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Playing and experimenting with tools


So here I am playing with the tools POTCERT introduced this week. First I tried to hangout in Google + with a group of colleagues from this class. I found Pilar, Lisa, Todd, Daniele, Helen, Jean and Jo but nobody was there to hangout with me 🙁

While I was waiting, I started playing with all the gadgets I could find. As you see in this picture, I did not waist my time waiting! What I loved here was the apps you can share while you are hanging out. You can share documents with Google Drive; you can play a video or make a list of favorites together in YouTube and even keep talking over the video that is playing. Another great thing is that you can record the entire session. This is AMAZING and super easy to use!

With no luck in Google Plus I decided to explore Voicethread. I have used this tool before with no success. My students did not like it. The truth is that we cannot expect too much when we are not an online class. Some students like to do extra online, some hate to do it. This was years ago. I think Voicethread is now more accessible and easy (maybe it is just me getting more comfy with technology). I took a screen picture of me recording a comment. Please, do not think I have nothing to do…

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 26th, 2012 at 11:31 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “Playing and experimenting with tools”

  1. Ralene Says:
    October 27th, 2012 at 4:50 pm

    Hi Maria — what a fun post! You are in there trying out the tech tools (sometimes feels like toys). I really enjoyed this week for that reason — we were encouraged to ‘play’. It’s easy to get lost in the play — but I found some keepers in terms of ideas as well as tools I can use. I posted a voice thread on the FB page of a group I established with a training I’ve been facilitating these past two months. Now I want to go back to that clip and add a voice caption. Most of the students have viewed the clip, but only one had the courage to jump in with a comment!

    Thanks for sharing your explorations.

  2. Pilar Says:
    October 27th, 2012 at 10:54 pm

    Awww, sorry I wasn’t around, but if I had been, maybe you wouldn’t have discovered all that other fun stuff you played with. Looks like it was a fun week for you! It was great meeting with you in my office to talk about all of this! It got me energized too!

  3. Donna Marques Says:
    October 28th, 2012 at 2:23 am

    “Please, do not think I have nothing to do…” hahahhah Laura!! You are funny! You’re a prof… we ALWAYS have something to do…. like grade, grade and more grade! Thanks for sharing a great post this week!

    ¡Un beso!

  4. Renee Says:
    October 28th, 2012 at 2:52 pm

    Thank you for your post. It was very informative to the additional functions available on google+. After reading your post I feel like I need to step up my game to explore more gadgets and functions of the tools we are exposed to.

  5. Rachele DeMeo Says:
    November 21st, 2012 at 9:36 pm

    I really like VoiceThread (granted it’s new to me). I see how useful it could be in an online class setting. I teach French and I could picture students using VoiceThread to introduce themselves.
    I don’t know how to use the Google + and Hangout groups (nor see much of their use for my own class setting).
    Cool pic by the way! 🙂

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