found a tool I hadn't previously used, collaborative activities. This looks like an excellent tool which enables the students to journal their learnings online, I plan to use this next year.

I have been using personal networking sites facebook and twitter. I find facebook a great way of networking with friends, particularly those who are overseas.

Module Eight

RSS feeds seem to make life easier and quicker. I have added Google Reader to my iGoogle page so that when I log onto the internet all the sites I am subscribed to will be visible straight away. Initially I subscribed to too many sites and I found the amount of information overwhelming so I had to cut back.

I can see some value in using RSS feeds if you were following a number of students' blogs and you had to monitor progress. This would allow you to see when the blogs had been updated.

Module Seven

I introduced our staff to delicious earlier this year. It is an excellent site. I have found it to be a fantastic tool to store and organise the websites you find. The more people I connect with on delicious the more sites I am able to find.

It was also great to explore other people's blogs and comment on them. I find it encouraging to know that people are reading my blogs and I like to encourage others by commenting on theirs.

Module Six

bubbl.us is a fantastic site and I plan to use this with my students next year. It is an extremely easy to use online graphic organiser. The students love using technology so this would be a great tool. You could use it at the beginning or end of a unit of work and get students to organise their knowledge then they could post this knowledge on a blog or wiki.

Module Three

In this session our group explored Google Docs. We initially had to skip this session in order to fix some filtering problems, but have been successful the second time around! There are some benefits to Google Docs, namely the ability to access documents anywhere (so long as the internet can be accessed!). We also discussed how this might be useful in a classroom, particularly with older students. Students can send drafts to to the teacher who can then edit, or it could be collaborative work between students. I haev not used this with students yet, but I will look for opportunties to.