Tool 4

I am no stranger to Google Docs. I have used it often in my graduate classes, especially on collaborative projects. A couple of times I was logged into my document the same time as my professor and we were able to chat about the document while making revisions.

I have also frequently used it with my students. Yearbook articles were originally typed in Google Docs so I could preview and offer suggestions before moving the text into the actual yearbook program. This saved a lot of time and re-typing for my students. We also used Google Docs Presentation for my students to create How To videos this year that I will use with new students next year. Presently, I am working with other Technology Applications teachers using Google Docs to create the new curriculum for Technology after the state revised the technology TEKS.

As for the form, I created a survey to give to my Advisory students at the beginning of the year. It is intended to get them to think about what was successful for them last year and what was not so successful. I am hoping by identifying the behaviors that were helpful last year to be able to encourage them to build on those in the coming year. I forwarded it to a couple of teachers for input and revisions.

Tool 3

One of the videos I selected is one I helped create in my graduate courses. The assignment was to create a one minute PSA video and post it to YouTube or TeacherTube. This is what we came up with and posted.



Stand Up to Cyberbullying by Janet Armstrong, Priscilla Summers, Charlotte Spencer, Gail Dunn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.

I also like a video I found on TeacherTube about evaluating websites. Since I will be teaching web design again in the coming school year, I feel it is important to take some time to address web literacy and have students actually evaluate websites they find to see if they are credible.


I have used videos from a variety of sources in my regular classroom and in teaching adult GED classes. I am a firm believer that actually seeing something really helps cement the learning and gives students with different learning styles opportunities to grasp concepts more readily.

The new thing in this Tool for me was ViewPure. I love this tool for getting rid of all the YouTube ads and additional links that come up. This will make showing YouTube videos in class a simpler process. I also love the ability to download YouTube videos with YouTube Downloader. I have been stuck several times when the network was down and I was unable to show students web content I had planned to use in class that day.

As far as still photos, I have used Google Images and Flickr many times. I have spent hours with students trying to convey the concept of copyright. Many students feel anything they find on the Internet is free for them to use. I have previously used the video A Fair(y) Use Tale with students. If you do that, I suggest viewing it twice. The first time they try to follow all the cuts. The second time they grasp much more of the content.

I had heard of Dropbox before but hadn't created an account. I think this will be a good location to store some of the more requested photos and short videos from around the school. I have already set up a folder for yearbook photos and video for the coming school year.

Moving on to Tool 4!

Tool 2

OK, maybe I'm being a slight overachiever on this one, but I had already done pretty much everything included in this Tool. I did enjoy watching the Diigo video. I've used Diigo for years, but there were still a few features I hadn't tried before. In case you didn't find it, there is a Diigo Educators account available. I love this feature because you can set up classes with specific links for projects, student accounts, make the link collections public or private to just your students, and best of all it's free. If you look for me on Diigo, my user name is gaildunnnms.

I have been subscribed to several groups including Diigo in Education, Educators, and of course Northbrook Middle School. I have also been following Vicki Davis, otherwise known as CoolCatTeacher, and Maggie Tsai for quite some time. If you have never read or subscribed to Vicki Davis' Cool Cat Teacher blog, I strongly recommend you do so.

I set up my Google Reader to start gathering feeds for me. I have another reader I had been using, but with us migrating so much into the Google platform, it made sense to switch to that one.
I also enjoyed checking out the initial posts from some of my school team as they begin working through the 11 Tools and left comments for several.

I started with the district's 23 Tools a couple of years ago, created a blog, and used it for both the original 23 Tools and the follow-up 11 Tools. Feel free to take a look if it will help you. I also used it for postings for my graduate courses, so anything there that starts with LU is a post for Lamar University, and not the Tools postings. At first I was quite nervous about actually publishing posts, very strange for those of you  who know me, but after posting a few and finding out I didn't drop dead from embarrassment, it started getting much easier.

One thing I have definitely learned in the last couple of years is that a Professional Learning Network (PLN) is vital for today's teacher. There is just too much information out there, and no matter how much you know, there is always more to learn as well as the constant changes in how things are done and what to use for specific purposes. Getting yourself set up to receive good, useful information is half the battle. (The other half of course is organizing and using all those wonderful new ideas!)

On to Tool 3!

Tool 1

Summer is here and Northbrook finally gets our turn to complete the 11 Tools and receive our technology devices for our classrooms. I can't wait to get my hands on my new devices. Dunn's Dithers will reflect on the elements of the 11 Tools as I progress through the list. Feel free to leave comments and thoughts. Thanks for stopping by.