Recursos Vitales

Google Docs
I think it appropriate to discuss how I have integrated Google features with my teachers. While I was attending the last workshop, Grizznet in the Classroom, we discussed how things such as Google Docs could be integrated with Moodle. Instead of hosting documents solely on Moodle, you could easily host those documents on Google Docs, allowing students to even edit documents together, make comments, and a plethora of other features that serve to enhance learning.

Google Docs offers a large variety of different types of docs one could create. One type of doc that I really enjoy using is the Forms doc. This doc is fantastic for quickly creating surveys for your students. It could also serve as a method of creating pop-quizzes or any other sort of multiple choice assessment. Even better is that the Form will aggregate the information for you in nifty graphs. In fact, the options of what you can do with the data is almost endless!

Click HERE for an example version of a survey. This is a learning inventory survey.


Google Bookmarks
I am also an avid user of Google Bookmarks. I have dabbled a bit with Delicious for a while in one of my courses at SOU. I found it to be very customizable and in fact better than Google Bookmarks. But, I would rather prefer to keep everything in one conscise area. The problem with the Internet is that one can easily have Web 2.0 tools that are very scattered. You have to log on to one site for one feature you use, then log on to another, and before you know it, you have 20 tabs opened!

Click HERE for a look at one of my on-going bookmarks for Spanish class lessons, games, and resources.

Google Sites
I have been developing my site for a while now. I have actually been pretty indecisive as to which site I would like to use for my future classroom. Take a look at my GOOGLE SITE that I have developed from a very intricate template. This site is still in development, but I'm thinking of just sticking with Google Sites for my future classroom.

I have found a few other sites where you can create a website for your classroom. Below are a few links:

TeacherWeb
My CT uses TeacherWeb for her site. I like what she has done with her site, but I have no intention of using it. The backend design features are confusing and poorly developed. But, that's just my opinion. It's worked perfectly for her and her class.

WikiSpaces
I have used WikiSpaces for two of my courses at SOU. I really like the site and the features that are available for the site. One thing I don't like is the text-editing feature when creating a new page. The options for Font Selection, Font Alignment, and Font Size are difficult to find and lame to use. I'm just being honest...

Weebly
I just found out about this site. I just signed up for it a few days ago and I would really like to check it out some more once school is out. The design features for this site look amazing and extremely easy to use. This may be a site I will have my students use when creating their own website.