Workflow/Scheduling Tools & Collaboration/Co-Creation Tools

Workflow/Scheduling Tools & Collaboration/Co-Creation Tools

Google Calendar

Google Calendar

The workflow/scheduling tool I chose to research is Google Calendar. My school district uses Google Calendar to schedule meetings so I am already pretty familiar with the basics, but I learned about many new features I was unaware of while doing some additional research. It's impressive that Google Calendar allows you to add other people to meetings and set your available hours, but I think the most impressive feature is the "find a time" option. This allows you to check the availability of the other people you're requesting at your appointment, so you can find a time when everyone is available. This seems very efficient, so you don't have the back-and-forth of emails trying to find availability for all. I also like that you can include a Google Hangout Meet link to your Google Calendar appointment. Now that my district is completely online for the remainder of the school year, all of our staff meetings and IEP meetings are taking place through Google Hangout Meet. Having the link right in the Google Calendar appointment streamlines the process of checking my schedule and joining the meeting. The only feature I didn't find that I would like to see is a way to attach a doc to a Google Calendar appointment when you invite others to your appointment. This would come in handy if you were holding a meeting with an agenda, so everyone could refer to it instead of having to share it with them, then have them search for it to pull it up. 

Google Calendar perfectly supports meeting organization, scheduling, and sharing of resources. You can see the availability of everyone you'd like attending, get notification of upcoming meetings, and even join your meeting right from the invitation. It is a tool that I use often during for whole-building staff meetings, team collaboration meetings, and even to meet with others outside of my district. Thinking globally, I could see this being a great way to schedule video chats with others who are in different time zones since Google Calendar converts all times to whatever time zone the user is in. It would make it much easier to connect with someone distantly if it adds to their calendar automatically and provides them a link to our meeting in one simple action. With our school switching to online learning, I think Google Calendar would be a great tool to use with my kids to help them schedule times to get help from me during my office hours. They could schedule a block of time for assistance and see my availability to make sure I'm not already busy helping someone else. Thinking more long-term, this would be a great tool for students to collaborate with others around the world. I also researched PenPal Schools, and while it includes a chat feature, this would be a great way for PenPal students to schedule their meetings with each other. It's an innovate, technological way to collaborate globally and "flatten" the classroom, which supports the actions of global education leaders.

PenPal Schools

PenPal Schools

The collaboration/co-creation tool I chose to research is PenPal Schools. I learned that PenPal Schools is a program that allows teachers to choose a specific subject and topic and work through projects with students in their PenPal School. I was intrigued to see it was so much more than a traditional pen pal matching service. I really like that the program is project-based and the students are working collaboratively to create a final project option of their choice. Students use videos, text, and discussion questions to gather background knowledge on a topic, then use the Global Student Forum to interact with students around the world. Finally, they publish their project on the Showcase section of the site. The only problematic aspect of PenPal Schools I found is that although it is currently offered free due to COVID-19, there is typically a cost. Teachers earn "credits" through referrals to other teachers, or a whole school can get a membership for $2,900 - $4,900 annually. They do also offer scholarships to schools in low-income areas. 

PenPal Schools supports collaboration and co-creation throughout the entire process of the project. Students must research with their pen pals, have frequent collaborative conversations with the pen pals, and work with their pen pals to create their final project to submit to the Showcase. Every step of the process requires collaboration and working with their pen pals to reach their goal. Though it's hard to introduce any new "tech tools" to students now that we're doing online learning for the rest of the year, I'd love to try PenPal Schools with my students once things settle down next school year. Students love any chance to talk with kids their age from other places, so student engagement would be through the roof. The projects seem rigorous and open-ended, which requires higher-level thinking. PenPal Schools also naturally supports actions of global education leaders by emphasizing digital citizenship through collaboration with technology and building empathy, curiosity, and respect. Once the COVID dust settles, I would love to give PenPal Schools a try!