Global+Education+Conference

== =Collaborating Globally: How to connect your class to the World =

The presenter Ashley Cross gave this presentation on how to connect your class to the world. The first step one should take is to find other educators. The best way to find other educators is through ePals.com. ePals is good for any age from first graders to high school students. For the teacher there are already premade projects, lesson plans and resources. Another way to connect to other educators is through Peace Crop Penpals. One can connect to other parts of the world. One of the drawbacks with this is that the technology capabilities of the other classroom or students may be limited so it may turn into a physical letter writing project. Google+ is another way to connect. One can follow people’s circles and create your own professional learning network. Twitter is also a good source Cibrary Man’s Educational Web Sites contains a lot of hashtags for one to follow on Twitter. There are educational hashtags and educational chats that an educator can participate. TweetDeck.com is a site that allows one to follow all the hashtags in one place. Claco is a platform that is still in the beta testing version. It will consist of online resources, connections, lesson plans and much more. It’s believed to be the next big thing for educators in the near future. Edmodo is another platform used for connections. Ashley’s students call it “Facebook for kids” and she also recommends it because it’s a safe controlled environment for students. Students can bring their devices such as smartphones or tablets to connect to other students and classes. Some of the features of Edmodo is that students can complete assignments online and take tests too. Google Hangouts and Skype are two sites that are frequently used for connecting and collaborating. The presenter prefers Google Hangouts. Either of these sites are good and it depends on the educators preference. Google Drive (formerly Google Docs) is a great place to share documents and much more. The next thing is what are the students going to do with what they worked on? One suggestion is once again ePals because it can reach out to so many people in different communities. VoiceThread is also mentioned and students can record their voice for a project and then post it to maybe the Edmodo or a class blog. Other students can then comment and give feedback. Other creative ideas are using Glogster to create posters online using videos, pictures and text. It’s a unique and creative way for a student to express themselves. Voki is the creation of an avatar where you can record your own voice or type in the text and then choose an existing voice to record the project. Go!Animate is another video making site in which again a student has the ability to show their creativity and express themselves. This conference was interesting to watch because it broaden my horizons on many more resources. I will now will have to find the time to look into all of these and decide which ones are more interesting to meet the needs of my foreign language students.

Some of the Websites mentioned:
ePals: [|epals.com] Twitter: [|twitter.com] TweetDeck: [|tweetdeck.com] Claco: [|claco.com] Edmodo: [|edmodo.com]