I'm most comfortable doing technology and less comfortable talking about technology. When we started reading about the Portaportals I had one up and going in the next five minutes. I haven't gone back to work on it, but it was fun to think of all of the links I could come up with to include on it.
This is something that I could add to my website (that I haven't touched in a year) so that my students could connect deeper with a topic we covered in class or explore other aspects of fitness or skills that were not covered in class.
It isn't terribly exciting, but it's easy to set up and easy to access.
Did the people who came up with the name not realize how hard it was to say Portaportal without refering to those green and blue buildings? Excuse my immaturity, but everyone had to at least think that...
2 comments:
I agree that the name is an unfortunate one...and whoever named the tool must be clueless:-) (But then remember what Bruce named his company....geeesch, talk about clueless. We get gaffaws in the Old Port when in the truck.)
Your assessment of yourself is right on: a do-er, not a talker.
Portaportals are the least social of the applications we are covering in class, but we included it because lots of teachers get excited about it---an easy way to organize weblinks, and the look of a simple webpage. It is a good page to send kids who have extra time at the beginning and end of a class, and also a place that can be shared with parents as a communication tool of what is happening in class.
Good point, Kim. Flashy needs to take a back seat to functional in our jobs. If it's easy, it works all the time, and kids can benefit, then it's a good tool. That's why it made our list instead of a hundred other flash-in-the-pan types out there.
Now, maybe it shares some characteristics with the plastic outhouses. Like, you really only have to clean them out once in a while, but you should check often. Or, they're simple to set up...:)
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