Module 2 at a Glance

This week had me experiencing new things. We started off the week by having to read and comment on three different classmate’s blogs. I had a hard time choosing who’s to comment on as they were all very well done. It was fun to see how everyone chose to represent themselves on their blog. I liked that everybody’s was a little different and that each blog seemed to fit that person’s personality. I finally chose the three with the most creativity and uniqueness to them. The next task to complete was to read and respond to the four articles that were attached to the blog.
The articles that we read this week were not as interesting as the first weeks. I did, however, really enjoying reading the article on “What Do Schools Risk by Going ‘Full Google’?” I completely agree with everything that the article discusses. My biggest problem with using technology is that not all students have access to technology outside of the classroom. This limits the amount of homework that a teacher can assign online without having to print everything out for those students. I think that going “Full Google” would result in more issues than it would be worth.
The article “32 ways to use Google apps in a classroom” brought up some interesting ways to use the tools on Google in a classroom. I think that the Google docs would be the most useful since your students can collaborate with each other without having to crowd around one computer. It also allows them to have a conversation, on the side, about the topic being discussed in their writing. I found that the article “9 Things Every Student Should Be Able to Do with Google Drive” just repeated a lot of what was said in the previous article on using Google apps in the classroom.
The next task we had to complete was making a survey we could use in a future classroom on Google forms. I had never used Google forms and expected it to much harder than it was. The only difficulty I had with this task was that when I went back to change the theme of my form, it did not come up in the same format as it had when I made it and I could not get the theme to change. This resulted in me having to make an entirely new form just so I could change the theme. I liked how it gave you the options to have the questions come randomly. It would come in handy if you wanted to do a test using this form for a class.
The next task on the list was to choose a google tool/app and make a 2-3 minute tutorial video on how it works and how to use it in your future classroom. I choose to use the google tool Picasa since that was the one I knew the most about. I had planned on using Screenr to make my video, but when I went on I realized I needed windows 8 which my home computer does not have. I decided to just use my iPod and video tape me using Picasa. After this setback, everything went smoothly and it was fairly easy to do and upload.
Overall, this week’s module went fairly smoothly. I learned a lot about Google apps that I will be able to use in my future classroom. I found all the articles chosen to be informative and useful for a classroom teacher. I am looking forward to getting started on the next module.