Google Apps

Google Apps has been fun to play with, I've created a couple of websites and a blog. The learning curve is actually very small and the websites are very WYSIWYG. I love how everything is so interconnected - I can create a calendar and then add it to the webpage. Google Docs is great too - it allows for up to 10 people to collaborate on a document, presentation or spreadsheet at any one time - if students had access to this it would eliminate the need for flashdrives and when a student was absent, their partner would still be able to access the material. There are so many possibilities when you start using Google Apps. :)

PSLA

April 15-17th was PSLA - the Pennsylvania State Librarians' Association conference. Exciting topics were covered - along with best new books, award winning books, topics included: personal networks, technology in the classroom, and going digital on a dime. So much information was presented that I now need to make the time to process it. I'm also working on recruiting our reading teacher to become part of the PA Young Readers' Choice Award committe - I'll be writing a grant to get 3 copies of each book on the list. I think we'll see some fun projects come out of literacy circles :)

Personal Learning Networks

Today I attended a webinar on Personal Learning Networks - how do I stay connected to others who are interested in the same things that I am. My PLN consists of several listservs that I'm a member of - CFF Coaches and LM_Net, my staff and tech people at school, and a few others that I talk or Skype with. I have found that there is SOOO much more that I could be doing. Some ideas: facebook, Nings, Diigo, Twitter, LinkedIn, Keystone Commons and Synmbaloo, just to name a few. My next step is to check out all of these items and see what is going to work best for me. I hope that I am part of my staff's personal learning network through our Moodle and Wiki - I'm planning on adding a page about personal learning networks on the new Google site - hopefully my pln will grow :)

PSSA Testing

It's PSSA testing time here at NEB. I'm proctoring a class of 11th grade students who are working hard on their tests. While they are working, it's giving me a chance to sit still and think about what direction of the wiki that I'm working on should take. I have one wiki for the schools' cff group and another for NEB and neighboring Towanda to share thoughts and ideas on. I'm working on another CFF Wiki through Google's Apps for Education. I'd really like to see our school use Google's Apps for Education - there are many benefits that I see:

• ease of use - any machine that can connect to the Internet can be used to access the apps
• google docs - Free, has equivalent of Word, a presentation component and components for forms, spreadsheets and more!
• email - google hosts - free
• collaboration groups - teachers can add each other, track documents, presentations and conversations that they have had - posting videos and more. Ideally, teachers and students will work together, eliminating the "need" for students to give out network passwords when assigned a group project.
• SO much More...

Google Apps Collaboration Team

Today we met to discuss how to go about getting Google Apps for our teachers and students. We've decided to go for the teachers first - instill some collaborative skills and generate new ideas. Ideally, students will end up having Google Apps accounts as well :)