Adobe Buzzword - Your Dream Meal Experiment

Our first tool that I'm reviewing is Adobe Buzzword. All you need to get started is an email address.

The link will appear as Acrobat.com in the Teacher Tools list.

Buzzword is a web-based word processor. So what? Documents produced using Buzzword are not stored on your computer. They are stored on a secure server so that you can access your documents from any web connection. For those of us that have gotten home (or to work) eager to put the finishing (or starting) touches on a document and realized that we forgot to email it ourselves or to save it on a USB key/drive, this has obvious benefits! More importantly, we can use this application with students for collaborative writing. Students can create documents with text, graphics, and tables. But here's the really cool part....they can also edit and add comments at the same time! I will not pretend to know how that works but I am very excited to find out!

HOMEWORK:
Oh yes, I have the nerve to give you homework.
1. There will be an email circulating that is called "If You Could Have Your Dream". The email is basically a buzzword document that is being "shared" with you from another faculty member. Please open the email and follow the instructions.

WARNING: I do not know if this will work the way I've described in the email but I will know soon enough...stay tuned for possible revisions to the instructions.

I plan to start using this with 4th and 5th grade in the near future (you know, as soon as I know exactly how it works). I will keep you posted on any tips and tricks

WHAT?!?!

Last night, after cooking, serving, and refereeing dinner I had a moment to reflect on yesterday's faculty meeting presentation. Let's just say, I've done better. Admittedly, yesterday was one of those days where I often said, "I need to go back to bed and start all over again". So, in true "challenge day" fashion, my reflections caused a small panic. What did I say? Did it make sense? Well, today is a better day so I'm going to put a better foot forward. We reviewed a few links that appear on this blog so that I could show a few of the really cool and FREE Web 2.0 tools that teachers can use. It was quick...maybe too quick....and perhaps not so clear. As promised though, I am going to review each link to give you more of a snapshot before you dive in. I'm hoping that regardless of my impaired state yesterday, you will beat me to the punch and go exploring without a tour guide!

Before jumping to reviews, though, I wanted to reiterate a few things about yesterday's presentation. The goal was to emphasize the following points:
1. Technology is ever changing and at a very rapid pace
2. Since technology changes so rapidly, we are all in the "I don't know" boat
3. Our children can and do master technology faster than we do
4. Regardless of #'s 1-3, there are things we can do to leverage technology in the classroom that are FREE and easy.

Stay tuned for the first review. Oh yeah, it will appear before this post unless I figure out how to make this one first. Hmmmm, I love a challenge!

Welcome To Mrs. Young's Blog!

I've finally decided to dive into the "blogosphere"! My true motivation is to provide an online source of information for my fellow teachers. This blog is dedicated to you! Given the nature of blogging, however, if you are not one of coworkers, you are still welcomed to join us on our computer technology journey. Here I will be providing information about different computer technology tools, activities, and practices. I truly hope that this will become a valuable resource! There is a have lot of work to do but I'm told it won't take long! We'll see.....