June 22, 2015:
First, a disclaimer. I am certain that there are other teachers out there who have used their laptops more effectively than I have this year. You should find those teachers, talk to them, and pay attention to what they have to say.
Also, I'm intentionally not going to talk about the fancier stuff like Nearpod and Socrative and Blendspace that Chris covers in his trainings. Those are all excellent and you should definitely check them out. My focus is going to be on more of the nitty gritty tools that I've found myself using this year.
What I have to offer is a reflection on what tools I used this year and practical thoughts on how to use them. I don't know about other teachers, but it took me a little while to figure out the ramifications and effects of using laptops in the classroom on a regular basis. I still haven't figured it out, but I will share what I can, with the caveat that there is almost certainly a better way to do it that I haven't figured out yet and if you have, I'd appreciate you sharing.
The web tools and how I used them in year one of 1-to-1:
The primary tools I used this year were:
- Google Classroom
- Remind
- Evernote
- Google Forms (h/t Mr. Barry & Mr. Simkins)
- Flubaroo (h/t Mr. Barry & Mr. Simkins)
Because things are getting a little tl:dr here, I'll start with Google Classroom and make later posts for the others.
Google Classroom:
I decided to go with Classroom over Edmodo because of its integration with Google Drive, which is undoubtedly part of their master plan. It lacks the fancy apps that Edmodo has, but what it does, it does well. And with the use of add ons like "Flubaroo" it can be made to do some powerful things . . .