Tools of the Week

 I checked out all six of the new tools this week.  While I have been enjoying playing with most of the tools we have been learning about in the class, this week was probably the the first time I was able to visualize using some of the tools in my elementary classroom.  Edublogs was my favorite new tool.  This looks ideal for showing progress (hopefully) in a student's writing throughout the year.  I really like the options that are available for customizing, great way to bring in an art lesson also.  I love that the teacher can leave feedback for a student and the privacy settings are important, especially for the young kids.  I found an article on the site with ideas for writing prompts and different types of blog entries for students to try.  One of my students' favorite activities in History was taking on the role of a historical figure and writing journal entries for that person. It would be so much fun for the kids to do this as a blog!

Padlet is a tool that I have used once during a teacher inservice, but I did not know there were so many things you could do with it.  I liked the timeline feature and I added a tidbit of information there. I think it would be better if you could click and drag things around after you added them though.  I put mine in the wrong spot the first time and I had to delete it and redo it.  I didn't try it yet, but I saw one of my classmates post an AI-created image with a tool located in Padlet and that looks like it would be fun to use also.

I was a little skeptical of Symbaloo at first. It looked like my homepage on Google without the need for adding another tool. I dug a little deeper and realized there is more to it than I initially thought.   I recently learned how to make folders to organize my links. This has made things easier for me, but Symbaloo takes it a step further with the visual element.  You can organize links by subject and color code them so they are easy to find.  I found the ads to be very annoying though and not sure I want to pay a fee just to have an ad-free experience when my Google folders are working ok.

Hypothesis was ok. I do like being able to collaborate with other people on a document.  It was a very simple layout and easy to use, that's always a win for me!

Piazza was not a hit for me. Dr. Dennen mentioned it is used more in f2f settings and that the math/science people seem to like this one.  It was just "too much" for me.  I like the concept, but not the actual execution.

Cluster was actually familiar to me.  My son's coach uses it at, sporadically unfortunately, at swim meets to keep parents updates on the timeline, events, and results. It saves him from answering 50 texts when he remembers to update it! I have also added pictures on there to share with parents. 

I definitely added some tools to the belt this week!