Podcast and Lecture for March 30th

Productivity Tools:
We learned about productivity tools in class this week. A productivity tool is something that helps you be more effiecient by saving time or by imporving the quality without adding time. A calculator is a good example of a productivity tools. These tools either make something better while lasting the same amount of time, or they make something take less time. Overall these are very helpful becuase the less time you spend doing on one thing, the more time you have for another. The tools can be useful for both teachers and students.

In class they seperated the productivity tools into four groups: Document Production, Time Managment, Research, and Instructional Panning and Managment. Each groups helps increase effieciency in its own way. First document production tools are things such as Word Processor. They help you correct spelling and grammar mistakes, make text changes, and allow you to share and collaborate on a project through technology. There are other tools that do the same thing as word processor such as, Zoho Writer and Open Office. Zoho Writer allows you to access the processor through the internet and Open Office is a free version of Microsoft. There are also more complex tools such as SmartDraw.com and Inspiration. These tools help you enchance your production, using graphics and other resources. The next group is Time Managment. This is very important for students; they need ot keep track of due dates, tasks and other responsibilities. By using these toold they are developing metacognitive skills. An example of a time managment tool is I-Pod to do list. It works on iphones and itouchs and is basically a high tech calander system. There are also things like Outlook, todalist, and Google Calander. Research is the next category. These tools allow you to find information faster and to find more reliable, crediable information. They also give you access to a wider range of resources. Examples are Google Notebook, Delicious Accounts, Think Quest and Google Scholar. One of the most interesting tools, i thought, was Zotero. This a tool that you can download that makes a workscited for you. It collects the data needed and stores your resources. It would be very helpful when doing research and writing a paper. The final category is Instructional Planning and Materials. This tool is based more towards the teachers instead of the students. It allows the teachers to stay on task and get more things done. I really enjoyed the 100 classroom freebies website. This was 100 resources that teachers could use for free. It is very helpful and saves the teacher time in having to find the reasources, download them and pay for them. Microsoft Template and Office are also examples.

In the end I think that utilizing the production tools that are out there is a very important thing to do. In this era there is so much that can be done and everything is moving at such a fast pace that we need to take advantage of increasing effieciency if we can. I will remember alot of these tools when I become a teacher.