Cross posted at ThumannResources.com
I recently spoke at a conference where the anticipated attendance was 16,000. There were 30 laptops set up with 60 seats and then overflow seating for another 40 people. I gave 5 presentations over 2 days. I didn't know before I got there how many people I was going to see and now that I'm home, I still don't know. But I can tell you that at least 10 people asked me if I had a handout I could give them. There were also many attendees that commented about it. I was grateful to see this Tweet from NJ educator Brian McLaughlin.
I think sometimes as educators, we are accustomed to getting everything on paper. But what really happens to it? We stick it in a folder, we throw it away, or it gets lost in a an ever-growing pile of papers collecting on our desk.
Here are some tools that I've been using and have seem some other educators use to share information and resources during presentations and professional development sessions:
Google Docs
Click on Share -- Publish as Webpage and Google Docs will assign you a unique public URL (link) for your document. You still will be the only one that has rights to edit your Google Doc, unless you invite Collaborators, but you can use this feature to share a digital agenda, list of links, or anything that you would have printed out in the past. Here's a sample... http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddn2z86w_3dn2hs4fj
http://www.scribd.com/
On Scribd, you can upload a Word or PDF file and they will convert it into a web document. This way your attendees have access to it on their computers. All you have to do is share the URL with them. Here's a sample...http://www.scribd.com/doc/17245218/Discovery-Education-Whats-New-2009
Wikis
http://www.wikispaces.com/
http://sites.google.com
http://pbworks.com/
Wikis will allow you to embed more than one type of content on them. Like I did for my presentations at the NJEA Convention, I included links to websites, embedded videos and gadgets to PollEverywhere and Slideshare. These are pieces of information you really can't print out. Here's a sample... http://njea-tis-09.wikispaces.com/shoestring-did-you-say-that-was-free
Glogster
Glogster advertises itself as "a creative, dynamic, and innovative digital outlet that captures learner's excitement for online creations, keeps learners engaged in course content, and makes teaching and learning more fun." This is great, but to summarize, it allows us to provide our attendees (whether they are students or educators) with a digital resource rather than a printed one. Here's a sample... http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/
Wallwisher
Wallwisher defines itself as a "web page where people actually post messages." The great part about this is that you don't need an account with Wallwisher in order to post a note on a Wall. So you can have the folks in your session contribute ideas or links to the wall and then save the URL to refer back to. There's no need to print out anything during the workshop and run and go make copies as they'll always have access to the information. Here's a sample... http://wallwisher.com/wall/techforum09
Do you have any tools you are using with your students or in professional development to eliminate unnecessary handouts and to increase productivity? Please share them!
