Sunday, January 29, 2012

Selecting a topic and finding information

The first two steps to the I-Search model are "Selecting a Topic" and "Finding Information", and I think that these two steps go hand in hand. In order to decide on a topic question, it is important that I can find information on the subject!

After deciding to focus on gmail, I began to scope out the their website and explore what they have to offer. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they have a whole education program! I wasn't really sure how google would be able to incorporate an education system into gmail, but it seems like they have a lot organized. http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/edu/k12.html

Personally, I didn't have a ton of experience with email while going to school...I can't even remember if I had a school email account that I utilized! But now, most schools are beginning to focus on technology and how it can supplement a student's education and I can see that email is a great way to do that. I am excited to get into a school and see how they utilize email and other technologies.

After seeing that gmail does offer an education package, I am going to explore what it has to offer, as well as see how many schools are already using it. One thing that I have already seen is a public spreadsheet about switching to gmail in schools (using a google spreadsheet) and I am excited to check it out! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjgdRDrRivqYdExSbDI0cm5PUjlsVmpKcDlMdEsxT0E#gid=0

I think this is a great start to the project!

5 comments:

  1. Hi Katie,
    I love this topic and I think its very relevant for today's schools. Our district uses gmail, the kids all have their personal accounts. At the elementary school level they can only send and receive within the school network. They do have access to other Google features though like GoogleDocs and forms which they use in their projects and presentations with great success! If you'd like any contact names at the elementary school or would like to talk to the kids directly I can help you out with that.

    Anna

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    1. Thanks Anna! It sounds like your daughter's school is pretty hip!

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  2. Kathryn,
    It seems like you picked a challenging topic, as I too would struggle with getting it underway. I'm pretty sure the one school I work at has many of the typical email providers blocked via filtering software. I believe only juniors and seniors, or just seniors are granted email accounts through the school. However, they're allowed to use Fabebook lol. Don't understand it completely. Anyways, good luck. I'll be checking back to see your progress.

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  3. Kathryn,
    I am really excited to see the results of your research! The school that I work for is using email with the students more and more so I am interested to see how this can be applied to education. I know that gmail has much more to offer than simple email messaging so I can't wait to see what this project turns up.
    Good luck,
    Johanna

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  4. I like Gmail and started using it during my time at UB. I have been able to talk with other students and have actually used it with a couple of professors. There are a couple of downfalls. One was we could not do a video chat with a dozen students. This may have changed since we tried early last year. But we have created a blog of sorts for our cohort and we are able to keep in touch with each other to ask questions or get help.

    By Laura Esposito

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