I learned so much this week while exploring cloud-computing websites. Before I go further, I have to say that I felt like a fool for not being more knowledgeable about cloud computing. This summer, I was at a national conference. One of the presenters wanted to send some resources to our dropboxes. Drop what? I received a quick-and-dirty explanation from someone at my table. I got the gist that it was file-sharing, so I loaded DropBox onto my iPhone--and haven't used it since. That will all be changing.
The first cloud-computing site I explored was, in fact, DropBox. So, what is Dropbox? I'll give you their words:
"Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily. Never email yourself a file again!"
How awesome is that? What I discovered about Dropbox is that you don't need a flashdrive to hork information from a colleague. I used to go to professional development sessions ALL the time. We were ALWAYS instructed to bring a flashdrive to get the resources presented. NOT. NECESSARY. This summer, via Dropbox, I acquired Smart Notebook presentations/activities, PowerPoint presentations, and ready-to-use printables by simply providing the e-mail address for my Dropbox account--ALL files were shared!
Check it out: https://www.dropbox.com/home
The second cloud-computing site I visited was box.net. I love it. It's easy to use and, in my opinion, geared toward sharing and collaboration of ANYTHING from Microsoft Office. All you have to do is drag-and-drop from your desktop. There's also a file-browsing feature for those of you who aren't into tactile file sharing. I can't wait to use this with my fellow math instructional facilitators. We provide professional development and spend many hours collaborating for various grade levels. With box.net, it will be so easy to prepare a document as a team. Box.net would be a great lesson planning resource for those teaching the same grade and content who are at different schools.
Check it out: www.box.net
The last site I found was cloudtrip.com. I didn't realize that cloudtrip was an umbrella site for many, many apps that are help within the cloud. There are a plethora of educational apps. I discovered this by clicking the "tags" heading in the menu bar. Wow. I clicked on "math" and immediately had access to a ton of, well, math stuff! To me, it was like finding the pot at the end of the rainbow. Can't find what you need for a lesson? Need something a little more concrete for your students? Looking for something different? Go to cloudtrip before you beat your head against a wall.
Check it out: www.cloudtrip.com
Alright. Diigo. What? Yeah, I never heard of this before THIS assignment, and I feel pretty awesome that my mom didn't know what it was, either. Why? She's the Director of Student Services at a nearby college. She always seems to be one step ahead of me on technology. I actually heard about "the cloud" from her. So, Diigo is awesome. I chose to follow a few different groups, but the one I will focus on for your reading enjoyment is Math Links. As a long-time math teacher and a math instructional facilitator, this was a fab find. It's a group of educators sharing interesting resources around the teaching and learning of mathematics. I'm always looking for new, innovative--and free--resources on the internet for my teachers. This is a whole COLLECTION of those very resources. Awesome.
In the 2011 Horizon Report, it was implied that cloud-computing and social bookmarking is IN (Johnson, Adams, & Haywood, 2011). Words that stood out to me in the reading (and in the video clips) included instant, economical, and easy. I definitely discovered this, and so much more, as I was picking apart the sites I visited. The big take-away for me is that these "new" technologies support collaboration. I am witness to the validity of collaboration as a major foundational skill in mathematics comprehension every day. When students are allowed to collaborate, more learning happens. Aside from collaboration, these sites can save schools time and money with TONS of free storage. Students can access their work from a computer, tablet, or smart phone, whether they're at home or school or wherever! There are many exciting free services, such as photo-editing and slide show creation. To touch briefly on folksonomies, the Wikipedia description didn't quite get me THERE (Folksonomy, 2014). I'm a visual learner at times, so I did a Google Image search of "folksonomy" and WOW! Now, I really get it. So much more than a Wordle! I think teachers have been doing this type of concept mapping for YEARS, but not incorporating technology (tagging!). Again, it's seemingly easy. I'm going to start teaching my teachers how to use many of the discoveries I've made this week.
Johnson, L., Adams, S., & Haywood, K. (2011). The NMC Horizon Report: 2011 K-12
Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
Folksonomy. (2014, January 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 12:26, January 18, 2014,
from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Folksonomy&oldid=590863602
I have to say I LOVE dropbox. It is a lifesaver. I back up everything there. You never know when something will happen to a drive or computer, but Dropbox has your back. It's amazing. I always upload my presentations before a conference there, my research, teaching materials, everything. You can file share so easily too, it is a huge bonus. I like Box too, but less generally. I love the potential of these tools for collaboration. Dropbox has saved me a ton of time/energy when working with colleagues trying to finish a publication. Other technologies help a lot with this too, including shared citations in EndNote and the shared bookmarks of Diigo.
ReplyDeleteI think that a lot of these technologies would be amazing to use to create/share lessons, to engage students, and to keep parents up to date and let them access course materials. I really hope we get to see this adopted in more classrooms in the future!