Groups

Groups may seem an unusual place to begin this track. As with the start of the GAIN track with Blogger, the GLUE track begins with Groups because we will be using Groups as our discussion board for the Web 2.0 tracks. The uses of Blogger for the SMART and HTML tracks online discussions, then Groups for the GAINS and GLUE discussions, help in understanding the advantages/disadvantages of two different Google product strategies for conducting online discussions.

As you read through the chapter on Groups, please note that the Pages feature in Groups (pages 141-143) was discontinued in Novermber, 2010 (after this book came out). As a whole, email is declining in use, so this iteration of Google may be diminishing in importance. Nevertheless, it can be useful in some ways. Check on the Help for Groups at__ [] __. This is a means for providing a threaded discussion, which can be very helpful.

This tutorial on You Tube, __ [] __, was done just in 2010, but still is out of date on the Group Pages issue. (Google feels Pages in Groups was redundant to use of Sites for group page work.) This is a preview of the "New Google Groups" from December 2010, but it is very short, __ [] __.

This Beginner's Guide to Google Groups from April 2011 is the most current tutorial I could find, __ [] __, yet not as step by step informative as one could hope.

CAUTION: Groups can access old "news group" technology (which started pre-Web as a text only threaded discussion service). Some parts of the news group sector of the internet can be very unsavory.

Please respond to the questions raised in the discussion group for CPED 5300 for the topic GROUPS.
 * __Performance Record__**


 * Lesson Plans**

//High School// Social Studies - "A Brush with History" - Lerman & Hicks, page 313    Social Studies - "Mapping Foreign Policy Doctrines" - Lerman & Hicks, page 335

 //Staff Development//   "Gone Googlin'" - __ [] __