Goomoodleikiog 4 Students

Here’s a sequel to Goomoodleikiog.  This second video takes a look at Goomoodleikiog from the student perspective.  Why would an online academic suite composed of Google, Moodle, Wikis, and Blogs be helpful to students?  The  argument is that Goomoodleikiog provides them the following.

• anywhere/anytime access
• anywhere/anytime collaboration
• real-world audiences
• 21st century skills – design and technology skills (and collaborative)
• digital citizenship
• immediate feedback/validation
• easy organization of educational work  (harder for the dog to eat your homework)
• a challenge!
• and more

A Community Educational Portal? Matching needs with resources.

I very much appreciate that we now have a president who is calling on all of us to make what we will of the world we live in – we are the change that we need.  He has called on all of us be better than we are.

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. We are the hope of those boys who have so little, who’ve been told that they cannot have what they dream, that they cannot be what they imagine. Yes, they can.” – Barack Obama during his Inauguration Address

So this is just prelude to the fact that finding a way to do things better is always at the forefront of my mind.  I am inspired.  However, I get ideas, but I don’t do a good job of following through and seeing them come to fruition.  Just today, I had a random thought that I think could lead to something valuable.  I’d love to see it realized.  So I’ll do my best to pursue it.

Here’s where the real rambling begins (sorry!):

I work for SDUSD and have had the pleasure of working with several organizations outside of education through partnerships to help bring meaningful experiences into the classroom.   I’m sure there are numerous organizations that would love to work with education to help grow a competent workforce either through providing funding, lesson resources, experts, etc.  Likewise, I’m sure there are a plethora of teachers that would love to work with a business partner.  The problem is that the two sometimes need an introduction either becuase they are bashful, don’t know who to contact, or don’t know what to talk about.

So here is my thought:  With today’s technology resources, there are limitless resources for bringing people together to help each other out.  For example, NPR recently did a story on a website called USA together.  It’s a website where injured US service members can post a need that they have and community members can offer to help.  Conversely, community members can offer to help and injured service members can accept the offer.  There are many other examples of these sorts of portals where people who have a need can be matched with those who have a resource.  (Other examples:  USAservice.org, micro-philanthropy sites, etc)  Why not create a community portal for matching educational partners with teachers and schools who would love the help.  It could become a central clearinghouse for providing at least one of the types of change that we need.

So here’s where what I think is a great idea catches a snag:

• The Talent Issue – Who has the skill to design and/or manage a portal like this?  Would you use a Google group or site?  Would you use a wiki?  There must be a better way.
• The Responsibility Issue – Who should host it?  County office of education?  A local university?  Should it be national or local?
• The Money Issue – Where would funding come for such a project?
• Self doubt – is it worth doing? Will people use it?  How do you get the message out there?
• Cynicism – are community businesses, foundations, organizations willing to help?  (obviously I assumed so above because I know of several who would be, but is interest large enough to merit a larger clearinghouse or should these partnerships continue to be formed more piecemeal?)

Goomoodleikiog – No, it’s not something I found at IKEA

Leigh Murrell, and I have continued to inspire each other about how technology can be used in the classroom.  Throughout our conversations, we’ve felt that there were an essential set of four tools that make up what could be called a free online academic suite for students.  Each tool provides a virtual place for doing many of the things that typically are done in classrooms.  We called the online academic suite – Goomoodleikiog.  This isn’t to say that these are the only technology tools that we use, but they are the key venues.  Below is a video that we made to illustrate one way that these tools could all work together.

The Academic Suite

Moodle = online classroom

Google Docs = online binder/notebook/collaborative workspace

Blogs = reflection journal/class discussion/sharing ideas

Wikis = polished final products/brainstorming/collaborative workspace