Conference Topic: Google Docs & Famundo

Our class conference topic is Google Docs and Famunod. Charlene and I partnerd up and presented on uses of Google Docs in an educational setting and examples and Pros and Cons of Famundo.

Click here to link to our wiki: http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Google_Docs

Uses in educational setting & Examples
Schools can use Google Docs for the purpose of bringing communication and collaboration tools to the entire academic community for free. Students, teachers and staff can share ideas more quickly and get things done more effectively when they have access to the same powerful communication and sharing tools. There's no hardware or software to install or maintain, since everything is delivered through a standard web browser -- anytime, from anyplace.

1. Spreadsheets
You can use spreadsheets to keep track of grades, attendance, student projects and assignments. You can maintain multiple spreadsheets, each for a specific purpose, and easily import data from other spreadsheets.

2. Presentation
Teachers can use presentations in Google Docs. You can create a presentation collaboratively and even co-present it online with live chat with your students. Students can easily of create group presentations and access them anywhere. The best part as well is that you could upload presentations on to your Google Docs. This allows teacher and students to communicate based on presentations.

3. Communication
Teachers can publish announcements about upcoming assignments and to monitor student progress. It is an interactive process which allows teachers to give guidance when it might be of maximum benefit – while your student is still working on an assignment.

4. Organization
Teachers will find that Google Docs can help Students learn to stay organized and keep on top of their assignments. It's easy to collaborate online with fellow students, even when they aren't in the same place. Teachers send feedback easily to students, parents, and enter updates anytime from anywhere. Students can go back to the revisions history to see how their assignment has evolved, and who has helped.

5. Documents
Students are able to do homeworks online and automatically send their assignments to their teachers that very day. The writing process can be taught and used by integrating the Google Docs document section in their teaching. It helps to promote group work and peer editing skills.

With Famundo I presented on the Advantages and Disadvantages.

Click here to view our wiki: http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Famundo

Famundo has many advantages such as it eliminates one of the most stressful factors in today’s life, keeping the school and family schedules in sync. By providing a version both schools and families, a family’s schedule is automatically kept up to date. Famundo offers different community organizations you belong to like schools, churches and sports teams. Individuals can use the basic program for free and there is nothing to install. Famundo for Families PLUS is a pay-as-you-go service. Pay for it as long as you need it. There are no long term contracts, no sign-up fees and no termination fees. You can cancel at any time. It’s all hosted on Famundo’s secure servers. Basically Famundo simplifies your scheduling processes, keeps your information private and confidential and it simplifies the communication process. But of course Famundo does have some disadvantages such as you are only limited to 250MB of storage on the basic plan and if you want to upgrade storage you would have to switch to the Families PLUS plan and pay $10.00 per month. This was one of the major drawbacks of Famundo due to the pricing, $10.00 was way to much money to be paying for that amount of storage space. Another disadvantage is that Famundo families cannot invite other families to build a large user base.

Google Earth Ideas

My ideas for using Google Earth in the Classroom, is incorporating a project within Chamorro Week. Since Guam is in Goolge Earth my idea was to have students research and read different legends of Guam and get familiar with the story. Then students will have to pick at least 3 legends and place markers on where the story took place. They may add pictures or even the legend itself.

My next idea is to do a History lesson on Google Earth. Their are so many war site on Guam that students don't know about. Basically students will be teamed up with a group of five. Groups will be divided by covering north villages and south villages. Groups will then have to research on the Internet the different stories of war site and place markers on Google Earth. It is somewhat like a Historical War Tour on Guam.

My Idea on Using Wikis in the Classroom.

One idea of using wikis is a classroom is peer review and editing. Group authoring - Using a wiki "pulls" the group members together to build and edit the document on a wiki page, which strengthens the community within the group, allows group members with overlapping or similar ideas to see and collaboratively build on each other's work. It also allows all group members immediate, equal access to the most recent version of the document.

Other great ideas on how to incorporate wikis can be found on Wiki FarmsA "wiki farm" is a server or a collection of servers that provides wiki hosting, or a group of wikis hosted on such servers. WikipediaWiki farms are particularly useful for teachers who want to use a wiki but lack the technical expertise or support required to host their own wiki.

WikispacesThis site offers educators free K-12 Plus wikis.

Peanut Butter WikiAllows you to make a free wiki site in 30 seconds. It's as easy as making a peanut butter sandwich.

JotSpotCreate and share documents, calendars, spreadsheets and more.
For comprehensive lists of Wiki Farms check the Open Directory Project list of Wiki Farms or the Wikipedia article on Wiki Farms.

What is Famundo?

Another application I was not familiar with was Famundo. Basically, Famundo helps busy families and community organizations manage and connect their calendar schedules and personal information free of charge. Famundo for Families consists of a Family Homepage, Family Calendar, Message Board, Address Book, List Manager, Family Library, and Family Vault. Famundo Organization is for use by community organizations like schools, churches, sport teams, scouts, etc. Once a community organization is using Famundo, a family simply needs to subscribe to the calendars they are interested in and their personal Famundo calendars are filled in automatically.

Click Here To View The Site: https://app.famundo.com/login

Famundo has many advantages such as it eliminates one of the most stressful factors in today’s life, keeping the school and family schedules in sync. By providing a version both schools and families, a family’s schedule is automatically kept up to date. Famundo offers different community organizations you belong to like schools, churches and sports teams. Individuals can use the basic program for free and there is nothing to install. Famundo for Families PLUS is a pay-as-you-go service. Pay for it as long as you need it. There are no long term contracts, no sign-up fees and no termination fees. You can cancel at any time. It’s all hosted on Famundo’s secure servers. Basically Famundo simplifies your scheduling processes, keeps your information private and confidential and it simplifies the communication process. But of course Famundo does have some disadvantages such as you are only limited to 250MB of storage on the basic plan and if you want to upgrade storage you would have to switch to the Families PLUS plan and pay $10.00 per month. This was one of the major drawbacks of Famundo due to the pricing, $10.00 was way to much money to be paying for that amount of storage space. Another disadvantage is that Famundo families cannot invite other families to build a large user base.

What is Google Docs?

To be truthful I was not familiar with Google Docs. I wanted to get familiar with the application before I commented on it. So, basically what is Google Docs. Google Docs is a free, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation application offered by Google. It allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users. Documents, spreadsheets, and presentations can be created within the application itself, imported through the web interface, or sent via email. They can also be saved to the user's computer in a variety of formats. By default, they are saved to Google's servers. Open documents are automatically saved to prevent data loss. Documents can be tagged and archived for organizational purposes.
Collaboration between users is also a feature of Google Docs. Documents can be shared, opened, and edited by multiple users at the same time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Docs

My experience using google docs was interesting. Just think about having a Internet storage of all your documents. With you being able to present your assignment or presentation from any computer. The best thing I enjoyed while using google docs is the collaboration between individuals working on one document and the option of seeing the revisions made in the document. With so many grade programs costing so much money, Google offers a free online servive. Teachers are able to store their grades on a spreadsheet and actually communicate with parents online. Google Docs has many advantages but off course their are some disadvantages such as if you don't have an Internet connection you will not be able to open Google Docs, it is not supported by Mac, and you have to create a Google account meaning a hotmail email account.

Overall, I thought Google Docs to be user friendly and mimiced the feel and aspects of Microsoft Office. The only drawback off course is that you always have to have assess to the Internet.