New tool, New tools, New tools

As I start looking at all of the possibilities of tools to use, it is overwhelming.  I get two emails a day on new possibilities for education.  Education Diigo sends an email with possibilities and we have a district diigo that folks can contribute to.  There are so many different things that are really marvelous.

I write daily in a journal.  I've always wanted to do it on my computer, but it never felt right.  Today I found penzu.com.  It is an online journal that I can get to from any computer--cloud technology I guess.  It really is very nice.  There is a version that requires that you pay.  That has many more fancy pieces to it, but I don't need those.  I wonder if our students would enjoy using that?  I plan on building a technology learning consortium (TLC) that includes students.  I think they might like this as well.  I wonder if having at home and school--anywhere you have technology--would encourage folks to write.  I wonder whether there is a connection for my ipad.

The idea that I am particularly interested in investigating is "gamification."  I know that it has to do with turning things into games, but I want to look into tools for students to build games.  If a student built a game around a math or science concept, wouldn't that have the likelihood of enhancing the student's understanding of the content?  I am concerned that it is too difficult.  I just need to find out more.

I have a comfort level with a tiny piece of this move into technology, but I have a lot to learn.  I hope to hear from some of you with advice.

I found a second tool today that I like as well: thoughtboxes.es/  It is a planning tool.  It gives you a place to identify a project and then you build boxes of ideas around those boxes.  You could plan with someone else if you upgrade--$5 a month.  If I have a team of folks who wanted to use it, that would be well worth it.  It is structured like I think.  I constantly make lists of ideas around a topic.  I wonder if they have an educator discount--I would like for my students to use it to plan projects outside of the classroom.  I know there are free tools out there, but this one is very easy to use.

The topic that I am interested in investigating is the notion of gamification.  I know that it is the i