Tag Archives: 21st century skills

Slack – Mobile App Review (4 of 5)

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Reviewed by: Zach Lonsinger

Details

  • Seller: Slack Technologies, Inc.
  • Category: Business
  • Current Version: 2.35
  • Current Version Updated: Oct. 1, 2015
  • Release Date: June 13, 2014 (1.42)
  • iOS, Android
  • Cost: FREE

Review

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Slack is awesome. I may be biassed, but out of all of the group messaging services I have used, nothing else compares. At its very core, Slack is “team communication for the 21st century“.slac-mm

I have never used this for education purposes, but I have many great ideas! As you can see in the image to the right, I am a part of four teams. The one highlighted is the PSU Multimedia Specialists team. Each hashtag represents a different conversation. An education use would be for the teacher to use this for a specific course, and create group chat channels for small group projects or work. This would allow every student to access each other group’s chat channel, if the instructor set it up like that, or each chat channel can be kept private. The add-ons and functionality of Slack is simply amazing. It’s intuitive and growing every day. One of my favorite function is the integration of certain 3rd party apps, for example, Google Hangouts. Any user can simply type /hangout and a link appears to a Google Hangout that everyone can quickly jump into for a quick face-to-face meeting. Each chat channel is also searchable, too—so any piece of information is never lost!

I’m starting to see a theme of my mobile app reviews: teamwork and collaboration. Having people a click away is becoming the norm, and younger people are growing up expecting this. “Audiences expect higher levels of interactivity and programs tailored to individual needs” (p. 13). Mobility is highly important and will continue to be a crucial factor for the next generational workforce.

Specific 21st Century Skills Utilized (p. 25-28)

  • Learning and Innovation Skills
    • Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
    • Creativity and Innovation
    • Communication and Collaboration
    • Cross-Disciplinary Thinking
    • Visual Literacy
    • Basic Literacy
  • Information, Media and Technology Skills
    • Information Literacy
    • Media Literacy
    • ICT Literacy
  • 21st Century Themes
    • Global Awareness
    • Financial, Economic, Business, and Entrepreneurial Literacy
  • Life and Career Skills
    • Flexibility and Adaptability
    • Initiative and Self-Direction
    • Social and Cross-Cultural Skills
    • Productivity and Accountability
    • Leadership and Responsibility

Google Hangouts – Mobile App Review (3 of 5)

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Reviewed by: Zach Lonsinger

Details

  • Seller: Google, Inc.
  • Category: Social Networking
  • Current Version: 5.1.0
  • Current Version Updated: Oct. 5, 2015
  • Release Date: May 11, 2013 (1.0.0)
  • iOS, Android
  • Cost: FREE

Review

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Google Hangouts is classified as a “social networking” app, but in my opinion, it is far from that. It is more of a tool to instantly connect with other people. Others may argue that connecting with people is, in itself, social networking. When I think of social networking, I think of twitter and facebook. Basically, Hangouts allows for quick video calls and messaging. By itself, not too great—just another video and messaging tool. However, it comes in mighty handy when a small group of students is virtually working on a Google Doc and need to have a quick F2F (face-to-face) meeting or instant message. Hangouts is the messaging box built into Google Docs. It also allows for seamless integration of video chats. However, one limitation is it only allows for 10 participants (15 for Google education accounts).

I briefly mentioned a few education-use scenarios above. Now I want to focus more on a professional-administrative use. We currently use Hangouts in the Nursing IT department as a way for users to quickly get a hole of us for IT troubleshooting. This is usually during a class, which requires immediate response. Instead of giving out our personal cell numbers, Hangouts allows you to create a Google phone number via Google Voice and sync it to Hangouts. We then posted QR codes in every classroom with the Google phone number, which when texted, sends a message to our Hangouts app. This could be used for teachers who don’t want to give out their phone numbers, but want to be available for texting to their students.

Again, this app blurs the line between informal and formal learning environments. Being able to connect with other peers anywhere, anytime allows learning to spill over to the student’s’ home life. A quick message here, a quick video meetup there—before you know it, the group has figured out tomorrow’s assignment through a myriad of Google Hangout messages and video chats.

Specific 21st Century Skills Utilized (p. 25-28)

  • Learning and Innovation Skills
    • Creativity and Innovation
    • Communication and Collaboration
    • Visual Literacy
    • Basic Literacy
  • Information, Media and Technology Skills
    • Information Literacy
    • ICT Literacy
  • Life and Career Skills
    • Flexibility and Adaptability
    • Initiative and Self-Direction
    • Social and Cross-Cultural Skills
    • Productivity and Accountability
    • Leadership and Responsibility

Google Drive – Mobile App Review (2 of 5)

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Reviewed by: Zach Lonsinger

Details

  • Seller: Google, Inc.
  • Category: Productivity
  • Current Version: 4.2
  • Current Version Updated: Oct. 1, 2015
  • Release Date: July 24, 2013 (1.5.0)
  • iOS, Android
  • Cost: FREE

Review

Google-Drive-Icon

Google Drive is cloud storage at its finest. I’m a user of several cloud services (e.g., Dropbox, Box, iCloud, Drive). They all have their advantages and disadvantages, but what I like most about Drive is the seamless integration of Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Not only can you store Google files, but users can store any files they choose and also invite others to view, edit, or leave comments on any of their files or folders.

One great use of Google Drive for education is the power of sharing. This could be used for an entire class of 500, or even small groups of 3-5. Users can create central repositories of documents and folders, and even have sub-folders within those for document storage and organization. Permissions could also be set up to allow anyone to add documents to create an ultimate repository of information, that everyone can access.

Similar to the Google Docs App Review, Drive shares the similar privacy concerns. College-age learners posit no immediate concerns, but high school age and younger would raise privacy concerns. Utilizing an app like Google Drive, a cloud storage service, one must acknowledge Turkle’s “always-on/always-on-us” idea. Storing information in Drive means that anything the user wants is always at his or her fingertips, on any device, at any moment. Group projects would always be a swipe away. Does this start to blur the line between school and personal lives, similar to the “work and personal life” argument? Or is this something we shouldn’t worry about? Learning, after all, should be a lifelong pursuit.

Specific 21st Century Skills Utilized (p. 25-28)

  • Learning and Innovation Skills
    • Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
    • Creativity and Innovation
    • Communication and Collaboration
    • Visual Literacy
    • Scientific and Numerical Literacy
    • Cross-Disciplinary Thinking
    • Basic Literacy
  • Information, Media and Technology Skills
    • Information Literacy
    • Media Literacy
    • ICT Literacy
  • 21st Century Themes
    • Global Awareness
    • Financial, Economic, Business, and Entrepreneurial Literacy
  • Life and Career Skills
    • Flexibility and Adaptability
    • Initiative and Self-Direction
    • Social and Cross-Cultural Skills
    • Productivity and Accountability
    • Leadership and Responsibility

Google Docs — Mobile App Review (1 of 5)

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Reviewed by: Zach Lonsinger

Details

  • Seller: Google, Inc.
  • Category: Productivity
  • Current Version: 1.2015.38205
  • Current Version Updated: Sep. 28, 2015
  • Release Date: Apr. 26, 2014 (1.0.0)
  • iOS, Android
  • Cost: FREE

Review

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Google Docs is a mobile app that allows the user to create documents that save automatically in the cloud, and are accessed by the user’s Google account via Google Drive. Google Docs is designed for ease of collaboration. Users can share the document with other users and even with the general public.

There are many use case with Google Docs in the classroom. I have personally used it in several graduate-level courses, as well as at conferences. For example, I used Google Docs in a F2F (face-to-face) class a few semesters ago for a semester-long group project. We organized our thoughts in the Google Doc, which kept a running record of all of our readings, blog posts, questions, and projects throughout the course of the entire semester. At the end of the semester, we were left with an artifact over 100 pages long. This is an invaluable resource that I still reference today. Another use case is at conferences. At the last few conferences I have attended, I have created a ‘public’ Google Doc and tweeted it out using the conference hashtag. I then curated it throughout the entire conference, adding breakout session headers and allowing users to keep collaborative notes. This proved to be a great resource that caught on like wildfire. This allowed conference attendees to view notes of other sessions that they were unable to attend.

For college-age learners, this poses no immediate privacy concerns. The majority of college students already have a Google account. Using this app for high school age and lower gets muddy. The district would either have to be already using Google apps or have Google accounts for their students, or the individual teacher would have to get parental permission for the students to have Google accounts. However, I feel that the advantages of using Google Docs are greater than the disadvantages. The ease and compatibility with mobile devices offers a sense of mobility for learning. Students can access Docs anywhere they want with their smartphone or on a computer, too. This will blur the line between informal and formal learning environments, creating an environment of learning—no matter where the student is.

Specific 21st Century Skills Utilized (p. 25-28)

  • Learning and Innovation Skills
    • Creativity and Innovation
    • Communication and Collaboration
    • Visual Literacy
    • Basic Literacy
  • Information, Media and Technology Skills
    • Information Literacy
    • Media Literacy
    • ICT Literacy
  • Life and Career Skills
    • Flexibility and Adaptability
    • Initiative and Self-Direction
    • Social and Cross-Cultural Skills
    • Productivity and Accountability
    • Leadership and Responsibility