Steve Hargadon said that swapping business cards and attending conferences are ways to network socially. I think some of my students would argue that talking to each other during quiet class time is social networking! My facebook-based idea about social networking was turned upside down when I found Classroom 2.0 and Ning in Education. I have never seen so much information packed into one place–and there’s no end to it!
I spent a good deal of time the last two days experimenting with these two nings. First I watched the Elluminate Live! recording called “‘Tour of Web 2.0′ webcast video” that Steve Hargadon posted on the main page of the Classroom 2.0 ning. I highly recommend it for any ning newbies because Steve takes the time to go through each section of the Classroom 2.0 ning, from an individual user’s page to how one might tag a forum post. The most useful thing I learned from the webcast is that the Forum section/tab of the ning is organized chronologically by the latest post to any forum. In other words, if I find and leave a comment in a forum about using Google Docs in the classroom, that forum would show up at the top of the list back on the ning main page. I think this is a useful way to see what many people are currently thinking about. This type of organization ignites and reignites ideas in everyone’s minds. I find that when I visit and revisit the Classroom 2.0 main page, I go directly to the forum section.
As I experimented with the Ning in Education site I realized that it is really just an extension or arm of the Classroom 2.0 ning. The Ning in Education site was created for the purpose of linking people in the general educational platform, but I think that so much of that is Web related! It was funny, the fruits of my search on the Ning in Education site was membership in a Smartboard discussion group!
My experience signing up with the Classroom 2.0 ning was just as friendly as when I first signed up with Twitter. Just as it was with veteran twitter-ers, I received a few greetings from seasoned ning users right away. Thanks Anne, Hans, David, and Paul! Web 2.0 people are so encouraging! I recommend both sites…can’t wait to network some more!
I enjoyed my “play” time with Google Docs & Spreadsheets as part of my task for Thing 20. I actually delved into the spreadsheets function and put together the first draft of a document that will hopefully complement the curricular calendar that my 4th grade team has already created for our social studies teaching. My goal is that we use the online spreadsheet to collect and link to primary sources, videos, podcasts, articles, etc. that correspond to the content we focus on through Joy Hakim’s A History of Us, Books 1 and 2. As the year progresses, I hope that we modify and pare down the spreadsheet so that it eventually contains just the sources that are most applicable to the content and more interesting to the students. That’s where team collaboration comes in!
I found the Google Spreadsheets to be easy to use, very similar to Microsoft Excel. I had to seek help on how to create links within cells, but other than that didn’t have trouble putting my thoughts together on the page. When I was ready to invite the members of my team to view the document, I loved how Google allowed me to type up a message to be delivered with the document. That way, my colleagues didn’t receive an invitation to collaborate on a document and think, “What is this?” Also, it was nice to discover that non-gmail users are able to create a Google (not a gmail) account and colloborate in Google Docs; see video:
Other than what I used it for, I can see that the Google Docs & Spreadsheets tool has a myriad of uses. Here are a few I could think of:
Planning a party: Create a Google Doc to hash out who will plan, bring, bake, do what…
Build a class birthday calendar: Allow the students to enter their birthday in and see how the document changes
Monthly Book Club: Invite members to select the month they would like to host, enter the book they’ve chosen, and post directions to their home in a spreadsheet
Committee Meeting Updates: Choose a person to post a summary of the committee’s discussion following each meeting; keep all committees under different tabs on the spreadsheet so everyone can see how other committees are progressing
Survey Students: Ask students what they know about an upcoming topic of study to assess prior knowledge and/or interest level
Don’t forget to check out all the Google docs templates available! (or see previous post)
