A bit about me ...

I am a Professor of Professional Studies at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. I am responsible for the design and development of the technology instruction taken by juniors and seniors in the College of Education. I have been teaching for over 40 years. In 1972 I became Dean of the College of Professional and Community Service at the University of Massachusetts/Boston and served in that capacity until 1979 when I was named Vice President of the Council for the Advancement of Experiential Learning. I came to "South" in 1988 to develop a program in multimedia.

This blog is an example for my students in EDM 310, the technology course all Education majors must take.

... and what this blog is about.
I have a class blog every semester. You can take a look at my Spring 2009 Class Blog if you wish. From there you can connect to the blog sites maintained by all my students and to previous EDM 310 blogs. In this exercise I am asking students to create another blog in which they discuss six or more "teaching tools" or teaching attitudes they intend to apply in their classrooms when they begin their professional career. I have done the same in this blog as an example for my students.

In this blog you will find a discussion, and sometimes examples or links to examples, of these Teaching Tools: Blogs, Google Presentations, Google Documents, Google Forms, Google Spreadsheets, Picasa, and Podcasts.

Links to these examples can be found to your left, immediately under my picture.


Friday, October 24, 2008

Google Documents

I am a commited user of Google's Documents. There are four major "tools" available:

  • Word Processor
  • Presentation Creator
  • Form Builder
  • Spreadsheet (which is also a Data Base as are all spreadsheets

Why are these tools so valuable?

  • They are Free!
  • They allow for a collaborative effort which also produces a record of who did what when.
  • Documents and presentations are available to online audiences if desired
  • Chat (and in some cases audio and video) are available to "distant" participants
  • Can't lose document (stored on Google's server)
  • Accessible anywhere there is an internet connection without need for an application other than a browser

If Google's tool set is not a part of your instructional tool set you should try them. I think you will find them enormously useful and beneficial.
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