Going+Green+With+Digital+Tools

Eco-friendly tools to help eliminate paper waste and make your life easier.

**Task 1** Please read and respond to the following blog post using the links below. For more posts from this collaborative blog, visit http://teachpaperless.blogspot.com/
 * Group A
 * Group B
 * Group C
 * Group D
 * Group E

**Task 2** What is something you have already done to make your classroom Greener? Click on this link and submit a response using this Google Docs form.

**Task 3** Take this quick quiz created in Google Docs and graded with Flubaroo.

**Task 4** Click on the link below and contribute your thoughts to a collaborative Google Doc.
 * Group A
 * Group B
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Group C
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Group D

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 160%;">**Task 5**
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">After our discussion and examples, what might you add to this the list of reasons to go paperless? **

Ten Reasons to Have a Paperless Classroom
By [|Steve Katz]
 * 10**. Work doesn’t get “lost” in the bottom of a backpack.
 * 9.** Save space (no file cabinets).
 * 8.** Nobody ever forgets their pencil.
 * 7.** Collaboration is easy from anywhere.
 * 6.** No carrying notebooks (only netbooks).
 * 5.** Students are building digital portfolios.
 * 4.** No more “no-name” assignments.
 * 3.** You never have to wait in line for the copier.
 * 2.** Save paper, save the Earth.
 * 1.** The dog can’t eat your homework.

==**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Please share at least one idea on this corkboard from Lino It **==
 * source:** http://teachpaperless.blogspot.com/2011/01/ten-reasons-to-have-paperless-classroom.html
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Please also visit this shared Google Doc from Steve Katz, a collaborative listing of dozens of ways to make your classroom paperless. **

=<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 160%;">The Tools =

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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Having a website where you can post resources and collect student work is probably the most significant step toward a greener classroom. Of course many students will still want, and need, that paper handout, but the key is getting students used to //using// your website on a regular basis so they get comfortable with it and can rely on it. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;"> While there are many options for a web platform to start a class site, Wikispaces has proven to be the most versatile and effective for most teacher's needs. It can be used to eliminate paper by housing things such as:
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Student resources-**-eliminate handouts and those ten page study guides! Wikis can house almost any type of file from Word docs to Powerpoints and even video and other multimedia resources.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Student portfolios**-creating individual pages for students will allow them to upload or embed their own work to their own wiki page. Use the project page function to create private spaces for students that only you can access.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Group projects**--Students can collect resources, link projects, communicate outside of class, all through wikis. As with the individual portfolios, the project feature allows these pages to be private and viewable only by assigned group members and the teacher.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Discussion Boards--**These provide a great way to break down your classroom walls and also a creative way to collect homework, as long as students can see each other's responses. This works best for open ended discussion or assignments where you ask students to provide an original example of something.

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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">It really is hard to believe the amount of educator friendly tools Google makes available to us for FREE! There are many uses for the tools in Google Docs including: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">media type="youtube" key="QJ60szcUbBE" height="315" width="420"
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Creating word docs, powerpoints and spreadsheets** that can be turned in just by sharing a link. Try the templates feature to create worksheets and other templates that your students can access, complete and submit without ever mapping a printer. All of these documents also allow multiple editors to collaborate.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">The ability to **comment and mark digitally** on all of these documents. This gives you the power of digital feedback and makes the writing process more transparent.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">The ability to **create forms, surveys and even quizzes** to collect data and formative assessments digitally and provide instant feedback.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">The ability to **grade quizzes instantly** with the help of the simple add-on called Flubaroo as demonstrated in this video:

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Google Calendar** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">We all try to plan ahead, some more ambitiously than others, and we usually end up revising and reprinting calendars as we find the need to monitor and adjust. Using a Google Calendar will allow you to keep a live calendar on your website that reflects changes the instant you make them. Editing rights to these calendars can also be shared, so they would be great in co-teaching situations.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Both of these sites allow you to create digital journals for your students where they could respond to readings, current events, class activities, labs, make relevance connections, etc. Students create their own spaces and you can comment directly on their pages or have students comment on each other's posts. There is some legwork involved in setting up a teacher site and links to each individual student page, but once set up, it makes a great space for them to explore learning through writing anytime and anywhere. Both sites are sponsored by Edublogs, but Kidblog is geared more toward younger students.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Together, these two tools just might rule the digital cloud...at last from an educators perspective. Dropbox offers free online storage and apps for all of your digital devices so you can save a document on your computer, and access it on any other computer or even an Ipod, smartphone or Ipad. When you combine it with Dropittome, students can "drop" you files from any computer and you will be able to access them instantly. You just give them your Dropittome website, they put in a password and upload their file. Almost instantly, you will be able to view it. Imagine grading student papers from your phone as you wait for that dentist appointment, piano lesson or soccer practice!

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Student responses don't always have to be written. Sometimes it is good practice to hear what they have to say about a topic, explain their thinking or just pronounce a language correctly. These tools make it easy to collect oral and video responses from students.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">CLEAR Audio Dropboxes was designed specifically for teaching a foreign language but could be used in a variety of classes. They will allow your students to just click and record right to your wiki or web page. Responses are then instantly organized in your CLEAR account where you can watch/listen to them on your computer. See an example here.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Voicethread allows for collaborative discussion in audio, video and text around a documents, videos or images. See an example here.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">These sites give you the ability to embed Powerpoint projects onto your website. This can avoid having to print out student Powerpoints and also provide a nice interactive visual for your class websites. Of course, you can also just upload a Powerpoint to your website or wiki, but these sites allow you to embed the actual slide show. Sliderocket is more of a way to design narrated slideshows with other features. You can also create Powerpoint type presentations with Google Docs which can also be embedded right into your wiki, and have the added ability of instant updates without having to re-upload. They also have the ability to be collaboratively designed and a nice comment tool.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Crocodoc is a collaborative literacy tool that allows you to upload any PDF and create an instant web space where students can read, highlight and comment on an article fro m<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> any computer. It is also allows for multiple readers to mark and comment on the same text.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Quizlet allows your students to review material with digital flashcards and practice quizzes. See an example here.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Diigo is a social bookmarking tool that will help you and your students organize and access web bookmarks from any computer or mobile device. Shared copy is similar, but a lot more simplified and allows students to highlight, make notes and save websites for research purposes.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Evernote is a web-based notetaking tool where students can clip websites, take notes, and access their files from any computer or mobile device.

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">**Going Mobile: A few recommended apps for Going Green with mobile technology.**

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">**Turbo Scan**-Allows you to scan any document instantly with your devices camera, crop it, turn it into a PDF, and share it via email, Dropbox or other online methods. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">**Dropbox**-This app gives you one click access to all files stored in your Dropbox account <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">**Evernote**-Web-based notetaking app that allows any mobile device to access and contribute to cloud based note books. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">**Qr Reader**- Students can scan and get instant access to any web-based resource. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">**I Annotate** -Allows students to annotate over any PDF doment right from their I-pad. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">**Go Docs for Google Docs-**-allows for easy integration of your Google Docs account in your mobile device.