Why do I bring this up, you ask? Well, it got me thinking about how we teachers share information about what is going on in our classroom with others. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc are nice platforms for sharing information, but given privacy and student safety concerns, may not be the best tool for individual teachers to use with their classrooms. Plus, many of these social networking sites are blocked by many school districts.
For today’s tech snack, I want to talk about an easy to use tool that gives teachers a social platform that is safe, secure and private. Today’s tech tool can be found at the following url: https://gethomeroom.com/
What is it and how can I use it?
Homeroom is a free online tool and mobile app that allows you to share your class photos privately with parents, students, and others. To begin using homeroom, you must first create an account. To create an account click on the link below:
https://cluster.co/register/?original_domain=gethomeroom.com
After you create an account, you can an album. An album is just a collection of pictures from a given day/event. To create an album, you click on click an album, name the album then decide if you want to create a note( just text) or photos. You can upload multiple pictures at one time. Once you get all your photos uploaded, you can go back to your album and viola, you have created an album! You can add multiple albums and add and delete content from any album you create.
Once members they will be able to see your album, add content and add comments. You will be alerted whenever new content is added. Albums cannot be tagged so there is no danger of anyone reposting your content on other social network sites so that other people who are not members of the group can see it. Also, you have to log in to see any content on an album. If you simply copy and paste the url of an album and try to send it along as email link, when the person clicks on the link, they will be asked to login to access the content.
**Please note: Homeroom does allow members to download copies of the any photos posted in any album. So teachers need to make sure that the content posted is helpful and respectful to all. Make sure you check your school's policy on posting images of students online.
You could use this tool to create albums of specific events such as field trips, service projects, hands-on activities, field experiences, class speakers, and more. This tool obviously would be useful anywhere photos can be used to showcase achievement. Who needs a class newsletter when you can make posts to your personal, private network. While the basis of this review is primarily geared to how this tool could be used to communicate with parents, you could use it with your students for projects. Using this tool students can snap a picture anywhere, with any device, and upload to the web to use in class or cooperative groups for discussions/reflections.
Until we meet agan at the tech café!