Google Sites, Google Docs, & Social Bookmarking Reflection

Google Sites

My experience with Google Sites:

As a teacher in my district, I have a district website. (Not a Google Site, but similar.) At first I enjoyed using my site and updated it regularly. However, the more I used the site, the more unsatisfied I became with it. I began finding that simple tasks ended up becoming rigorous tasks with multiple steps. I also didn’t like that I couldn’t change things that I wanted to such as the font, layout, and color. This made me unhappy with my website and less excited to use it.

My thoughts about having a future Google Site:

In an earlier reflection, I wrote about using a Wiki as a parent communication tool. Since learning about and using Google Sites, I have changed my mind. I would like to use a Google Site to communicate with my students and parents.

I found Google Sites to be quite user friendly. I did not have to click through a bunch of unnecessary tabs and links to get to where I wanted to go and do what I wanted to do. The links and tabs that I did click on took me to where I needed to go and were labeled in a way that made them easily identifiable.

I like the visual appeal of Google Sites as well. There were a variety of themes to choose from. In fact, I had a hard time deciding which one to use. To me, this is much more appealing than my black & orange district website. I like that Google Docs have a nice variety of themes and tools with out requiring you to buy or install software (EDUCAUSE, 2008, p. 2).

Google Sites also offers a nice variety of tools to use such as forms and polls. My current website does not offer these tools.

I think that the best way for me to use a Google Site would be to, at first, link it on my current website. I would also use it with my students first on an almost daily basis. This way they will feel comfortable enough with it to show their parents how useful it will be.

Google Docs

My experience with Google Docs:

Prior to my experience in class, I had never used Google Docs. I regularly use my USB Flash drive and store EVERYTHING on it. I am not even very good about “double saving” my documents “just in case” as a co-worker tends to do. The school email server we use offers a place to create and store documents, but I’ve only used it once or twice.

My thoughts about using Google Docs in the future:

Wow! I’m not sure if I am really ready to use Google Docs to their full potential. I would like to slowly begin using some of the easiest aspects of it though. One of my biggest issues is not a Google Doc issue, but actually an Internet issue (or a time issue). My main computer is a laptop and l like to do most of my work away from my desk that has the Ethernet cable nearby. I did purchase a router to allow me to have a wireless connection and got it to work once, but I that was only once. I need to have someone who knows what they’re doing help me out, but I haven’t had the time to have someone look at it. (I did offer my nephew four Brewer tickets in exchange for his help, but he preferred to watch the opening Packer game from his dorm room instead. He hasn’t been back in town since.)

One of the aspects I would really enjoy is, not always needing to have my flash drive with me. There have been days when I sit down at home to work on a document and realize I left my flash drive at school or vice versa. As long as I have a connection, I’ll have my Google Docs – even if it means sitting in my cold basement this winter with the cable plugged in.

Having such young students, I am not really sure if I would use Google Docs with them. It might be something to consider in the future once I am more familiar with it myself.

Social Bookmarking

My experience with Social Bookmarking:

During the summer of 2010, I participated in Project TILT II (Technology Integration Leadership Teams) through CESA 5. One of the first activities we did was create a Diigo account. That allowed us to easily bookmark all of the sites we liked and found useful during the workshops. When we created our accounts, we did not install a Diigo tool bar, instead we used Diigolet.

In all honesty, I really had not touched my Diigo account until the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year. (Just before attending this course.) I noticed that my “Bookmark” list was getting to be quite long and many sites that I had marked at home were different from those I had a school. Then I looked at the Diigo link on my toolbar and my “AH HA” light bulb went on! However, I didn’t really use it as a “Social” bookmark, just a personal online bookmark.

My thoughts about continuing to use Social Bookmarking in the future:

Watching the tutorials and reading about Diigo, opened my eyes to all of the wonderful things you can do with Social Bookmarking. As I previously said, I basically used Diigo as a personal online bookmarking site where I could access my favorite websites from anywhere with an Internet connection. However, I had no idea about being able to highlight, capture images, and use sticky notes.

I also think that being able to follow my class teammates will be very beneficial; hence the “social” aspect of Social Bookmarking. I look forward to checking out some of the links my teammates share since we teach the same grade.

As I was thinking about my blog and social bookmarking, I wondered how easy it would be to connect the two. Then as I was reading my assigned reading, I read, “Everything that I tag “education” is rolled together and posted automatically to my Cool Cat Teacher blog, and I can send it to my blog and to Twitter automatically,” (Solomon & Schrum, 2010, p. 177). This is exactly what I was thinking about. Then watching the tutorial about social bookmarking made it look extremely easy to do – when I’m ready.

References:

EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. (2008). 7 Things You Should Know About Google

Apps (ID: ELI7035). Retrieved from: http://www.educause.edu/ELI/7Things

YouShouldKnowAboutGoogl/162758.

Solomon, G. & Schrum L. (2010). Web 2.0 how-to for educators. Eugene, OR:

International Society for Technology in Education.