The world of web 2.0 has so many choices for sharing information. Online bookmarks, wikis, blogs, tweets, webpages with hyperlinks… Then there is the traditional choice of desktop shortcuts and folders. Or the in between of a teacher-student management device such as Smart Sync. As my position is new to the Lower School, we are still in the process of figuring out the “best way” to manage and share the amazing resources that we can use to work with our students. After adding several links to a start button folder to 20 different machines in the last two weeks, I needed something more efficient.
We are going to pilot Smart Sync in our lab, which is wonderful. I used this program in my “old school”; we used Synchroneyes-the version prior to its purchase by SMART. I love the way this program allows classroom management of multiple machines and allows the teacher to push a URL directly to the students. When your students are still building their literacy, asking them to type a URL or even make 6-7 clicks to find a link is not an efficient use of time.
Also, after beginning to maintain both Symbaloo pages and my old wiki, I created a new school specific wiki to serve as a landing pad for resources. It took less than an hour to move some of my old wiki parts to the new wiki. I was able to reach out to teachers to ask for their favorite resources, which I can then add to the site. If teachers make the page a “favorite”, they will have so much less searching to do and a lot more surfing.
These are both small options on the web 2.0 totem pole, but I’m happy to be carving out a clearer niche as my journey continues as a tech facilitator.
Do you have a resource that you LOVE that you think I MUST have on my wiki? Tweet me and I’ll check it out!
Teach2Connect 