Thought A: This year I will be implementing ePortfolios in my classroom along with standards-based scoring and teaching a new group of incoming students how to use current technology. What's left of my sanity will surely escape.
Thought B: If I am going to have students create ePortfolios for ongoing assessment, I really should check out Google Sites and create an example (since I have examples in other possible formats already) so my students can use that as an option.
And then I walk into my Google Apps summer class today, and-lo and behold!-the syllabus says that our final project is to be an ePortfolio. It is to be made in Google Sites, using a template that our instructor provided.
I am one happy crazy teacher lady.
The joy from that revelation alone carried me through the rest of the day, because most of it was spent reviewing the basics of Google Docs and giving us a basic introduction to Google Sites (if you have created a web page before, Google Sites is pretty easy to navigate). I did learn a few neat things, most of which others probably know about; but, in my busy first year of 1:1 computing, I just didn't get a chance to explore.
1) Sharing collections. I always knew you could do this, but forgot. Before I received my classroom set of netbooks, I used to spend hours putting together packets of materials for each unit, and each student would get one of these packets at the start of a new unit. Collections could serve as digital packets, and I could put all documents that would need to be virtually "passed out" in those collections. Students could then make copies of the documents in their Google Docs accounts and begin their learning journey through that unit.
2) Understanding sharing. I need to be clearer with students this year about the different ways to share documents, and what it means when you upload a document to the infamous cloud to share it in the first place. I'm not sure that my students really appreciate the fact that just because someone isn't an editor doesn't mean they can't get a copy of the document.
3) Rights & permissions of editors. In the sharing settings for each document, directly below the "Share & Save" & "Cancel" buttons, there is an itty bitty line that says this:
Editors will be allowed to add people and change the permissions.[Change]
If you would like your editors to share your document with an entire hemisphere of the world if they see fit along with changing the visibility of the document, then do nothing. If you would like to give editors rights to only edit and not share with total strangers (or not-so-total strangers), then click on the "Change" link to change the settings.
4) Discussion features. I have been inserting comments in student documents to give descriptive feedback to my students all year, but really didn't have time to explore all of the neat features of the discussion option. This year we will be taking advantage of the ability of students to have true discussions within documents while doing peer review, but I will also take advantage of the fact that you can message individual students within the discussions by putting an "@" symbol by their username when commenting.
5) Playing can be work, and working can be play. What really got me thinking today was something our instructor said at the start of class when he was giving us an overview of Google's corporate culture. He stated that, at Google, there was a blend between play and work that allowed for innovation. Well, why can't that same blend be fostered in high school classrooms? If this blending of "play-work thinking" is what fosters innovation at a company which is pretty much poised to take over the world (don't deny it, Google), why can't we try and use that blend to foster higher order thinking in our classrooms? While it probably won't be a major focus of mine this year, it is an idea of which I will be cognizant throughout the school year. I will try and sneak in some of that work/play blended thinking whenever I am trying to get students to think at higher levels.
So, Day 1 was mostly review, but I picked up some good ideas and tidbits. Stay tuned for Day 2 learnings and ponderables.