Using Google Docs

In my school district they are really pushing us to use Google Docs to create and share educational ideas or lesson plans. I had logged in and messed with it when they first told us of this, but I did not see how it would work with my students. I left it and did not mess with it till now again. I really love Google Docs! You can create documents, save them, share with co-workers, and get their feed back. The feature I loved the most was the Forms maker. I thought of so many things to do with my students that I started doing them there in then.

With the Forms maker on Google Docs I am already planning on using it after every lesson. After presenting my students with a given material I will make a online quiz with Forms. You can create a quiz and send out the link to students by email.  The neat thing about Forms is that after students have taking the quiz, it makes it into a spread sheet. It separates every question so that you are able to see what your students understood from your lecture, and what things they did not by their answers. That way I can go back to explain a question in a different way in which they will understand better.

With Forms on Google Docs, I think I will use it to make surveys about the materials, homework, and every other aspect of the classroom so that I can get feed back from my students as well. There is a way to make forms anonymous, that way my students do not feel pressure to just write good reviews.

I think that with so much technology out in the world we have learned that teaching styles like drilling in information to students is not effective because it is a very closed minded way of teaching. If students do not understand the whole picture you are trying to paint they will lose interest because they will think "what's the point", but if we teach students with real life tools they will have a better understanding of the world and know how to navigate through it. Drills will discourage students curiosity to learn, or to even be open minded. And it just makes me think more, and more that everything we do for our students will affect them in the future.

ePortfolio

My ePortfolio experience was interesting. I had not worked of a site since my high school days, so it was hard for me to get the hang of it, once again. I messed with it for a long while, although it does not look like much. I viewed several tutorials but they did not seem to work for me. I know that in my school district  has trainings on different teaching tools like Google Docs, I am hoping that they have some classes on site making for classroom use.

• A unite that I would like to try in my classroom using blogs would be talking about social queues with my students.  I have a special education transitional class in which I teach them skills to help them obtain a job, and social queues is another tough in-concrete aspect to teach so that they are able to get jobs. I would post a particular social queue question/comment on the blog and students would reply to the post their feelings or misunderstanding about it. I would also encourage them to find clips, articles, and videos of examples of the social queue, but as they post I would keep commenting on their post in a way to keep the conversation going for about a week. 

The desired level of thinking that I would be looking for is one that flows. I teach mostly autistic students in my class and what I see they have most trouble with is having a conversation with someone that flows. I would want to give them that experience though a blog. I think is would be a fun new way of getting them to practice social skills. 

The theory that I would be working with in the blog, as well as many other aspects in the classroom would be that of the Constructive Learning Theory. I remember this theory from school, and basically it stresses the active involvement of the learner in learning for itself. In other words it works on what the student already knows from previous knowledge or experience.    

This approach of teaching will help students put an idea of the way they view the world around them, but it will also show them how their classmate think about the same idea. I think this way would work best because in the classroom we as a class do not always have time to have classroom discussions because there is other work that needs to be done. This way the student can be thinking about the topic in their head, wherever they happen to be, and know that they can logon to the blog and post their idea/comment.   

• Blogs could be used in other ways in my classroom as well. I thought since I post questions about social queues, why not have my students do the same. There could be another section for students to post questions to their classmates and myself. That way I can see what social issues they are dealing with or trying to understand outside of the classroom. 

• The obstacle that I can see happening is that a student or a few of them come to me after a post is due and say they lost their internet connection before submitting their post. Another is that not every student might have a computer, led alone internet at their home. (Even though I have a classroom iPad students can use if they are done with their work, or the fact that we have computer labs that are open before and after school.) I can still see students coming up to me and telling me these issues.