I am an avid Blogger.com user. I have been using Blogger for the past couple of years. I have tried other providers but always come back to Blogger. I have a personal blog, a professional blog, and a number of scholastic blogs. The benefit for me is that I can access all of my blogs from the Blogger "Dashboard". I am a technology teacher and my students are required to maintain a Process Journal. These journals used to be small notebooks that the students carried around with them and lost at stategic moments (hahaha). Now, each of the students is required to create an "online" journal/blog. Blogger blogs are easy to create and maintain. In 3 easy steps I can have a roomful of teens enter cyberspace to further their education.
My Year 8's are learning to use Microsoft PhotoStory 3 to create digital stories. In Term 2 we worked with the English Department. The students were working on a poetry unit. The kids brought one of their poems to life. We housed the final products in Google Video and embedded them into student blogs. It was a big success.
Google came to the rescue a few months ago at my school. A few years ago our school a CAD (Computer Assisted Design) program was part of the curriculum. Students learned the CAD program in IT classes and used the knowledge in DT (Design Technology) classes. We we tried to reintroduce this during Term 2 members of my department were surprised that we no longer had a CAD program to offer (the license had expired). Google sketchup was introduced and have been successfully using it for 2 terms now;-D
I spend a lot of time trying to keep my teen-agers OFF YouTube. But I understand that YouTube has a lot to teach us. Recently, as a warm-up exercise I showed the students a video that I learned something from and wanted to share with them. Then, each of my students was instructed to share their favorite YouTube video in which they learned/experienced/felt something or were inspired. They uploaded their favorite video to their blog and now the students are visiting each other's blogs.
I LOVE Google Doodles. You know what they are, they are the Google logo that has been adapted for a special day. Check out some of the cool Google Doodles here. Although we've missed the deadline, Google had a contest going for American K-12 students for kids to create a Google Doodle. They are focusing on the question, "What if. . ." There is a similar contest in the UK.
The Google Pack download has an array of Google apps to make cyber-life easier!
They even have an official Google blog to keep you updated.
Thank you Google!
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Ramona,
I do love your blogs!
And I also loved having collaborated with and your students in our interclass blogging adventure. It was great fun and students loved to navigate those virtual waters (http://fromstemtostern.blogspot.com) .
If it weren't for google we wouldn't have been able to provide such expereince to the students and have become Virtual navigators and cool teachers in a Naval scenario.
Since then we have rocked some conferences with our experience. It has been a great ride.
And I loved the video your students made for earthday08. I left a message in google video, but am not sure it was published.
So many possibilities to engage students even if the institution doesn't give us the budget. Our willing to innovate they cannot take away..and google is here to empower us with the tools to materialize our. How cool is that!?
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