My Lutin

In my first grade Junior Great Books class we read a story called The Black Hen's Egg.  It is about a magic egg that hatches a magic Lutin that does all kinds of chores for an old woman.  One of the questions we talk about after reading the story, is what we would like our Lutin to do for us if we had a Lutin of our own.  Invariably, the most common answer is "my chores," or "clean my room."  Well, I have decided that I would like a magic Lutin to help me with my technology issues and questions.  To some degree, my kids have served this purpose - helping me download to my MP3 player, helping me learn to use my cell phone... very crucial help at the time.  But I now find that there are applications I'm learning that they don't have the experience to help me with.  I need a Lutin.  Yes, I'm making great use of the help tabs, and they are a great help, but wouldn't it be nice to have a quick fix answer always at the ready?

So this week I have been experimenting with Google Docs and Wikis.  I have had success with Google Docs using the forms application.  I made an invitation for the soccer team banquet and embedded it in our website.  My next task is to make a template for a teacher feedback form for my Junior Greats Books classes.    One key discovery I made using the forms template, is that in order to embed or send an email so that the submit button works, I needed to use the template copy.

In thinking about wikis, I'm having a harder time wrapping my head around the best possible use for one right now.  The two words I think of when I think about the wiki are quick and collaboration.  My class professor mentioned even using one for recipes.  And yes, I can see that the value in having a recipe wiki.  So I could do that, but I'm also trying to think about how I might use one with Junior Great Books or whether I should come up with something else entirely - a literature based wiki for potential future use... Check out my next blog to check my progress.