What’s in your 2007 toolkit?
Jun 29th, 2007 by robynjay
[image: myself248]
Almost a year ago I wrote a post regarding the ‘tools’ we were using at NSW LearnScope. Out and about I’m beginning to hear deliberations by teams on what they will use this year so it’s probably timely to revisit the topic.
My argument then, as it is now, was that no one tool will meet all your team’s needs; you need a suite determined by functionality. As a general underpinning you need to also consider factors such as accessibility (particularly through firewalls), ease of use, cost, stability, openness (we need to be able to access your space so don’t lock it down) and so on. You should also be pushing the limits of any tools you are actually considering as part of your project; what better way of learning their potential than to use them!
As an absolute minimum you need to identify:
a) A calendar - we use Google calendar as people outside DET need to access it
b) A collaborative writing/planning space - a wiki does this beautifully (pages on ours or link to your own) but you could also use Google Docs
c) A space to capture your teams learning plans and outcomes - there’s a huge array of options….
you could just use a wiki as above but with pages for each of your team members,
an open EdNA Group (moodle) with discussion threads,
a group blog in which everyone posts and comments (with a common name and log in and perhaps a range of categories),
podcasts (i.e. audio with RSS feed/subscription) or
individual blogs/spaces feeding back into a common hub via RSS.
But really the options are endless - be creative!
d ) A space to store and share images (photos, mindmaps, diagrams, flowcharts, screengrabs etc) - we ask that you register with and use FlickR to support our collaborative pooling of images using the tag nswlearnscope07 (and your own of course).
e) A way of disseminating information to your team effectively (email group, RSS feed from blog etc) and to other stakeholders (e-zine, electronic newsletter, virtual meetings, F2F meetings etc)
f) A forum for meetings - hopefully even state-wide teams will meet F2F at least once but how else will you share learning, plan and access guest speakers etc? Remember, you can book and use our DiscoverE room free of charge. Using a range of options is a good way to provide exposure and the opportunity to critically evaluate the resources.
Many teams this year are also experimenting with podcasts and we have found podomatic good although a little messy to navigate.
Whatever you choose please list your spaces and places on your Project Plan page so we can subscribe and stay in touch. Let us know if you need a hand to select and set up any of the resources above - we’re there to assist.