Final thoughts.....

As I wrap up this session of blogging for the semester, I find myself having enjoyed most of the topics I covered so far.  I also find myself to be a very limited person in the scope of information that I have to offer in terms of blogging.  This week turned out to be quite a struggle when it came time to write about a new topic.  Nevertheless, I was able to persevere and find something new to blog about...

On that note I'd like to take a moment to talk about a site that I have found to be very useful over the years when it comes to staying current on things happening and is also a great tool for expanding my knowledge of education and its applications.

Wikipedia

I know, I know, this is nothing new here, but bear with me on this one.  Wikipedia is a great resource for finding information that other people have taken the time to research and link to.  The first instance that I really started to make use of this was with my very first special education class.  That class was filled with terms and concepts that were entirely foreign to me.  I was about as lost as they come until I took the chance to use Wikipedia to help me define a basic term for the class.  From there I found that Wikipedia was a treasure trove of information.

When you take Wikipedia on a per instance basis, it can be very daunting and confusing, but if you start to click through the links on a launch page for a subject you are looking into, it becomes this well orchestrated labrynth of information that help any user expand their knowledge base.

On that note, it's been a great semester and I look forward to someday adding to this blog and hopefully making a small contribution that can help someone else down the road.

Thanks...

Well that was cool...

Todays site gives learning a whole new spin.

http://smithsonianeducation.org/students/idealabs/universe.html

I wasted, spent quite a good amount of time on this site exploring the different tools it had to offer.  Of all of those tools i found the one on the universe to be the most engaging.  This of course may not stem form the fact that I am somewhat of a closet nerd when it comes to Astronomy, and no I do not own 2 different types of telescopes with an assortment of lenses and filters....

I've found over time that too many websites take themselves too serious when it comes to delivering content. I really like the fact that the Smithsosian has made it point to make the information they are offering approchable and fun.

So please, take some time to remember what it was like to be a kid, and explore something.  

Survey says.....

This week I wanted to take a quick moment to talk about something that I recently discovered as an avid fan of the Google empire, GoogleDocs Survey Tool.  I know I know, survey tools are a dime a dozen, and this may be true, but very few of those dimes make our lives easier.  This is found by creating a new Form inside of Google Docs, and it is one of the ost feature rich and user friendly survey tools I have used and also the same has been said of the students I have asked to use it.

Forms allow you to enter in multiple choice, scale questions, open-ended, or any number of other survey questions to your hearts content.  The great thing about this, as compared to a site like SurveyMonkey, is that the number of questions you can enter is unlimited, unlike SureveyMonkeys limit of 10 unless you want to pay for more.  The other great thing about this is that it can be administered 100% anonymous  Students love the fact that they can get feedback on something without having to worry weather or not the data they are receiving is genuine or not.

And the last thing that I simply love about Google Docs Forms is the data collection. Any program that lets you dump an obscene amount of information into it, and then it very kindly spits it back out in spreadsheets and charts is something to be marveled.  So for this week, I highly recommend swinging over to Google Docs and giving Forms a try.  My students and I have greatly enjoyed using this tool.