In between sessions, the recently selected Digital Principals did a brief impromptu session in the Minnesota Life WiFi Lounge on their favorite Web-based (and free) digital tools. Here are some links you might want to check out:
Patrick Larkin
Blogger. So much easier and more immediate than issuing a Principal’s Newssletter, Patrick uses this free Google blogging platform to share school news and promote discussion around school initiatives.
Google Reader. Newsfeeds are a great way to gather information you care about on the Web. Subscribe to the blogs, websites, and other Web repositories that you care about, and updates are all pushed to a single page.
Michael King
PBWiki: Mike maintains a wiki that provides teachers both easy access to professional information and a collaborative workspace for their ongoing development.
Symbaloo: Content curation is a big theme for Mike–and a topic all principals should be keeping an eye on as open-source content and tools continue to grow online. On his Symbaloo platform, Mike gathers a bunch of tools and content into a visual webmix for easy access by all principals.
Eric Sheninger
Google Sites: Build your own mini website with this free platform by Google. The interface is intuitive, even if you’re not as Wild About Web 2.0 tool sas Eric.
Social bookmarking: Sure, you can use your browser’s bookmark feature to mark a page in a single browser on a single device. OR you can use a social bookmarking tool like Delicious or Diigo to bookmark a page and have it available in every browser and every device. Even better, you can tag and describe the link so you can remember why you liked that page AND make your collection available to others.
The Digital Principals will have much more to share at their panel discussion in room 5 today at 2:30.