My overall impression of classroom 2.0 is that it is a great resource for educators. It takes a little bit to get familiar with the site. After getting familiar with the layout you quickly realize that it is a good site for collaboration and ideas. The designers seemed to have taken aspects of Facebook and Twitter and merged them. Users have the ability to join blogs, forums, and groups. Users also have the ability to invite colleagues to join their network.
I am more familiar with Edmodo. My students and I use Edmodo on a daily basis. It has a look of facebook. Students have the ability to communicate through posting to the class or teacher. I post student assignments daily. The assignments are easily graded with scores being posted directly into a gradebook. I love the ease of adding assignments, the ability to search for lessons, and ability to add lessons to a library so they can be reused at a later date. Edmodo also allows for collaboration and searching for lessons. There are daily posts that “pop” up. I have found and shared resources using this daily post.
I found that classroom 2.0 allows for searching by specific topics. I did a search for STEM, the topic for my research class. I found a few posts with comments. I also found that there are several posts for educational technology. Classroom 2.0 is another resource for keeping up with what is trending in education.
If you want to get started with Edmodo the best advice I can give is to establish rules regarding “chatting”. Notes are for posting general information and assignments allow you to assign a specific day the assignment is due. You have the ability to see who has posted their assignment, has not posted their assignment, and submissions you graded or need to grade. Grades are entered into a grade book by class. You have the ability to add grades or change grades if necessary.
Edmodo allows you to set up quizzes. Quiz questions can true and false, matching, fill in the blank, multiple choice, or short answer. Students have immediate access to their score other than short answer.
I would suggest Edmodo to teachers for daily assignments and quizzes and Classroom 2.0 for teacher collaboration.
Google Docs
An awesome way to share files without using thumb drives. A great way for several people to make changes and revisions without forgetting which version is correct.
I am thinking that google docs will be a great tool for conducting research or having students to work in a small group on the same project. I also like how my grade level teachers and I can work on documents together without having to be bent over one computer. The mobility is a wonderful asset.
Students need email addresses which I don’t have and need permission to get. I would love to be able to use google docs for small groups so they work at home or school and revisions would be readily made.
Slideshow
The slide I made is on the planets because that is what I am teaching in class. I have decided to ask parents to sign children up for gmail so we can use technology needing a signup with an email.