Here in South Africa, Sean Hampton-Cole (a teacher from Johannesburg) has started a Google group for teachers interested in Ed Tech to share ideas with one another. He has called this group the 'SA Edtech group', a shortened form of South African Educational Technology Integration Group'. Here is a message from Sean:
Please join the 'SA Edtech' group
"Please could I ask you to assist in getting teachers to sign up to this group? I belong to a similar group for Geography which has over 800 members and it is an incredibly powerful means of sharing great ideas. I would like this group to have a similar influence on technology integration. Please could I ask those of you who are at your workplace to share the sign-up link with teachers who are excited about edtech?"
Here is the link to join: https://groups.google.com/
How does the 'SA Edtech' group work?
This SA Edtech group is what is known as a Googlegroup. 'Google Groups' is a free email service from Google that provides discussion groups for people sharing common interests. All you need in order to join a Google group after it has been set up, is an email address. This can be a non-Gmail email address.Depending on the group settings, you can send a message to all members using a single email address, create a question and answer forum or post a message to the group via a web interface. After this you and the others in your group can post messages to one another, upload files for review and collaborate on a a document etc. All your discussions can be seen by everyone in the group.
How do you send a message once you have joined?
Just write your email in the ordinary way. Google groups will automatically add the tag [SA Edtech Ideas] at the beginning of your subject line.
Just write your email in the ordinary way. Google groups will automatically add the tag [SA Edtech Ideas] at the beginning of your subject line.
Q and A about the SA Edtech group
Sean answered some of my queries as follows:
A. This group is a forum for exchanging links and ideas around integrating technology meaningfully into education.
Q. Why don't I see my post when I have posted something?
A. In general, even though everyone else sees your post, you don't. This was something that puzzled me when I first started! You can, however, see all the topics if you go to the Group home page (but you must be logged on with your Google Account to see the posts).
Q. Does the tag [SA Edtech Ideas] automatically precede what your write in the subject line?
A. I've set up the [SA Edtech Ideas] to appear automatically in the subject line. I just thought it might be nice for people to set tags and rules by. It is also a way of indicating that the email is from a group member
Q. What happens after you submit a request to join?
A. All requests to join must be approved by an Admin person. This sometimes takes a few hours depending on how busy we are.
Q. Which option does one choose for email delivery? Would it be the bottom option below 'Notify me for every new message' if you wanted to get a posted email as it is sent?
A. The email preferences are basically to get either an email
as someone mails something or to get a summary once a week. The 1 per day thing
is based on our current average (not very much just yet, I'm afraid, but as
more people join and post this will change). I can change this setting for
anyone who isn't sure how to do it themselves.
Three examples of recent sharing
Why not add your input to the SA EdTech group? We would love it!
Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this great initiative, Sean.
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