Tool 7: Once upon a digital time...

I really enjoyed making a video using iMovie. I am a bit of a perfectionist, so it took me a few hours. A few helpful hints to remember:

1) Add photos/videos.
2) Arrange media in the order you want.
3) Delete media you don't want.
4) Add a theme.
5) Add titles.
6) Adjust transitions.
7) Add music/audio clips.

I hope you enjoy the video above. Unfortunately, my pictures from the French Quarter mysteriously disappeared from my camera. :(

Tool 6: Wikis

Wikis are pretty cool. They remind me a lot of Google Docs. With that being said, teachers can use them like they would use Google Docs.

I like the idea of using a wiki for peer editing. It could even be used as a resource for adding and reading prewriting topics and drafting.

Tool 5: Tags

I recently joined Diigo to bookmark my "favorites." Tagging is now my new favorite online organization tool. I added a few sites related to my personal hobbies: knitting (The Knit List) and gardening (The Backyard Gardener.) I also created a "hobbies" tag and specific tags like knitting, gardening, and crochet.

Hmm...let me exercise my brain to come up with ideas for using this in a 1st grade classroom. A class diigo could be created to collect, tag, and organize teacher approved websites with educational games for kids to access at a computer workstation or in the computer lab. Once the kids know they can only visit the bookmarked sites, this would cut down on the question, "Can we go to (insert website name)?"

Google Docs & Reader (Tool #4)

Google Docs = Awesome! With the help of my fellow 1st grade dual language teachers, I created a working roadmap for science and social studies. My colleagues were able to access & edit the document with ease. They seemed to enjoy seeing the changes instantly load and save. I really like not having to open an attachment from an e-mail, edit, save, and e-mail it back. Google Docs is an amazing timesaver. Unfortunately, when I tried to create a table using the word processing tool, it was a bit frustrating. Hopefully, that feature will improve and work more like the word processing software I use on my computer soon.

Google Reader = Okay. I think I need more experience with this tool. It automatically imported the blogs I am following in Blogger, which I see any time I log in. Unfortunately, I couldn't think of many sites that I wanted to follow besides local & world news sites.

I think Google Docs is a great tool for educators to use with other educators for planning and scheduling. In the primary classroom...I'm still thinking. Google Reader would be useful when following other class blogs or current events. Again, I'm still struggling to think of useful and meaningful ways of using these tools.