I am the Associate
Dean for Accreditation, Assessment, and Operations
in the School of Education, Health, and Human
Performance at the College of Charleston in
Charleston, SC. I also teach a technology course and
a classroom assessment course for prospective
teachers. For the next few years, I am responsible
for our school’s reaccreditation with NCATE.
Each semester, I share your list with my students,
and several colleagues and I have presented numerous
workshops to our faculty based on top tech
recommendations on your list.
More details about me and about my classes can be
found at my website (used for my courses)
daviss.people.cofc.edu .
My top ten tools, most of which I will be using with
my students this fall are:
Sarah's Top 10 Tools as at
7 August 2009
- Google docs:
students submit work this way; surveys throughout the
class; class brainstorming on a shared document;
gradebook simulations on spreadsheets, etc.; too
wonderful for words; “WebCT didn’t work” or “but I sent
you an email” are excuses that don’t work here; students
can get to class content here and on my site anywhere
there is internet access.
- iGoogle:
students and I keep track of RSS feeds, gmail, and other
teacher info here
- WordPress
blogs: I manage class discussions out of class and
provide additional information here following classes
that students find difficult; if I am absent, this is
where I can teach “remote class” (hasn’t happened yet)
- Ning: I set
up a class social network for the fall; much easier to
make announcements here than contacting students by
email, which they don’t often read; students can submit
Voicethread projects here; can carry on class chats and
discussions in and out of class; students can get to
know each other the first day of class and download
their pictures; most are familiar with other social
networks, so this is easy for them
- Google
Earth, Sea, Sky: students will create Google Lit
Trips and other content lessons in Google Earth; good
for young students who have difficulty conceptualizing
that they live in Charleston which is in SC which is in
the US . . .
-
Voicethread: a great venue for a presentation that
allows docs, video, audio, photos; great for my students
to teach their students; by the time students pass
middle school, they are sick of creating PPTs; easy,
flexible, shareable
- YouTube:
great instructional videos on how to use blogs, etc.;
plus lots of fun things to use to start classes and gain
student attention
- gmail;
students tend to check gmail more often than their
college accounts; so much junk comes through their
college accounts that they tend not to pay attention to
any of it
- pbworks:
great way for prospective teachers to create and share
safely their teaching portfolio; I am able to provide
them feedback here, as well; unlike other online
portfolios, such as LiveText, pbworks is free and can go
with them after graduation and into their own classroom
-
refdesk: this is a great tool that is family
friendly and contains so much information day to day for
teachers and students; this is the second “great site of
the day” I share with my students each semester. The
first is your list.
- okay, I know I am past 10:
wordle: this is
just so much fun; great to create artwork for a
classroom; I create a poster for outside my class door
the first day of class.
