The+SCOPE+Blog+by+Erin+Mason

The following was originally published August 4, 2012 at http://sconlineprofessionalexchange.blogspot.com/2012/08/using-google.html This week I did a presentation for Chicago Public School Counselors since the entire district has rolled out Google at a systemwide level. Asked to do a technology presentation for the school counselors, I thought, why not do it all on Google tools? I ruled out presenting on Gmail and Google Calendar thinking that these are probably the most frequented tools and ones they might get training on within the district. An hour wasn't enough time to do justice to all the things that Google offers so I focused on 6 tools that I thought most school counselors might not know about and for which there is real potential use in the day-to-day life of a school counselor; though by no means is this list exhaustive:


 * 1) Google Talk
 * 2) Google Drive
 * 3) Google Forms
 * 4) Blogger
 * 5) Google Voice
 * 6) Google Hangouts

Since I knew that we wouldn't have time to cover things in much detail, my presentation is a series of short (5-7 minutes-ish) screencasts, so that the participant can go back, watch and listen to me walk through step-by-step, an overview of each of the tools. The screencasts were made using Screencastomatic, a great free tool for screencasting.



The following was originally published June 27, 2012 at http://sconlineprofessionalexchange.blogspot.com/2012/06/using-voicethread.html In this post, I will cover Voicethread, one of my favorite tools for presenting information in an interactive way.

THE BASICS: In a nutshell, Voicethread is like an interactive powerpoint presentation. Using "slides" that you narrate, Voicethread allows viewers to not only see the content but also to comment on it via text, audio recording or webcam. You can upload images and videos into a Voicethread and even use a doodling feature to circle or highlight the most important points. Voicethreads can be embedded into websites or sent as links through email. Voicethread has an app for phones and tablets making it easy to access on the go. Voicethread offers free accounts to educators and was really created for k-12.

HOW I USE IT: I use Voicethread to deliver course content online and outside of class. The benefits are many. Unlike a traditional lecture, students can stop, start and "rewind" the presentation at their own pace, going back to listen to parts they need to hear again. They can also ask questions on the slides or comment on slides that I've asked them to interact with. I've also been able to use Voicethread as a way of virtually bringing in a guest speaker. For example, in one course, students created questions for Nicole Pfleger, ASCA's 2012 School Counselor of the Year. I turned the questions into a powerpoint, uploaded it to Voicethread and sent it to Nicole via a link in an email. She was then able to go into the Voicethread and record her responses to the students' questions. Once she did, the students were able to hear directly from her in a way that was as personal as we could get without physically having her in the classroom. I've embedded this Voicethread below:

HOW SCHOOL COUNSELORS CAN USE IT: Voicethread has many potential uses for school counselors! Here are a few that come to mind:


 * As a way to share information with parents who were not able to attend a parent night or info session
 * As a professional development tool for staff, especially for procedural information that they may need to access repeatedly
 * As a way of sharing data from your program with your administration
 * As a weekly or monthly update embedded into your school counseling webpage
 * As a classroom guidance or small group activity; have students create Voicethreads!

Voicethread is amazing and can be used synchronously (in real time) or asynchronously. How have you used Voicethread? Or, how could you use it?