Thing 49: Collaboration, Connecting, Sharing

So this is a tool that is always changing as well.
I am a member of Educational Media and Technology Association and this year I was lucky enough to learn about Zoom. I had heard other teachers mention Zooming and completing webinars through Zoom but I had never tried it or heard of it really other than that. So the great thing about EMTA is that if you're unable to attend the meeting in person you can Zoom in! So I have had the pleasure of seeing that this year during our meetings. I also was able to take part in a makerspace webinar by Zooming into the webinar. I find Zoom to be fantastic! I am grateful that I have had the opportunity to learn about it this year and I hope to continue to use it in the future. So I have really only seen pros for this other than the one webinar I did notice that you cannot join until it is exactly the time of the event unless the coordinator sets up the event differently. I had to wait until exactly 315 to join the event which made me rather nervous that I was going to miss something but I didn't. I like the video or phone conferencing capabilities with Zoom. It is a great feature to have.

While reading the article Top 200 Tools for Learning I did come across a tool that may fit better under productivity tools however, it is such a great tool that I wanted to share it here. Plus I already turned in my blog for productivity. It is the tool My Study Life. It allows for you to add your schedule and it was created specifically for students. The schedule can be based on a day cycle which many schools use this. Along with adding in holidays to make sure the schedule reflects the number of days in school accurately. You can then add tasks and have reminders set up as well. It allows for you to set a homework schedule so that you are spending the appropriate amount of time on each task. Plus you can sign into it with Google so many schools that have G Suite for the students will be able to have students just sign right in and keep track of their schedule. Overall this also would allow for collaboration between a teacher and students if the school purchased the educator version. This would allow for teachers to upload their homework or reminders into the system and share with their students. The student version is always free. I signed up as a student just to play around with it. I was able to add in my classes that I teach just to see how the schedule works. It is pretty neat.

A few other tools that I have tried and absolutely lover are Padlet, Popplet and Remind. All of these tools are great for brainstorming or reminders. I have used Remind as a coach to contact my players and ensure that they know when practice is or if there is a cancelation. I also use Remind for one of the LuLaRoe groups I'm in :-) (guilty pleasure).  The consultant will send out messages about upcoming sales so that we do not miss out. It is a great program! I love to use it and it is nice to be able to use it with students. My co-advisor for yearbook uses it along with me for our yearbook meetings as well to keep in touch with the kids and remind them of deadlines.

I have used Padlet in the past with the science teacher that I collaborate with and the students absolutely love this tools.I also enjoy how we use this tool to introduce ourselves at the beginning of this workshop. It is a quick and easy tool to use to get to know one an another. It is also a great tool for brainstorming.