Saturday, February 20, 2010

Rita Zeinstejer live session On Google apps in the classroom




We just had an amazing live event with Rita Zeinstejer, our wonderful grand finale guest speaker, at Webheads in Action Elluminate virtual room hosted by Learning times.

Rita is a resourceful EFL teacher at the Association Rosarina de Cultura Inglesa in Argentina, she has been the CALL SIG Coordinator in her area for 7 years now.

In her usual sparkly manner she led us through several ways to use Google apps and sites in the classroom giving us examples of her own work, tips and great ideas to use those applications with our students. The presentation looked at all the supplications that Google has created to use for free with our students.


She took us from iGoogle to Google Buzz passing by Google Wave, Google Live Stories and Google Knol which is still in beta version giving examples of the use of the tools to enhance course content, create a warm learning environment and engage the students. Her ideas are brilliant!

There were several questions asked by teachers all over the world, Rita answered them all in very clear terms, all participants felt time fly away.

If you didn’t have the chance to be there live or you want to have a look at it once more, visit Rita's session wiki page, you'll find the recording here.

Thanks Rita, it’s BaW tradition to have you closing this session, we’re blessed for that. To all participants... a big round of applause. You’re less than 24 hours away from Becoming a Webhead!

We’d love to read your comments about the session, they have great value for us.

Hala Fawzi and Maru del Campo
Week 6 Moderators.

7 comments:

  1. Thank you very much, dear Maru and Hala!! It's been MY pleasure to share this information with you all, as usual ;-)

    Warm hugs from warm Rosario, very grateful for your kind comments,

    Rita

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  2. Exemplary Live Session!
    This time I again was taking notes while listening to Rita.
    I like the way Rita shows the advantages of Google Applications for students and then for teachers. As I am preparing a lecture on Web2.0 for our teachers, I’ll try to follow the same model.
    I have been using Google products for less than two years, but haven’t explored much. So many , so new apps ! I have introduced Google sites, groups, Docs into my teaching. I like Rita’s description of a Google site as ‘all in one place’. I completely agree because I accumulated some links in my Access Google site and then I was ready to start my wiki during this BaW10 session rather quickly and easily.
    I have been charmed by Google Earth and the site Google Lit Trips. After the session I even watched a YouTube video about this exceptional site.
    Then I also paid attention to Google Squared. After the session I found out the link about Broadway musicals for my pbwiki on Access project on the USA regions.
    Rita has offered her own high-class usage of Google Apps. The ELT teachers can start working immediately: tips are clear. The lecture has been 100% informative and instructive! There was not enough time for this topic: there must be a week, not an hour!
    Besides, during the session there was again an energetic written chat. It was controlled by Rita and Teresa very well. Hala and Maru, our dear co-moderators, were trying to let every participant be active in the session. Thank you!!!

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  3. I've used Gmail for three years now and it is my preferred email account for its versatility and particular features my other accounts don't offer. This session has been so amazing I want to try all those applications so brilliantly presented by Rita today. I have used the chat with the webcam, Google earth, Picasa, the calendar for appointments and as a bday reminder, and created my blog from Google. It is also my main page on the Internet and the door to Internet. But today presentation has really opened my eyes and has made me eager to try all the apps, especially those that will help me to teach English. I took notes during the presentation and will try each of the apps little by little. As I said in the chatlog, I've completely fallen in love with Google. I want to thank Rita for an amazing presentation, our dear moderators for always being there for us, and the wonderful participation of my fellow bawers. Thanks for such a lively closing!

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  4. I have just spent hours this afternoon building my own little collection of google apps. Before today I had only heard of one or two of them, and hadn't actually tried them.After such an informative session, I was champing at the bit to get started.
    Rita's presentation was excellent. She clearly laid out the benefits for both teacher and students of using the different tools. Her knowledge was second to none and I found her clear presentation easy to understand, although overwhelming in its content. Thank you so much for organising the event.

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  5. I have already had a google account and using my gmail actively and known about igoogle and google chrome but I have never thought of using them in teaching. Now I see that there is a lot to learn and discover here. Thanks for this amazing session.

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  6. Rita your presentation was astounding!

    I'm just downloading the Google Pack. I never thought Google has so many useful applications. Your explanations about each of the benefits offered by Google was really good. I understood all of them. I can't wait to use them. It is like being in a new planet for me. Thank you so much for that excellent session.

    All the best,

    Gilder

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  7. Hello Rita and all,
    It's a great pleasure to meet you all on this blog. I've been trying hard to open it before, but in vain (problems in my computer)and I couldn't even open my own blog. Rita's presentation was a success and I learnt a lot of things from her and other participants. I never knew about some interesting tools in google which are very useful for us teachers. Thanks for sharing information and keeping generous all the time :-) love you all, kudos! Mounia from Morocco

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