Here is the thing…I am finding that this topic is so broad that I could spend a very long time learning all there is to know about this topic. So, I am beginning to think that the best thing to do would be to create some sort of resource that is easy to be shared and easy for others to have input on where I would organize all these resources into one central location and provide a forum where a group of us could share on this topic. After class today, Doni and I sat for a couple of hours and explored a variety of way to organize this information. I have not been a huge fan of any of the mind mapping sites that I have visited thus far in this course. Pearltrees didn’t give me the look I want and MindMeister again is just not as clean cut as I would like. I really liked the look of Popplet but found that when I put links into the web, they weren’t active, so what is the point. I then found a site called bubbl.us which seemed to be the aesthetic that I was looking for. However, when I went to share with someone else, I found I couldn’t. I think this site has great potential for what I would like to do but at six dollars a month, I think that is too steep a cost. True, it is not too much for one site but as we are exploring a variety of these sites, I can see how monthly subscriptions could get pricey for a schools worth of subscriptions.
Doni then showed my Yammer which is a space she uses to collaborate with other TL’s in her district. It seems to function in a similar way that First Class used to work in my district and I think SharePoint will work in a similar way. From what seem to see, this may be compatible with SharePoint. While I am not sure that the storage of my brainstorming ideas will be aesthetically what I had hoped, I have high hopes that this forum will be easy to access and provide a place for discussion among TL’s as well as classroom teachers in my district interested in Project or Inquiry Based Learning. I look forward to exploring this platform further in the next several days.
It is good to see you exploring the resources provided by your school district. I think there has been a problem with district provided technology because teachers have not had the language nor the inclination to actually use what is provided and provide constructive criticism for improving district provided technology infrastructure. The technology specialists at the district level are not teachers, nor do they understand pedagogy. There needs to be a marriage of minds here, and teachers (and teacher librarians) must provide feedback.