- Excited: so many cool, and free, options for diving deeper into content and technology. The add-ons for Google forms alone is something that can have a major impact on my timing and effectiveness as a professional this year. Knowing that if I ever think about something that I want, or think would be great for use in my classroom, all I have to do is search for it and it probably already exists.
- Negative: I feel that I wasted a lot of time trying out some bad tools and just having some okay results with others. My fear is that I could become too obsessed with the tool and forget about the purpose the tool is supposed to fill. Dare I say that maybe I am becoming a little old fashioned here, but I think some of these things could fall under the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) theory? Outside of a few things that I find really useful, I feel that I would have to spend a lot more time with some of the others to feel comfortable enough to use it with students.
This being all said; do I think that I should keep trying in order to stay up to date and to know the best options out there for my students and me- YES!!!
I'm with you on the time element, usually I go looking for something and have gotten good at figuring out quickly if it is or isn't what I want. With add-ons, I'm way down on the learning curve and I'm consuming so much in the hopes that I don't miss anything. The spread sheet Emily put together was good for this class.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, two sides of the same coin. I agree completely. Which ones did you like?
ReplyDeleteI hate the time wasting aspect too! I think if we collectively share with each other what works and what doesn't we will be way ahead of the curve....
ReplyDeleteJustin, I'd love to hear which ones you find useful. I, too, don't want to waste time. April - I love your idea of having a collective sheet to cut down on waste time searching. You can go find useful tools others have utilized. Great idea!
ReplyDeleteGood points. I too have wasted some time looking into apps and extensions analyzing whether or not it would be useful for me and my students. I'm excited for all of the possibilities, but I don't want to lose track of the purpose.
ReplyDeleteRichard's post on Activity 5 was really helpful and saved me some time by going directly to his recommendations: http://rosivachtechnerd.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteAlso, here's a link to that shared compilation as well: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cap9ewv7TUzlnLdK6K1mNzvTNcd7ORgGxNm51El7SzY/edit#gid=0
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