Week 3

Uhhhhh.....earth to Jessica!  Okay, pick head up off the floor and screw back on.  This is a lot of information!  Let's get down to brass tacks.

Google Docs:  Love it. Use it. Live it.  Google Docs is so convenient.  I am always going back and forth between my work PC, my ipad, and my home PC.  No more hard drives, flash drives or emailing back and forth.  Even throughout the school day, if something happens and I need to call a parent, I can simply get the number from my "Parent Contacts" spreadsheet on my Google Drive.  Just in the last week, two friends had lost papers they were typing for school because something happened to their hard drives.  The solution: Google Docs!

Diigo:   This was a new one for me.  Of all the social bookmarking sites that we explored, this one is my favorite for saving sites.  I've already begun saving a lot of sites for lesson planning and activity ideas.

Dropbox and Evernote: Still learning about these.  I have a feeling I like Evernote better.  I hope it proves useful and that I can use it to get organized.

Google Hangouts: This has been a lot of fun.  Very useful for group work and collaboration.  How great would it have been to have this in college and not have to meet in person for study groups, group projects, lab groups, etc.  I've enjoyed being able to see and get to  know my group members in a more personal way than email.

Week 2

Whew! What a week!  Blogs, file sharing, and browers oh my!

While I'm still not convinced of this blog thing yet, social bookmarking has literally changed my life.  And to think all these years I've been EMAILING myself links back and forth from home to school and vice versa!  I have casually been using Pinterest for awhile now but didn't realize I was engaging in "social bookmarking".  Of all the sites we evaluated, my favorite is Diigo.  I've already bookmarked a few links for school that contain lesson ideas and worksheets to print. 

As far as Google docs go, I've been a convert the first time I realized I didn't have to hit "save" anymore and I said "sayonara" to my flash drive.  I currently use Google docs to collaborate with co-workers and administrators.  I have used Google docs with students in the classroom.  I'm excited to begin using social bookmarking as a collaboration tool as well.  What a great way for colleagues to post links to articles or websites with great lesson ideas!

"Don't work harder....work smarter!"

Week 1

If ten years ago I had told you that with a device the size of a deck of cards you can carry 2,000 songs, control the temperature of your house, and take a video of your child's first steps and instantly send it to 500 of your friends, would you believe me?  Me either.  

This technology thing is pretty cool, isn't it.  

My baby isn't even 8 months old yet and she's taught me things about my ipad that I didn't even know.  Seriously.  This is why I'm taking this course -- technology is here to stay.  Textbooks will be gone any day now.  Classrooms are becoming bedrooms.  Lectures are taking place in coffee shops.   If I want to keep myself marketable and current, I have to know what's happening in the world of education and technology is it.  Every time I turn on the TV I see a commercial for a new K12 online school.  I'm hoping to learn many different platforms for online instruction including Google docs, blogs, Moodle, Blackboard, etc.  As an alternative ed teacher, I'm always looking for "outside of the box" ways to educate my students.  Although I teach middle school now, if I ever got back into high school, online learning will soon be a big thing for secondary learners who need an alternative setting in general, for credit recovery, and even for GED instruction.  

When I first logged onto class and began getting acquainted with the system, it was a little daunting.  But once class progressed I felt more comfortable and in a way it really did feel like I was sitting in a live classroom.  And the best part was I was in my pajamas, eating dinner (baked tilapia -- super good), and I didn't have to find someone to watch the baby.