Edutecher: How I find my tools

As many of you know, I am quite a researcher and I spend a lot of my time searching out tech tools to benefit my colleagues and my students.  Sometimes, I get overwhelmed and can’t remember what I have looked at and evaluated. Sometimes, I find a cool tool and forget about it a few months later and don’t remember what it is.  I have shared, several times,  my process for finding and blogging about tools and I want to share a little more today about what I use to find my information.

I stumbled upon  EduTecher in a webinar a few years back. The speaker talked about it as a way to find tech tools for the classroom.  I had created an account a year or so back but hadn’t spent a lot of time using the site.  I decided to spend a little time investigating it and learning about it and sharing with my readers.

EduTecher is a virtual backpack were you can visually store sites you use.  There is a small icon called an educlipper that can be added to your browser and you can use it to add pages to your backpack.   Think of it like Pinterest but solely for education. There is also an app for Android and Apple.

You can also add contacts to your account and share your backpack with others. There are tons and tons of tools there to sift through and add to your backpack to try as well.  I love the enormous amount of tools to look through. There is definitely something for everyone.

Acceptable Use Policies

My area tech discussion council had quite a lengthy conversation last week about Acceptable Use and Privacy policies and how to handle them with students. We learned that technology is so far ahead of the times that it's hard to keep up, but, we must attempt to keep up. Even attorney's are having trouble deciding how to handle policy for kids.

Here is my thought:  Require teachers to read the terms of use before adding things to the classroom.  Check for the age permitted, check for the regulations and expectations.  Once you have read this, share the information with parents.  Develop a general Web 2.0 tool database with specific notations about the AUP and the regulations.   It could be set up in a table format like this:  (I chose Animoto because we are looking at using it for a project in school)

Name of Tool	Link	AUP Link/ Privacy Link	Age Restriction	Teacher (s) using
Animoto	www.animoto.com	http://animoto.com/legal/terms http://animoto.com/legal/privacy_policy http://animoto.com/legal/education_terms	13 or over with permission (educational site permits those under 13)	John Doe

I think if teachers are diligent and investigate the policies, they will see some of the programs are really geared for older people. It makes teachers think before they use something.  I am as guilty as others of trying sites, but, I have started reading the terms before kids get online. It is important to think about.