To use or not to use? That is the question! An Assessment of 8 Technology Tools

Teachers are known by people of other professions to have a set of special skills, or so I have heard. When talking to someone about my wanting to become a teacher, many are intrigued. I have heard things like: wow, it takes a lot to be able to even be around children, lesson planning takes a lot of thought how do you even plan something like that out; but mostly it's centered around the fact that kids think you're awesome enough to pay attention to!

Apparently a person who wants to be teacher knows how to (1) be around children without exploding, (2) be detailed about the plans they make, and (3) have a lot of time. I take statements like those described above as compliments. But when I step out of the shoes of being the person complimented and think about the general population of educators I see that we have managed to add another skill to the skill set: technological competence.

And I'm not talking about your ordinary PowerPoint, Spreadsheet, Word, and Excel competence but websites that promote group collaboration, creativity, and productivity. Listed below are a couple of tools with a description of their features, pros and cons, and my very own rating based off of my experiences with it.

Rating Scale (by fingers):
0 - Do not use AT ALL
1 - Really not recommended
2 - Not recommended
3 - You can if you want
4 - Somewhat recommended
5 - HIGHLY recommended

MOODLE

FEATURES:

• Online learning system
• Allows for post/view/submission of assignments
• Chatroom for those "enrolled" into the class
• Assignment View: All participants or your specific group
• Grading system with grading breakdown

PROS:

• Monitor/cellphone compatibility
• Organized setup/easy navigation
• Allows for distance learning

CONS:

• Loss of real student teacher interaction (some students learn better in the physical classroom setting) <-- speaking from personal experience!
• No access to a computer or no access to internet, no participation
• Not active if the participation of the student is absent

RATING

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CHROME

                                                   

FEATURES:

• Search bar is in the same bar as where the URL goes
• Auto-fill for website names
• Manageable tab activity
• Customizable themes
• Wide view space

PROS:

• Safety: Automatic pop-up blocker
• Security: Asks if you would like it to remember your password or never
• Allows for multiple tabs
• Tab management; open link in new tab or open link in new window
• Accidentally closed a window with several tabs? NO PROBLEM! Restore all tabs. 

CONS:

• NONE THAT I CAN COME UP WITH

RATING

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GOOGLE APPS

FEATURES:

• Blogger - blog creator for educators, teenagers, young adults, and businesses
• Google Drive - online organizer for any kind of document
• Google Docs - similar to that of Microsoft Word, create, edit, and share documents
• Gmail - similar to that of Yahoo!, compose, send and receive email with less spam

PROS:

• Blogger - ready made templates that allow for customization; you can go back and edit to update your post; continuous saving (never lose your work!); preview as you save and type; ble to link to Facebook and other social networks
• Google Drive - allows for the creation of folders to keep all like documents in one spot; separates documents you created from documents other people have shared with you
• Google Docs - GROUP COLLABORATION! Group members can be online working on one document/spreadsheet/powerpoint and changes can be seen in real time without constant saving; allows for sharing between several people
• Gmail - convenient viewing of email (separates email from people, social networks, and promotions = less clutter in your inbox); allows for the creation of folders as well to keep like emails in one spot

CONS:

• Blogger - none!
• Google Drive - none!
• Google Docs - in comparison to Microsoft Word, there is a limited amount of formatting ability
• Gmail - Needs to be signed up for; no gmail, no ability to edit documents shared with you by those who do have gmail

RATING

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LIVEBINDER

FEATURES:

• Online binder
• Live previews of websites
• Customizable layouts
• Sharing option (to Facebook, Twitter, email, Pinterest, etc)

PROS:

• Simple navigation
• Offers different styles to binder appearance
• Live preview of websites*
• Very accommodating to multimedia use
• SAVES PAPER AND PLASTIC! (no need for 3-prong 3 inch binders anymore!)

CONS:

• Only some websites are able to be viewed live in the binder; others have to be opened in a new window
• Very simple livebinder background; only solid colors

RATING

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WIX

FEATURES:

• Website creator
• Designer made templates

PROS:

• It's FREE!
• Even the free designer made templates are nice!
• Mobile phone version editor
• Very multimedia friendly
• Hyperlink and Embedded Code friendly
• Purpose flexible (a website through Wix can be created for blogging pleasure, business promotions, and presentations)

CONS:

• Only one person can edit the Wix at one time; if more than one person is editing the Wix page, the first one to save their work is good to go, the other two's work is disregarded
• A new user might have to take some time to familiarize themselves with the navigation of the editing page

RATING

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PREZI

FEATURES:

• Presentation tool

PROS:

• There is a free option!
• Group collaboration: more than one person can edit the presentation at one time
• Interesting zooming affect
• Multimedia friendly
• Sharing option
• Embedded code
• URL sharing
• Not your average powerpoint presentation thats for sure!

CONS:

• The zooming might make people dizzy <-- yes people do complain about that

RATING

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LUCIDPRESS

FEATURES:

• Presentation tool
• Magazine creator
• Free option
• Designer templates

PROS:

• Very straight forward and easy to use navigation on editing page
• Option to save and preview your work as you work on it
• VERY VERY multimedia friendly
• Various templates that offer interesting use of space and text formatting; THERE IS A SCROLL OPTION! (you can type and type and type and you will be just fine!)
• Much easier to use than Joomag; even with lots of multimedia it will not take forever for the page to load <-- speaking from experience
• Sharing and publishing options!

CONS:

• NONE that I can think of!

RATING

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WIGGIO

FEATURES:

• Online group collaboration tool
• Virtual meetings
• New feed updates w/ email notification alerts
• Calendar
• To-do list
• Document sharing

PROS:

• News feed appearance is very similar to that of Facebook
• Easy navigation
• Calendar and to-do list feature allows for groups to keep on task
• Virtual meeting option has a webcam and VoIP feature
• Virtual meeting window has a white board in which group members can upload, download, and view documents and multimedia to discuss
• Virtual meeting window offers a chatbox
• When a group member does anything to the news feed (replies, posts, schedules a meeting, etc), other group members will receive email notifications of the activity
• Face-to-Face meeting option/scheduler allows group members to agree on a time and place to meet

CONS:

• Group activity on the news feed or document sharing feature notifications can be bothersome; group members will receive email after email after email especially when documents are being edited

RATING

REFERENCES

About Google - Products. (n.d.). Retrieved December 3, 2014, from http://www.google.com/intl/en/about/products/

Knowledge Base. (n.d.). Retrieved December 3, 2014, from https://wiggio.zendesk.com/home