Thing 18: Surveys

I found SurveyMonkey to be invaluable when I was working on my Master's degree. So much of what I was researching required student responses, and the year I spent counting and recounting totals my first year back in school was awful. I love all the different ways I can look at results, see specific responses, or graph trends.

Looking at SurveyGizmo, I was not very impressed by their site. I fiddled around a little and couldn't find a promo I could walk into easily. Lots of things were scheduled, but it kind of harshed my vibe on the whole thing.

Thing 19: Jott

I signed up for Jott this summer and instantly fell in love with the interface. I got the idea from Dan Meyer, an edublogger who's a math teacher, on a vlog he did this summer. I was briefly obsessed with calling Jott about anything that popped into my mind, which was especially helpful as I planned my wedding, and tried to capture fleeting thoughts about school when they flitted by.

I especially like being able to categorize my notes, either when I called them in or when I looked at them later. For awhile, I liked getting the text reminders, but too many built up on my phone so I gave that up.

I was extraordinarily displeased when Jott went out of beta and started charging for all services above the basic level.

After I got my iPod Touch, I was super-excited to always have my Jott on hand. Unfortunately, iTunes and my iPod stopped recognizing the problem, so I need to deal with that before I can give Jott back my devotion.

Thing 16: You Want to Calculate What?

I ran a "simulation run" for the project my 10th graders are working on, and I'm really excited about the possibilities. I'm toying with the idea of requiring the steps and using their suggested research process rubric, but I will need to spend more time with them before I'm ready to do that.

Thing 15: Can you hear me now?

I got Skype set up on my home computer and now I can't find anyone to talk to me! I know better than to talk to strangers, so I'll wait out my first real person-to person trial.

I think it would be so cool to have voice based guest lectures. I also think that would take a ton of front-loading: setting up time and expectations with the guest, getting the kids not only on board but ready for the new thing, and kaaping them on task when they can't see the person.

Thing 13

">

" border="0" alt="" />

Thing 12: Moodley-Doodley-Doo

Right now, I'm midway through the section on the Moodle demonstration. It's feeling very technical.

...I still feel like it was very technical. I don't even feel confident I could pull it off after doing this.

I am, however, very interested in the attitudes toward thinking and learning survey. I'm trying to figure out where to fit it in in the little time we have left in the term. Where was this when I was working on my Master's degree???

Thing 11: Moodlicious

I signed up for Moodle last year, but I'm not thrilled with it. I've struggled with set up, and I find that using it for things like file sharing (I post our daily powerpoints and notes) is cumbersome. I need to spend more time playing.