We can work IT out

I’ve never written down goals before (well, not these type) and I’m a little reluctant to start now. What if I don’t make any of them? What if they are in conflict with the goals of my workplace? What if they make me look like a luddite, or if they are just plain ordinary?

However, I want to have a set a goals so that I can keep track of where I want to go, where I want to direct the teachers I work with, so that I can say at the end, these are the things that I achieved or have tried to achieve. What do I need to do next to get there? What has happened throughout the year that will make me edit or re-think my goals for the following year? Deep breath . . . I will:

1. encourage the staff in my workplace to use Yammer as an alternate form of cumminication and to see that it has many (and different) benefits over email;
2. run a Web2.0 course for the School administrators and have them use a blog and other web tools on a regular basis;
3. run a Blog Course for interested teachers – along the lines of 30 days to be a better blogger (which I really want to do myself) Coincidentally, Sue Waters has just blogged about a new 30 Days Project starting up;
4. encourage the teachers (that I worked with during 2008) to use a variety of web tools in 2009 eg VoiceThread, Blogging;
5. blog regularly and keep commenting on blogs that I read
6. create a portal for my maths class so that there is an online presence and support for learning
7. be a better father;

I’m sure there are more goals, and I hope to add some over the next few weeks.

Photo: source Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial 2.0 Generic license

What Web2.0 tool should I use?

What Web2.0 tool would you use?

This year for my Year 7 maths class I want to have a learning management system – but without using commercial software ie no Moodle (takes too long to learn); no Sharepoint (need access to set up on servers) and no Blackboard (cost too much).

This is what I want to do with it:

• set tasks and have students reply that they have completed them
• put course materials online
• have students ask questions online
• have video lessons that I make available for each teaching moment
• have parents see progress of their child and make comments
• be accessible from home
• have some assessment data viewable
• have students use it to profile some of their work
• and a few other things that I have probably forgotten to mention
• have it semi-private so that students and their parents are the main (only) users

These are some the options:

• Edmodo – can I do most of this in edumodo??
• A blog
• A Wiki
• A ning
• other suggestions?

So, what would you use? Which tool will make it fairly simple, keep it organised and not be too hard for parents to interact with?

Photo: source Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

Side-note: Wasn’t sure what to expect when I typed “help” into the Flickr Creative Commons search engine but there were an interesting range of images.

This could be an interesting task for students to do: with a digital camera take an image that depicts ‘help’, add it to VoiceThread (or blog page), describe your thoughts and invite others to respond.