As usual we will begin our year by reviewing our logins and looking at some new features of these old friends. This Tech Professional Learning Community (PLC) topic has to do with a song learned in Brownies: new friends are silver, old friends are gold. The old friends are: ERO, SchoolInsites (web host), Outlook (email), Enrich, StreamlineSC (Learn 360 portal), Discus, We are also reviewing phone/voicemail setup and a password addition to our work order system, School Dude.
But as usual there is modeling involved with the session. The main new friend for the year is ClassFlow from Promethean. We will be looking at some of the features more closely next month when teachers join a class. At Google Classroom schools the “always start in Classroom” rule is in effect. Having to join two classes may seem tedious, but they will have access to all the archived lessons in our classroom site.
Now for some outside sites which have become important over the years..Chrome has eased the need for online bookmarking since with a login your browser looks the same on any connected device. But EDU.Symbaloo is still the most visual bookmarking tool which can be very helpful for younger students. This link is to a Twitter webmix which has ideas for following chats as part your personal learning network. Using Symbaloo as your Personal Learning Network (PLN) home can be shared with students, too.
Remind was the first “messaging to parents anonymously” site. There are several others now and Google Classroom has a share with parents email feature now that combines all classes the student is in-volved with in one message. Can be daily, weekly or monthly. And ClassFlow has an app called ClassFlow Moments which mimics many of Remind’s features. Parents must be invited to join. Remind has grown since beginning. You can now add attachments and apply read receipts for documentation. Link to the Top 10 Ways to Use Remind. Still free...still private! ClassDojo is another first of its kind site. This has also morphed due to copy cat sites. They offer support with student video series. There has been a yearly set for several years.. The new set is here.
Many old friends have moved to subscription/membership, but are still useful enough to invest in. Edu.Glogster is one of these. I have been an Ambassador and used it as my presentation tool some years back. This was one of the first curation tools online….it offered a digital poster format which allowed students/teachers to add video, pictures and text to a background. These had URLs and could be shared or used to present. $30 will get you a personal account. It is a onetime purchase not a yearly license. Voki is a talking avatar and is itself is still free, but it has many additional educational features Voki Classroom, Voki Presenter, and Voki Teach which are paid. These all have 15 day trial with various levels which include combinations of the products from $5/month for 50 students to $10/month for 150.
So that gets Florence 3 started for the year...ENJOY!
