Edvibes Blog

1) Go to Google Sites Overview Page watch the tour and read up2) If you don’t have a Google Account sign up for one

3) Watch some more tutorials :

How to create a new google site

How to edit a google site

How to embed content into a google site

4) Explore and start building

I have been stuck for a couple months on the easiest and safest way to share class pictures on the web. I started with flickr but found it just isn’t very easy for new users to pick up on and learn how to use. So recently I decided to try Google Picasa’s Web Albums with their public and private unlisted albums feature. (read more about What’s the difference between public albums and those that are unlisted? from Google’s FAQ Help section) I really liked the flexibility with their privacy options and it is very user friendly. I also especially like their easy to use embeddable slideshow feature.

Note: I make the decision on whether to publish and share pictures publicly by the following criteria.

*Is the photo appropriate and have an educational value?

*Does the photo reveal the complete identity of a student face?

See how we used picasa to share our some of our photos from our YMCA Camping trip from our class blog here.

Walmart and Google found a way to get the price of a desktop PC down to $200 by using open source software and webware that runs in your web browser. Very interesting with their timing so close to the One Laptop Per Child XO laptop. This has exciting implications for our schools and crossing the digital divide.

See Also:

*For the Walmart link click here
*The offical gOS site
*Interview with gOS Founder: “Linux For Human Beings (Who Shop At WAL*MART)”

Watch the screencast

WHY:

Let’s face it one of the biggest obstacles with implementing computers into a language arts classroom is if the kids don’t finish typing their paper in the period, they will never be able to find that file later. For example, my class is working on an expository essay. We have 4 mobile carts with 32 laptops per cart in our school, let’s say I signed out Cart A on Monday. The students didn’t finish typing up their essays so they save it on the computer they were working on. Now all the stars need to be aligned for the classroom to get back that same cart, that student needs to get that same computer they used the day before (hopefully it’s working and got a fresh charge), and be able to find their file (hopefully someone else didn’t delete it).

Solution: A Web-based Word Processer

How:

1)  Read What are WebApps, Webware, Widgets, Web-based, and Webdesks for a better explanation of these terms.  In a nut shell a web-based word processor is basically like a Microsoft Word running on the internet instead of on your computer.

2) Read Free Web-based Office Suites and Education

3) Set up a Zoho Account.  All you need is an email address.  Now this is why I decided to setup one account, using our shared email address that I mangage,  for all the students to share and use rather than having each one set up their own.  First, I didn’t want them using their personal email addresses, if they have them, to sign up. Second, I believe it is important to first model as a class. Maybe later on when they really catch on I will let them sign up for their own account, which most end up doing on their own from home on their own.

4) Model the basics of word processing: bold, underline, save, file new,  etc. the tool bar is basically the same as MS Word.

5) Have the students set up and save their own file using a class naming system.  We use Studentuser01MS (the 01 is the student number, the MS is their first and last initial).   Once every kid has created a file and named it correctly you will have a roster of all your students with their files in order.

6) Go ahead an type away.  From now on the students can login in using our class student account, click on their file, continue to type, save, print, cut and paste from this online office suite.

Again, later on I may decide to give the students their own account in school, but this has been working very smoothly so far.

Post a comment below if you have a question or suggestion on other ways to do this.

Web2.0 has brought us free office suites webapps (short for web-applications, which run inside your internet browser window).  This new free webware (software run on the web not on your computer) have the potential to threaten the giant  MS Office Suite  as more and more switch to using the free services online rather than shelling out the hundreds of dollars to purchase the new commerical software.  This is especially relevant in the education sector. The two online office suites I use for myself and my students are:

1. Googledocs formely writely until google bought them out. It’s a suite that has a free replace for Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.  Googledocs has made me a more productive teacher,  I love and swear by it I use it everyday to write and share my lesson planning from home and school. Googledocs is free and requires no downloads, you just need to register for a google account. Only problem is, they do not support apple’s default internet browser Safri.  One way to get around this is by installing firefox onto your mac.

2. Zoho Office Suite is another great alternative, see this wikipedia link for a great explanation.   It has a much bigger suite with everything that googledocs has and  then some.  I decided to use zoho for my class because I didn’t want to have to worry about the mac compatibility and downloading firefox on all the laptop carts.

Related Posts

What are WebApps, Webware, Widgets, Web-based, and Webdesks for a greater explanations.

Read Zoho Suite vs Google Docs to see a great comparison between the two.

Discussion:

What are some of the possiblities and implications of this capabilities?

What are the best practices and classroom management of using web-based office suites?

Web Conferencing, defintion from wikipedia, has finally become smooth and easy. These Virtual Meetings allow for live and synchronous 2-way collaboration online in real time. Most of these services offer white boards everyone can write on, chat, voice, webcam, and share slides, pictures, or what is on your screens or slides.

The business sector has caught on this technology already. But the education sector is just now picking up on it. There are some exciting possibilities with teaching and learning. For example, there are teacher professional development trainings and conferences like the K12 Online Conference . This was my first year attending this virtual and global conference, and I participated and moderated on numerous live presentations and conferences. I have also used these technologies to tutor my students in math after school from home and I know of college professors that are now holding their office hours via web conferencing.

So here are the two platforms that I use and recommend:

Vyew “is a FREE online meeting service that brings people and content together.
Use Vyew to host LIVE conferences or collaborate over time, asynchronously (a fancy word for “at your own convenience”).” (click here for more info on vyew and education)

Review: Very easy to use and 100% web-based no downloads required. Don’t even need to register for an account.

Elluminate “is a leading provider of live Web conferencing and eLearning solutions for the real-time organization. Serving corporate and academic sectors, the company ensures the best user experience through superior quality VoIP, communications that are in-sync regardless of connection speed, broad, cross-platform support, and advanced yet easy-to-use moderator tools”

Review: Has all the bells and whitles. They give a you a free account that allows you to host 3 users at once. Requires a download on to your computer.

Discussion:

What web conferencing services do you use?
How can we use them in and out of the classroom?

I am really disappointed with the web’s definitions of these terms, maybe my next stop will be with revising some of those wikipedia enteries. Here are my definitions, let me know what you think.

Web-based: working inside your internet browser instead of on your computer.

Webware: (web + software coined from the site webware.com) are web-based applications that run on the internet inside your internet browser vs software which is installed on your computer and runs on your computer.

WebApps: (web + applications) is another name for webware

Widget: a 3rd party webapp tool embedded into a web page. Example: A calcutator in your iGoogle or My Yahoo start page)
Webdesk: (I made up this word, this is a project I am working on see www.netvibes.com/webdesk) this is an online suite or collection of tools organized together to create a virtual web-based desktop of webapps and webware.

Example: Microsoft Word is software that is installed on your computer and is computer-based vs Google Docs or Zoho Writer which are web-based word processors that are run inside your internet browser an online instead of on your computer.

Benefits: I have 3 computers. The mac I am issued at work, my Desktop PC in my home office, and my old laptop for surfing the web while watching TV. Instead of me saving my lesson plans on a jump drive and swapping them around from one computer to the next or shotting emails with attachments back and forth to myself, I use Google Docs - a free web-based word process. This webware allows me to work at one WebApps like my Google Docs have made my life much easier and productive.