Thing 10: Productivity Tools

So I decided to look at these Productivity Tools.  One thing that really caught my eye was ifttt – If This Then That.  I think that I will definitely download the app and join.  I LOVE that I will be able to automatically mute my phone when I get to work and unmute after I am gone.  I certainly will look into getting updates on new free books.  As I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 3, logging the supposed  wi-fi connections and disconnections could come in handy.  I do wish that it worked with IKeepBookmarks.com though.  I know that everyone seems to have abandoned it for diigo and, especially, delicious, but I have found it to be really very simple to use and I don't want to go through all of the work of restoring the links to the new tool.

Along those lines I explored delicious a little.  The thing is that I am not into Facebook and Twitter.  I want to share relevant content with my students and teachers I am collaborating with, but I am NOT interested in the social end.  It looks like LiveBinders might work for me.  I can embed the shelves on my website when I want to share.

I already use Lookout on this phone and the previous one.  It has always worked great!   I also have a Dropbox account, but I don't use it much right now.  I think as with GoogleDrive, I am just going to have to make a decision on which way I want to go.  Right now, Dropbox seems more useable because I tend to use Microsoft Office, but if the district really ends up going with Chromebooks and Chromeboxes, it might send me in the GoogleDrive direction.  We have been passing a Chromebook around to try out.  The tech guy and I had a long talk today about the issues we may have with Chromebooks.  The switch to GoogleDocs is obvious, but I think that we could make it.  He is looking into a Virtual Desktop to expand the usability.  At the elementary level, though, I think that we really need to find a solution for printing.  I know that the push is paperless, but it is hard to tell a 7-year-old that he/she cannot get a copy to take home.

Clearly looks like it will be quite useful.  I have Evernote on my new phone and I really need to explore it more.  I think that it could be an awesome tool for me, though the transition is tough because I have been such a paper-based person organization-wise. I use PrintWhatYouLike alot when I print from Webpages, but knowing that there is an alternative for viewing them is great.

I have explored Zotero previously.  I thought that it would be great for my students, but frankly all of these browser add-ons in whatever format are problematic.  First there is the fact that we can't download them all ourselves at school because of the security.  Then there is how much they slow down the browsers.  Given the fact that we already have such old computers at school, anything that slows them more is a real problem.  Scrible has a similar problem. 

Well that is it for now.  I hope do more with Evernote and to create LiveBinders for our sixth-graders research project in particular. 

Thing 16: You Pick!

Well, for my Thing 16, I decided to do two things:

1. Try out the Chromebook that the technology team is supposed to work on.
2. Learn more about Google docs, Google drive, and, especially, Google Forms!

So I logged on to my Google drive which I had for my library website.  I watched a video about Google forms and started to create one.  I decided to use it to check on my first graders progress toward the SLO goals.  I made a form with text and multiple choice questions that I will send to a spreadsheet ultimately.  I wonder if there is a way that the state would accept Google Forms as an SLO test because it certainly would be easier to "grade."  If not, I wonder if they would accept a Moodle test.  I doubt it though since there would be no paper copy for the administration to save.  Still it is a good question for me to forward to the superintendent on my return to school.

I found the process of making the Google form surprisingly easy.  In the midst of it, I had to make a Google Doc.  At this point, I plan to print the doc and give the students a copy, but In wonder if there is a way to refer to the Doc in the form so that students could go back and forth.

Another question I still have to investigate is whether there is a way to change the font size on the Google form.  It seemed very small.  Fine for older students with good eyes, but a problem for younger students who are used to larger print and for those who have a visual impairment.

I am not sure why I never bothered to learn about Google Docs and Google forms before.  I guess I just assumed that I could learn them easily when the time came.  I think that they will come in very handy when I do reading inventories in advance of booktalks.  It will be very easy to summarize results, not like the paper copies I have done.

In my investigation of the Chromebook, I found it easy to use, but I don't much like being signed into Google all of the time.  I feel like I am being tracked, which, of course, I am.  Since I was using my school account to make the form, but I wanted to add this blog post which is on another account, it was just that much more confusing.  When exploring some of the apps that were added for the students to use, I found them surprisingly lame.  They didn't give immediate feedback, either.  Telling a student at the end when their score is on the screen and "fireworks" are shooting off in the background that they got some questions wrong and why is worthless.  I doubt 2 out of 100 kids would really study what questions they got wrong.  Students need more immediate feedback.

So much for Thing 16.  Now I won't be hesitant to make a Google Form.