Go.Tahoma!

If you recall, back in February, I ran a post about our Go.Tahoma project which will provide Google accounts under our own Go.Tahoma domain for all secondary students and staff beginning next fall. Since then, several pioneering teachers have volunteered (themselves and their students) to help us make sure everything is working as it should this spring. So far Walt and I have successfully introduced Go.Tahoma accounts to about two or three teachers (and their students) in each seconary building. This means you may have some students in your classes who have accounts now and are using the apps to complete school assignments and projects.

Are Google Docs new to you? Watch this video for a two-minute introduction:

All students and staff will have access to these tools next fall, but why wait? You're in the Earn and Learn class, so you can explore now. If you've been a regular contributor to this blog, I will send you your login information in an email. If you haven't been commenting, but have been reading and want to get your information now, send me an email and I'll send you your information. The login information I send you will allow you to sign in and start experimenting with Google docs, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, sites, and calendar. Your students will not have access until next fall unless they are in a pioneering teacher's class.

Once you get your account information, follow the directions and sign in. You'll see that I shared a document with you. This is one of the great features of Google's collaborative documents--they are collaborative and are easily shared. When you open that document, you'll see that I started a list of ways collaborative documents could be used in the classroom. Please add your own idea (or two) to the list.

(Note: Google docs save automatically, so just log off when you're done. Also, because this is a collaborative document that we will all share, you'll be able to see everyone's ideas in one place. AND, because the document lives on Google's servers (not your computer or the school's network) you'll have access to the document anytime (and from anywhere) you sign in with your Go.Tahoma account.)

For this week's clock hours, you should do two things:

1. Contribute to the collaborative document as described above.
2. Come back here and provide some feedback (comments, questions, celebrations, etc.) about your experience using you Go.Tahoma account. 

Completing both of these tasks will count as two weeks' worth of work to make up for one of the two weeks I was on hiatus.  Again, thank you for that!