Wow! There are so many
amazing pieces of information and resources on his blog, I could spend hours,
or even days sifting through it and not have even begun to scratch the
surface! I read through a few articles
on his blog.
The first article I read had to do with some of the bigger pieces
of news from the past week. One of the
biggest ones was an announcement from Google that they are going to shut down
Google Reader. The author of the blog,
Richard Byrne, suggests using the alternative Feedly instead.
Next, I read an article discussing a variety of useful Google
Chrome extensions and apps for the classroom.
The Daum Equation Editor popped out at me because it allows you to write
mathematical equations and then save them as text or images so you can easily
place them in documents. Doing this in
Office can be tedious and time consuming.
A second one that popped out at me was Select and Speak. It allows you to highlight text and have it
read aloud to you. This would make a
great accommodation for students with disabilities or for students who struggle
to read. Additionally, it could be used
in content areas that have a lot of jargon, like science.
Blogging is a great way to share ideas and information that you
have come across. It could also be a
great tool for use in the classroom as a resource for students. I have a class webpage that I will be
converting to a blog over the summer.
The webpage has a variety of links that I found that are tools to help
them with homework or have games and activities to help them review state
assessment items. I have former students
that still log in and play the games, so I can tell it has had an impact on
them and they are having fun while learning.
In conclusion, I think resources such as blogs and Twitter are the
future of collaboration between teachers.
We have been told to beg, borrow, and steal resources as teachers. Using blogs and Twitter make doing so a whole
lot easier.
Daniel,
ReplyDeleteAnother great post! I think I "tweeted" this article a week or two ago and felt that it had a lot of great information to share with other teachers. I think you ended it in just the right way. Why "re-invent the wheel" when there are so many ways that we can access what we're looking for in half the time? You now have me interested in the Select and Speak program. I have 7 students with IEPs in my classroom this year and I think this would be a GREAT tool for them to use in class. Thanks for sharing!!!
-Danielle
Dan,
ReplyDeleteRichard Byrne is a great resource for educators and I look forward to looking through more of his blog for some great info! I did not see the blog on the text reading feature but that seems very interesting, I would like to see how this would work and like you said, use it in the classroom for students who need that type of accommodation. I agree that blogging and Twitter open a new world for educators and allow us to find information more easily and readily. I hope to continue both after this class is over and continue to expand my knowledge on both technology tips. You did a great job covering information about this blog. :)
Amanda
Dan,
ReplyDeleteI love your quote, "I think resources such as blogs and Twitter are the future of collaboration between teachers." I am glad to read you are converting to a blog this summer. I am excited for you because you see the big picture and have plans to keep pushing yourself. Great post!