…and my waistline and cholesterol level prove it. What makes them so appealing is I do not have to limit myself to just one item, AND I can eat to my heart’s (or stomach’s) content. So many choices, so little time. However, I need to stay away from AYCEBs because I have no self control. I take too many trips, get too much on each trip, and do not know when to say when.
I have the same problem with educational technology. The number of tools available is staggering. A virtual AYCEB for the Internet. Many of the tools can be used in the classroom. Choosing which ones to use can be a daunting task, but in order to be effective, I have to limit myself in some way. Jen posted her thoughts that prompted me to decide what tools am I going to use and in which I will become fluent.
I have wrestled with this before and it is time to come to grips with my limitations. Today is the day that I declare what path I will choose. Here are the tools that I use the most and will continue to show teachers and students how to use them as well.
1. Edublogs. If you are reading this, then you know why blogs are great tools for professional development. I do not need to spend a lot of time explaining why this tool will always be in my toolbox.
2. Google Reader. I always turn to this tool to gain inspiration and for professional development. My reader gets full and overwhelming at times, but it will always be in my toolbox.
3. Google Notebook. Time prevents me from checking out all the links that I find in my reader. Notebook helps me file away those sites that I want to go back to later, and I can put them into categories. I use Notebook to make clips of good blogging practices by my student bloggers to show others how to be a good blogger.
4. Audacity. Way too easy to create audio content for our class iPods. If you can use a microphone and a mouse, then you are on your way to engaging students through audio content.
5. iLife for Mac. Last year, I rediscovered how much I love desktop video editing. The Macbook that my school purchased makes it way easy to create multimedia content for the classroom. Garageband is hand down, the best way to create rich audio content. Podcasts are a lot of fun to create and share. I have made a few, and hope to make more in the future.
These are the 5 tools that I could not live without. There are others that I dabble with, but our school Internet filter has helped me clean out my toolbox. Maybe I need a filter at the next AYCEB meal I go to.
What tools do you use? Do you use the ones that I listed?
Check out the supplemental podcast here.
Entries (RSS)
November 12th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Mr. James,
The tools I can’t live without are del.icio.us and Google Reader. The first helps me to keep all the Web 2.0 tools and ideas I get from the latter. Then I can just dabble with the others when they’re most appropriate to use.
February 9th, 2009 at 12:09 am
I’m checking out your blog page. You know what I’m using. Maybe in future workshops you can teach me about Goodle Reader and Notebook. They sound interesting.