Cloud+Tools


 * GOOGLE DOCS**

As an alternative to the LMS (learning management system) whiteboard, this is an amazing classroom tool. Allows students to publish their work on the web or share with members of their group. Collaborative editing is easily accomplished, to a maximum of 10 people writing at the same time. Notes from a class session can be recorded, and linked to a class page in the LMS. Teach good backup practice: it's a good idea to require that all student work that is submitted for a grade be backed up in the dropbox of your LMS.

Get started: http://docs.google.com/demo/edit?id=scACFjoLk7kQ2y7WMT1U8wl04&dt=document#document

Try it out: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Wb-SuR3EdFhJI2Yxl1ZejZWxhBwILrlmLJqdToIpbhs/edit?hl=en_GB&authkey=CLqN16kM



Do you use the whiteboard in your LMS? What advantages/disadvantages does it have over a public application like Google Docs?

**GOOGLE SITES**
Allows students to build their own public websites. Very easy interface. As with all external applications, a backup is always a sensible precaution against outages or student error.

Get started: https://sites.google.com/



What other Google programs have you used in teaching?

**PERSONAL WEB PORTAL**
A personal web portal allows you to gather all your internet resources into one place. You have many "dashboards," or subheadings, but only one of them is public. The portal can be set as your home page.

Here's my public page: http://www.netvibes.com/ellie_brewster#A_Public_site

Try: iGoogle http://www.google.com/ig Netvibes http://www.netvibes.com/ Pageflakes http://www.pageflakes.com/

This **Howard Rheingold** video is a good discussion of how to make sense of the overwhelming amount of information we have to deal with today. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAdOQCgwi2

**FACEBOOK**
Many people have problems with privacy issues and facebook.



Do you use FB? Would you allow students to "friend" you? Should you have a separate FB account for work? Start a discussion thread by clicking on "discussion," above.

**VOICETHREAD**
Voicethread is an excellent tool for encouraging students to express themselves collaboatively. A voicethread is set up with audio and video, and subsequent viewers can listen to the comments, add their comments, or type in text, even draw on the image. The free version allows anyone to make up to three five-minute voicethreads.

Students who wish to participate by telephone can enter their number into the Voicethread website, and voicethread will call them to obtain their voice message. There are no long distance charges. http://voicethread.com/about/features/

Here's my (Ellie's) example. It took me about 15 minutes to make. http://voicethread.com/share/1814304/

media type="custom" key="8680048"

Sign up for voicethread here: http://voicethread.com/ Choose "create" to make a practice voicethread.

QR Codes (quick response codes)
QR Codes are large barcode symbols that cellphones can read to call up a webpage. They are partcularly useful for student recruitment; wherever you post this symbol, students will be able to use their cell phones to call up the webpage you have linked the QR code to.

About QR codes: http://www.hackeducation.com/2010/09/02/another-good-reason-for-cellphones-in-the-classroom-qr-codes/

Make a QR code: http://qrcode.kaywa.com/



How could QR codes be used to take our teaching out into the community?