Two posts in a weekend? Yes, and you can tell I am excited.
When I first started teaching and presenting I was interested in getting kids learning and presenting their learning in interesting ways. I have always worked in State schools, where funding and resourcing are stretched, and so was always interested in free and dynamic ICT tools. My first forays were into using Word, Publisher (which is now returning to the office package), Excel and Powerpoint with students. Yes, there is other software, some designed specifically for education, however I was never going to be able to get it in my schools, especially if this software only does one or two things, it just wont get used long term. So my first statewide presentations were about creative ways to use the software schools already had, and most schools had MSoffice.
Then, a few years later the ‘Intel Teach to the Future’ program was launched. I became a Master Trainer in this exciting project, that among other things, promoted the use of Office tools to use with students in the classroom.
Today I am reflecting on this journey. Those who are following my blog know that I am loving the free tools out there that can help organise study and work (evernote, drop box, google docs) and also have the added backup of the ‘cloud’ to help me access my ongoing projects from anywhere that I have an internet connection. In this vein I am very excited to have found (via a lovely student) and be using Prezi. Here is a link to a short presentation I made this morning, I have been using this tool for less than 5 hours now (and have done washing and bathed LT)…it’s quite fun http://prezi.com/8biqyansbnhp/why-i-like-prezi-and-the-cloud-in-general/
Now I have to get off the computer and let LT make his Prezi on lego…
Have fun!
Fiona
mypaperlessphd 