We had a busy and successful day today working on the computers at school. I created this blog as an example of something you might want to create. This is the tool I demonstrated during our closing gathering this afternoon. Blogger does not integrate automatically with our Google Apps, but you can easily create a link from your class home page.
Please take a moment and click on the comment tab to let me know what you thought about today's session. You can ask questions or even offer suggestions for tomorrow.
Several of you asked about a blog feature today, so I looked into it. Google Apps does not have an automatic blog tool. There is an announcement feature that some people have used as a blog, so you might want to try that. If you like this blog, you might be better off just using Blogger. You can read the blog I've been keeping for years to see what it looks like after many posts: http://danielroz.blogspot.com/ It's a collection of essays I've written over the years.
One question today that has not yet been fully resolved is the issue of posting pictures of your students online. There are school policies for that and if you would like, we can use one of our group sessions to discuss the issue and offer clarification.
Posting photo albums was a major topic today. I showed you how I use Picasa Web Albums to show off pictures of my kids. You can see them here: http://picasaweb.google.com/danielroz
Like Blogger, Picasa is a FREE feature owned by Google, but it, too, does not automatically link with your Harford Day Google Apps account. But, like a blog, you can make photo albums and then create a link from your class home page to your photo albums.
Because we were trying to accomplish a lot today, we discovered many limitations: limitations in time, background knowledge and computer capabilities. My first response is that when we find these glitches, we will fix them as soon as we can. My next response is that you should not expect yourself to learn everything right away. This workshop is designed for you to pick a manageable project and focus on it for these three days. Please don't try to do too much. You are not being compared to anybody else.
On Tuesday morning, Tracy will be leading a discussion about her role in helping you integrate technology into your classroom.
Please post your comments so I know how to help you tomorrow.
If one would like to blog on their class page the "announcements" webpage format can enable this. (right, Daniel?)
ReplyDeleteGo to your website managing page and click "create page"
Select "Announcements" as the format
Name the page
Decide where you would like the page to exist on your site
Click "create page"
That should enable a mini blog where the students may comment on posts the teacher makes. Plus it is no more than two clicks from the Harford Day Main Page.
Thanks, Rob. That's correct.
ReplyDelete