eTalk

Apps for That - and Just About Everything! part 1

2012-01-23T15:21:00.000-06:00

I've been using my iPad and iPodTouch for a couple of years now, and I'm finding more and more that I can do with it! I'm often asked by teachers to recommend apps and app sites that I like. You can find some great links to others' sites that recommend apps here on my shared Delicious stacks. Take some time to explore - you won't be sorry! AppsI - There's an App for That! some sites that

Freedom Riders from The American Experience

2012-01-16T08:40:00.001-06:00

The full-length documentary, Freedom Riders, is available online at The American Experience. Sponsored by Liberty Mutual, this can be a great addition to your curriculum at this time of year! There is great teacher support available - take a look: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/watch Thanks to Mr. Byrne at Free Technology for Teachers for the reminder! Enjoy!

Happy New Year! Resolve to spread a little sunshine ~

2012-01-03T16:34:00.000-06:00

From the UK, this group has the right idea for the New Year - Spread a Little Sunshine!

Beautiful Christmas Song from England!

2011-12-14T11:44:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmas to all! May you have a wonderful Christmas break with family and friends, and return to school happy and rested and ready to learn with your students!

Point to Ponder

2011-11-17T14:15:00.001-06:00

Ever have one of these moments? This video expresses what many of us, and our students, feel about sharing our thoughts and ideas! I have struggled with this for a while now - wondering if a topic I'd like to bring to the table is worth mentioning. After all, who likes having their ideas put under the microscope? I'm going to have to work on this! My students deserve knowing that I, too,

I Love School! Do you?

2011-08-30T10:13:00.002-05:00

I've spent most of my non-working mussing time this summer listening, not writing. I have felt for some time that I was missing the mark with my writing, so I quit for a while to listen. I've listened to some great books, read many great blogs, but the best lessons I've had came from the children. Now I want to share a couple of their stories with you. We had our eight-year-old grandson a good

How big is Google? Take a look -

2011-04-19T11:27:00.000-05:00

A visual is worth more than 40 billion + indexed pages... Infographic by computer school.org

Using MyFakeWall to Mimic Facebook

2011-04-04T11:21:00.006-05:00

I've seen several teachers come up with templates to mimic Facebook in the classroom. Here's a website that does the same thing! Take a look at My Fake Wall. A cute example - a mimic wall for Cinderella - can be found here: http://www.myfakewall.com/w/Cinderella_2

Social Networking History

2011-03-28T13:52:00.000-05:00

Here's a fun way to look at messaging from the 1930s to now! PeopleBrowsr Presents A Brief Cartoon History of Social Networking 1930-2011 View more presentations from PeopleBrowsr

Trying Popplet

2011-03-03T12:57:00.000-06:00

On first try, the site had issues (see letter on the site). This time, it seems to work great.

Fancy it up with Wondersay

2011-03-02T08:49:00.000-06:00

Cute! Add some flair to make a point - send it out or embed it. made on Wondersay - Animate text with style made on Wondersay - Animate text with style

Embed Plus

2011-02-28T14:01:00.000-06:00

This is the most useful site I've found in a while for embedding video. Embed Plus lets you add controls to the YouTube videos you want to show on your blog, wiki - wherever you can use embed codes. You can edit the embed code easily to add marks that allow these features: Sceen Skipping, Real Time Reactions (which I disabled as I did NOT want), Crop to the part you want to show, Zoom In and Out,

The Fun Factor

2011-01-04T11:12:00.000-06:00

I've been out of commission for a few weeks, and I'm still typing with one hand while the other arm sports a stylish red cast. But I'm on the mend and trying to move back into my real world activities. Yesterday, I spent the morning with about fifty teachers and we had a good time exploring ways to use some Web 2.0 sites to put some fun into second semester learning with our students. We all

Remember VoiceThreads?

2010-11-22T11:10:00.002-06:00

A VoiceThread is still a wonderful tool to use in group conversations around any topic. Here is a really great one to use in teaching students about copyright and citations:

Improving Presentations

2010-11-16T13:19:00.006-06:00

We've visited Prezi before. If you haven't tried it yet, take another look. It's easy, it's visual and it's impressive! Remember, research tells us that three days after hearing new information, we remember 10% of what we heard. But add a visual to that information, and three days later, we remember 65%! WOW! That's a 55% increase in retention! Think of it as an equation: a 55% increase in

Handheld Learning and Policies

2010-10-29T10:28:00.000-05:00

A conversation in a session at the T+L Conference last week reminded me that although I knew Apple had made some changes in their policies regarding the download of apps for various devices, I haven't heard a lot of conversations going on about this topic. Today, as I was taking advantage of the offers from the 'momswithapps' site (if you didn't know - they give out one or two free apps every

T+L and the Future is Here

2010-10-19T22:32:00.000-05:00

I'm at the T+L Conference in Phoenix this week. Although it's playing to a smaller audience than I've seen at this conference in the past, I am really pumped from the presentations I saw today. The one that got me the most excited relates way back 18 years, when I told my students that I was not going to retire until I saw the Holodeck become a reality in classrooms. And today, I saw this future,

21st Century Teaching and Learning

2010-09-07T10:05:00.000-05:00

This video, created by the MCESC, says it all!

Updated Google Images Searching

2010-08-13T10:12:00.001-05:00

Google Image Search has been updated, and I like the new look very much. When you search for pictures, you get a more realistic view of the pictures on the search screen instead of those tiny thumbnails. And when you roll over the pics with your mouse, they pop up, like this! Click on the image now, and you go to a nice preview of where it's located to grab it if you want: Right click (or

Retirement of ALI - Apple Learning Exchange

2010-08-04T15:05:00.000-05:00

I just went to the ALI site to look something up, and found a new posting that was added today. Bowing to fewer hits and the upsurge of use of iTunes U by educators across the country, the Apple Learning Interchange is being discontinued! "On September 3, 2010, Apple will be phasing out the ALI website and we invite you to visit iTunes U and the following resources to continue learning and

Back to School - Are You Ready to Engage?

2010-08-04T11:53:00.000-05:00

Here's a great version of the Engage Me! theme from YouTube. As you prepare your lesson plans for the first day of school, I challenge you to think about it!

Let's Write!

2010-07-30T14:25:00.000-05:00

Writing is always an important skill at all grade levels, and so one of my recommended web sites for beginning the 2010-2011 school year is The Writing Fix, sponsored since 2001 by the Northern Nevada Writing Project. This site is found at: http://www.writingfix.com/ According to the site, “If you explore our website's pages, you will find prompts, lessons, and resources that were created and

Fun--and Learning--with Friends at Podstock

2010-07-26T09:39:00.001-05:00

I've been out and about lately to a lot of places and probably the best learning experience I've had this summer was at the Podstock Conference in Wichita on July 16-17. The reason? The emphasis on Learning - we're all in this together, there's more than one good way to use technology to improve our ability to learn and share at all ages. Thanks to my friends at ESSDACK and across the country for

Teaching to the "Test"

2010-06-22T13:52:00.000-05:00

I love this video by Scott McLeod, entitled "Mastering Low-Level Content". He captures visually what we've had many conversations about. Does teaching to the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy mean we sacrifice some of our test scores? I think not! Mastering Low-Level Content from Scott McLeod on Vimeo.

The Semantic Web

2010-05-13T10:52:00.001-05:00

There's chatter everywhere about the Semantic Web, or Web 3.0. I've been reading up, trying to understand what this means and how to explain it in layman's terms. Today I found this video, which explains it better than I ever could. Enjoy!

Zooburst

2010-05-11T14:23:00.002-05:00

I read about the new 'augumented reality' storybook site, Zooburst, visited it yesterday, and decided to apply for an 'alpha' account to try it out. Low and behold, they accepted my application already! So I gave it a go today. Here's my first attempt, sans the webcam. I'm having trouble with the webcam portion, but using some free clipart and trial-and-error, I managed to get a small book

Technology as the Trojan Horse

2010-05-06T17:37:00.000-05:00

I'm previewing a book online today by Ralph Fletcher, Pyrotechnics on the Page. Wonderful book about writing and word play. This line just jumped off the page at me: "...fun is a Trojan horse for weightier educational terms like ownership, engagement, and flow. Fun matters." (p. 34). Wow! That's exactly what the carefully thought out use of technology in the classroom is - the Trojan Horse that

Search Stories

2010-04-13T16:14:00.002-05:00

Google and YouTube have an online tool that enables you to log the search for information on a topic in a short video format. The tool is easy to use and you can edit your video clip before posting. You retain control over comments, etc. I like this idea - how about having students create one that shows how they search for information on a given topic? Here's an example about searching for

If You Were Being Graded . . .

2010-03-23T10:18:00.001-05:00

NO apologizes for the repost here. I think this is an idea worth revisiting. Several years ago, I was introduced to the concepts used by the Key Learning Community in Indianapolis, IN to evaluate student learning. Among all of the ‘grading’ systems I’ve ever studied, this one continues to impress me the most. And I profusely apologize to these wonderful educators for warping their ideas in

History of e-mail

2010-03-14T20:09:00.000-05:00

This infographic is interesting! How long have you depended on e-mail to communicate? Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for pointing this one out today on his blog. The original can be seen at the Focus website. Hide all

MACE Conference Ahead!

2010-03-03T16:14:00.000-06:00

I'm heading to the MACE Conference in Manhattan, Kansas tomorrow! And I can hardly wait. It is always fun to get in a room full of educators and share ideas. Kay Good, library media specialist from USD 240, and I will be presenting a session on Using Web 2.0 Tools on Friday. Here are some links, if you would like to see the sites we will be sharing! http://weblist.me/linda---top-ten-for-mace-

Another Opportunity for Using Real-World Problems

2010-03-01T11:43:00.001-06:00

Another earthquake, this time in Chili. Here’s a quick set of links. Compare and contrast, anyone? See the link under "This Week". Photos from thevGuardian in Great Britain”http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2010/feb/27/chile-earthquake Nick News http://www.nick.com/all_nick/tv_supersites/nick_news/stories_daily.jhtml?pollId=470924885&wstory=0 Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Real World Problems

2010-02-23T16:20:00.002-06:00

Teaching 21st Century skills to 21st Century students requires that we take a long, hard look at real world problems. Unless your students live in a vacuum, they know that bad things happen everywhere, to 'good' and 'bad' people alike. Most of them are aware of real world problems. I've been disappointed to notice that many teachers limited their discussions of the Haiti earthquake to a cursory

Great Resources from Open Culture

2010-01-29T11:11:00.008-06:00

The Open Culture site calls itself the source for “the best free cultural & educational media on the web”, and it may be exactly that. Dan Colman, the lead editor, is the Director and Dean of Stanford University’s Continuing Studies Program. The posts on the front page are always interesting and thought-provoking. This site is easy to navigate by the tabs at the top of the page. You can use

DWT - Driving While Texting

2009-12-15T12:04:00.000-06:00

I told someone last summer that I would never ride with him again; I would drive, because he answers his e-mails and texts while on the road. This student-created video gives the stats, and a local school mourns a student lost this way this fall. Be careful - you're not only taking your own life in your hands during that split second! Find more videos like this on Flat Classroom Project Video

Don't Become Obsolete!

2009-12-15T11:38:00.000-06:00

Courtesy of the Business Insider, here's their take on things that are disappearing from our technological landscape:

Giving Your Students the World

2009-12-04T11:38:00.005-06:00

For up-to-date, exciting challenges for students, I am so impressed with lessons using Google Earth and Google Maps. Google continually updates their resouces, adding great new features that keep learners engaged and enable them to create wonderful projects that demonstrate understanding of cross-curricular outcomes. Their latest street-view updates are now including off-road visits to wonderful

Re-Ignite Your Fire!

2009-11-25T11:47:00.002-06:00

I've had one too many conversations this week with discouraged educators. I would say apathetic, but that wouldn't be true about all of them. So, you out there in educator land, if you're one of those discouraged people, watch this. Think about what you really loved about learning when you decided to become a teacher. Re-ignite yourself! Re-ignite your love of learning! You are both obligated and

Another Reason We NEED Our “Social” Tools

2009-11-06T08:27:00.003-06:00

Unless you live in a vacuum, you know what happened at Ft. Hood, Texas yesterday. Tragedy for those there, tragedy for all our military forces everywhere, as they are, truly, a band of brothers and sisters who normally trust each other with their very lives. Yesterday, that trust was betrayed. News reports were as chaotic as the scene, as the networks struggled to fill the on-air time with every

Another Lesson on Learning 3

2009-10-30T16:14:00.000-05:00

It’s at times exciting and at other times scary to know what fellow educators think about using technology to engage students in learning. The conversations can range from copyright scares to the idea that using technology is adding something more to what they are doing, when we know that it can actually enable us to focus on higher level learning and differentiating lessons so that all can reach

Need a Booster?

2009-10-20T13:22:00.002-05:00

It's end of the first quarter time at most of our area schools. Need some ideas to re-energize your class at the start of second quarter? Take a look at a few great ideas by going to my Jog-the-Web, Fun Sites to Re-Energize Your Classroom. Your kids will love the ideas, and you will love the creativity they put into their next projects.

Journeying with MapVivo

2009-10-02T16:11:00.002-05:00

MapVivo is a terrific Google Maps Mashup site. You can tell the story of any journey by placing markers on the map, adding text, pictures and links to online videos to complete your story. Here is a great educational example; it is the story of Abraham Lincoln's funeral train. Just click on the numbered tabs in the center of the screen to move to each location in the journey. http://mapvivo.com

Pearls Before Breakfast - washingtonpost.com

2009-09-16T16:34:00.000-05:00

I picked up on this article by Gene Weingarten while reading a blog on Hotchalk today. A teacher wrote quite a response there. It’s a wonderful article and you should take the few minutes out of your life to read it. It just might change a thing or two in your own practice. It was published in 2007, but it could have happened yesterday, anywhere. At the very least, read down through this part: "

Wallwisher

2009-09-16T14:15:00.000-05:00

I tried this site out last May, and thought it was a good tool. Now, I'm trying out Wallwisher again for a teacher. He's looking to find a great way to update his website easily with a widget feed from a site that will not be blocked by the school filter. Easier said than done - this is my try 15 I think! Nice site, though. I like it!

Vodcasting + Chemistry = Learning

2009-09-10T16:03:00.009-05:00

Thanks to the generosity of ISTE, you can watch many of the presentations from the NECC Conference each year online. This has been such a help to me and to many other educators, because with all of the budget cuts in our state this year, travel is one of many things we are not able to do!So far, this presentation is my favorite of all. Watch these teachers interact as they present their learnings

Using Wikipedia - and WikiMindMap

2009-09-09T18:58:00.002-05:00

I often hear both the pros and cons of using Wikipedia, and I have to tell you that I lean toward the pros. Wikipedia can be an excellent source, providing you've instructed your students to use the linking that it provides, and then use the Wikipedia articles as ONE of SEVERAL resources in their projects.Today, I've found a new site called WikiMindMap that enables you to mindmap using Wikipedia.

43 Things Site -

2009-09-01T13:08:00.006-05:00

A neat site. Of course, it goes with the book by the same name - but you can use the site to make a plan and cheer yourself on without reading the book. As the home page says, "List your Goals, Share your Progress, Cheer Each Other On!"And you can take the quiz and see what it says about you. I tried it - probably take exception with the term "organized" as I haven't felt very organized of late.

Glogster Goes Edu

2009-08-28T11:48:00.008-05:00

Glogster, the marvelous online multi-media poster-creating tool, has gone educational. Teachers may now sign up for a classroom account, free, for up to 200 students at a time. You have got to try it out! What a great, creative way for students to show their understanding.There is also a Glogster Edu channel on SchoolTube, the secure school video channel. Here's just one example:You may need to

I Believe - Do You?

2009-08-25T12:45:00.006-05:00

It's a new year for all of us - teachers, students, administrators, families, communities. All of you mean so much to me, both as a person and as a learner. This video was created by the Starkville, MS school district for the start of this school year. Watch it, and reflect. Do you believe in the members of your learning environment?

The Digital Generation

2009-08-05T12:12:00.010-05:00

At the end of last May, Edutopia launched a new addition to their web site, The Digital Generation Project. If you've not visited it, you should! This site has an incredible number of first person accounts by students regarding their education and their digital lives. Take a look, you will not be sorry!Here is just one video from the site as an example. Called "Educating the Digital Generation",

Engaging Students in Reading and Storytelling

2009-08-05T08:19:00.002-05:00

This article by Brenda Dyck from Education World fit right in with a discussion I had with some teachers yesterday. Education World � Technology Channel: Brenda's Blog: Using Digital Place-Based Storytelling To Teach Geographical ThinkingWe were talking about using Google MyMaps and Google Earth in digital storytelling and in following stories we read in class. What a great example she has

Use your Cell Phone!

2009-08-02T17:12:00.001-05:00

Wiffiti is another tool you can use with your cell phones! Try using this to engage an audience - or a classroom!

Farewell to a Friend

2009-06-23T09:43:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, I briefly attended a reception honoring the director of our service center, Dr. Rita Cook. Rita leaves us to become a school superintendent in Kentucky, moving her closer to family. I got to thinking about how quickly time passes, and how in the course of our careers in education we move in and out of other folks’ lives, sometimes unaware of the impact they have had on us and vice

More Ways to Show What You Know!

2009-05-27T20:05:00.002-05:00

Here are two great new sites for you to explore! Capzles lets you upload pictures and video to create a great multimedia presentation - a Capzle in Time! Click here: Capzles to explore.The next one is Museum Box. This one takes a bit more of a learning curve, and you have to join up and wait to be accepted. Teachers can create logins for their students, and be notified when students submit a

Wireless Signal Boosting - or How to enjoy working in your backyard, too!

2009-05-07T14:07:00.007-05:00

My network configuration at my country home is wild, or wierd, depending on how you look at it. I run a LAN between three buildings, one of them with 20-inch deep rock walls. Wireless transmission across the area can be, at the least, challenging.Believe it or not, I've solved the problem with cardboard, scissors, aluminum foil and a glue stick. No kidding. The final result looks like this:Now,

Podstock!

2009-04-29T11:38:00.015-05:00

On Friday morning, bright and very early, I'll be heading out to Wichita to be one of the guest presenters at the first annual Podstock Conference. I can hardly wait! It is such fun to share with educators about the power of giving students and teachers voice through podcasting.My presentation Friday afternoon is called, "Yakity-Yak, DO TALK BACK!" I have lists of ideas for topics across all

The 21st Century Learning Environment

2009-04-28T12:52:00.007-05:00

What characteristics should a 21st Century classroom hold for our students? Take a look at these videos, courtesy of istevision, the ISTE digital storytelling site:What about YOUR classroom? Have you tried taking any steps to move your classroom forward into this type of learning environment? I hope so! Your students depend on you to care about their futures!

Time for some FUN!

2009-04-15T16:46:00.008-05:00

Courtesy of one of my favorite bloggers, the Grumpy Old Teacher, I've been sent to a new 'fun with photos' site. It's called PhotoFunia, and here's an example of what you can do with your picture: Give yourself a short break and give it a try! Kids will love it, hands down. Here's where to find it: PhotoFunia

Jogging the Web

2009-04-15T09:40:00.002-05:00

Here is a simple and simply great web tool to use in your classroom. It's called "Jog the Web" and is found at http://www.jogtheweb.com. Creating a 'Jog' puts you in control of your sources for a class. Suppose you are teaching 5th grade social studies, and you want your students to do some research on the great explorers. You only have a 40 minute class period to complete this project, so

Scotty - Beam Me Up!

2009-04-09T09:24:00.003-05:00

For years, I've told my students and teachers that I intend to live long enough to see the 'Star Trek' computer and holideck a reality in our teaching environments. Things have been changing so fast, that day is not far off. Take a look at this TED Tech Talk posted last month: WOW! I can't wait!

How do you send big files?

2009-04-06T13:58:00.002-05:00

Ever been in the situation where you want to send a file to another teacher, and the file exceeds the maximum size allowed by your e-mail server? Happens to me all the time!Here's a great solution: You Send It. This is a web service that allows you to send files up to 100 MB in size for free. Paid services for larger file transfers are available. I used it today to upload three large FlipChart

Treasures from PBS Teachers

2009-03-31T14:23:00.004-05:00

Did you know that among its treasures, PBS Teachers has a great resource called Activity Packs. According to their site, "An Activity Pack is a set of educational resources focused on a theme and packaged in a widget-format that you can embed in your own class or social media web page. Each pack includes links to PBS web sites and a set of activities by grade level."Here's an example in the

Summer's Coming!

2009-03-22T14:17:00.008-05:00

And it's not too early to plan your summer learning experiences! We have a great slate of workshops planned - both face-to-face and online or combinations of the two venues - and I'm excited about the possibilities.My favorite class to teach this summer is Geocaching. You should learn about GPS, Google Earth and Google Maps, and all the great ways you can uses these technologies for learning for

Spring Break

2009-03-17T20:48:00.005-05:00

We're spending spring break in a southern state, visiting grandchildren. We're experiencing beautiful weather, and all of the children are out and about, riding scooters and skateboards, enjoying the free time.This one, however, chose to take a break, sit on the sidewalk and put in some more screen time playing a game. At least he's outside? Maybe. The teenagers in the neighborhood are spending

Celebrate the MACE Conference

2009-03-10T21:08:00.002-05:00

I always enjoy the MACE Conference. Sponsored by one of the hardest-working volunteer organizations that I know, the Mid-America Computers in Education group always sponsors a great get-together, with teachers and tech coordinators, curriculum specialists and instructors, from across the state attending and presenting.This year's featured speaker, Hall Davidson from Discovery Education, was so

The Pirate's Dilemma - or, To Use or Not to Use

2009-02-24T09:22:00.001-06:00

Even as we are all facing tremendous budget cuts, we still face that dilemma - how do we teach 21st Century Skills and discuss intellectual property rights with students and teachers? Right when we are truly tempted to borrow rather than purchase a few things ourselves. This is an interesting presentation about this issue. Enjoy - it's great food for thought as we struggle with making good

Another Lesson on Learning 2

2009-02-16T11:20:00.007-06:00

Ha a nice chat with grandson #1 last week. An online chat. He's also a fan of Skype, and he has over 600 contacts - mostly from his 'other world' - that of online gaming. He had to put the 'do not disturb' flag out so they'd let us finish our conversation as he was getting annoyed at the interruptions.I asked him how he got so many contacts, and he admitted, "I'm kind of like the world's diplomat

Stop the Motion! Fun Videos for Students and Teachers

2009-02-08T12:24:00.005-06:00

Last Friday, I spent the day with a group of students and teachers from a local school district. All of the participants, belong to my I-Team at their schools (Instructional Technology Empowered Academic Mentors). Students and teachers in this group dedicate themselves to learning new ways to use technology to improve learning for themselves and their fellow students and teachers.What a hoot!

Another Lesson on Learning

2009-02-08T12:14:00.003-06:00

Here we are, year 2009. Eight years past 2001, the year made famous by the movie 2001 A Space Odessey.And here we are, many of us, still educating our children in the same way, with the same content, that we experienced in school. For some of us, that means teaching children in elementary school in the same way we experienced school FIFTY YEARS AGO! What are we thinking? Last week, I was

YouTube videos inside SlideShare

2009-01-23T09:29:00.001-06:00

I just received an e-mail with this information. You can now play video clips from YouTube inside of your Slideshare presentations. Very nice additions! Check out this SlideShare Presentation for all the details. I'll be trying this out for sure! YouTube videos inside SlideShareView more presentations or upload your own. (tags: slides presentations)

A Lesson on Learning

2009-01-20T16:37:00.008-06:00

I have a grandson (actually, three grandsons and three granddaughters, but I digress already...) Grandson in the middle attends school in a large city district in another state. He called his Grandpa and me last Friday night on his own initiative; I don’t think his parents even know that he called us. He was just missing us, he said.During the conversation, of course I had to ask how school was

Google This!

2009-01-17T13:06:00.004-06:00

Google's tip of the day today led me to this new Google resource. Google has partnered up with LIFE Magazine to host an online searchable database of their photo archives. You can search these millions of photos, many of which have never been published. Here is the address of the announcement:http://images.google.com/hosted/lifeYou can force a Google image search to search only these LIFE photo

Merry Christmas

2008-12-16T11:20:00.003-06:00

Peace and joy to all of you! Take time during your holiday break to rest and reflect on what is important.

Online Symphony Orchestra Project

2008-12-15T14:17:00.004-06:00

I just found out about this exciting project, courtesy of Joyce Valenza at School Library Journal. Even if you or your students don't participate, this will be fun to follow! And it will end up providing a great set of resources for music teachers everywhere. Check it out!

Merry Merry Animating!

2008-12-12T10:21:00.002-06:00

Here's my first "GoAnimate" creation. This is quite easy and fun. Put on your thinking cap - there should be lots of ways to creatively use this with students!

Using Go Animate

2008-11-12T12:34:00.003-06:00

This is a terrific suggestion, and I'm going to try Go Animate after finding this animated video about Web 2.0 on a wiki, which you can check out here:http://web2educationuk.wetpaint.com/Isn't this great?

Sticky Learning

2008-09-24T20:22:00.010-05:00

Fall has settled in to our area, and the beautiful colors, mild evenings and sunny days are accompanied by nature setting the stage for renewal next year. My somewhat clutzy but always lovable Golden Retriever, Sarge, comes running to me every evening now that fall has settled in. He skids to a halt and sits at my feet with a soulful look. He knows what to expect - help! Now that every plant on

Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants - Are we using the correct terminology here?

2008-08-21T11:27:00.007-05:00

The past few years, many technology users have borrowed the terminology, "Digital Immigrants" to talk about adults and teachers in general, and the term "Digital Natives" to talk about our students and young adults. Like the use of "Generation Y" and "Generation X" versus the "Baby Boomers", we still try to classify citizens into some group, whether or not they truly belong there.Yesterday, I

Rethinking Information

2008-07-23T14:23:00.005-05:00

From heiroglyphics to virtual manipulable data, the storage and retrieval of information has continually taken on different forms throughout the history of man and machine. Watch this video by Dr. Michael Wesch of Kansas State University, and notice how many information technologies you see that are already being subverted by new technologies; some are already obsolete. Better learn how to

Learning for Me - Part 3

2008-07-02T08:53:00.006-05:00

NECC Conference Musings:Tuesday night: Late evening for me - I went to the River Walk with two younger (much younger!) teacher friends for dinner and chat. It was a lovely evening, unusually cool for San Antonio this time of year! It was fun to hear them talk about their schools, which are so different than what I've ever experienced. One directs an after-school program for middle schools, the

Learning for Me! Part 2

2008-06-30T21:51:00.003-05:00

NECC Conference MusingsMonday evening notes: Today was a good day for learning. Well, outside of the fact that the rooms set aside for the BYOL laptops turned out to be waaayyyyy too small for the numbers who wanted to be in on the classes. There were long lines, people turned away, and thus - some pretty cranky people! Costs a huge amount to travel to a national conference, so being turned

Learning for Me!

2008-06-29T20:38:00.010-05:00

NECC Conference MusingsSunday night notes: I'm attending NECC 2008 in San Antonio this week. Yesterday and today were "pre-conference workshops"; you pay extra to attend these in the hope that they will be deeper, more intense than the regular one-hour presentations. The one I chose yesterday was good, but the one today was better! More hands-on, student-directed. The presenters did a good job

Why am I here?

2008-06-26T08:30:00.005-05:00

I'm giving myself a trip down memory lane this morning, before my teacher-students arrive for their fourth training day in our instructional technology program. As this summer has progressed, I've found myself reflecting negatively about workshops in general. I had scheduled some of what I thought were really terrific workshops this summer - all of them connected to Web 2.0 Tools and 21st

Still Too True

2008-06-15T13:07:00.004-05:00

"It is nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry." ~ Albert Einstein, 1949Next week, I'm heading out to San Antonio. The NECC Conference beacons me, along with thousands of others, to come together and share and learn and try out new ways to connect our students and teachers to that 'holy curiosity of inquiry

"Scaredy Cats"?

2008-06-14T21:36:00.002-05:00

Have educators all become "scaredy" cats? Is the spotlight of NCLB enabling us – or dissuading us – from making positive change in schools?I’ll admit that sometimes, I’m a bit discouraged. Like everyone in education, I have too much to do and too little time. That’s not what is getting me down lately, however. What is hurting is the lack of enthusiasm I see on the part of those around me about

Speaking of Change . . . .

2008-05-08T16:13:00.003-05:00

In a high school government class, we showed this video clip from YouTube to initiate a talk about rhetoric. The students loved the video, and then created their own videos. They downloaded politicians speaking about specific issues. Then, students made mashup videos of the various candidates all speaking about one specific issue, such as the Iraq War or the high cost of health care. It was

We Tell Stories! In a Million Ways!

2008-04-23T14:39:00.006-05:00

Web 2.0 tools give use a multitude of ways to reach students with the love of reading and writing. Thanks to the Remote Access blog, I just learned about another excellent resource that you should take a look at for some terrific ideas.The resource is a site posted by Penguin Books called "We Tell Stories." This site posted six stories, written by six different authors, using six different

I Read Blocked Blogs!

2008-04-16T20:56:00.001-05:00

The Internet world of many teachers I mentor at several different schools has been shaken up recently by the installation of “new and improved” school filtering systems. It is not the fault of these schools’ tech coordinators, who are struggling valiantly to unblock good resources and keep within the boundaries of the law while they are doing it. Rather, the schools have been sold services by

Amazing!

2008-03-08T19:20:00.004-06:00

The MACE Conference continues to be better every year. I learn so much at the sessions! I really enjoyed Kevin Honeycutt’s presentation, “Developing the Filter Between Kids’ Ears”. My favorite quote: “You can’t outsource AMAZING!”When we’re talking about the huge need for teaching 21st Century Skills, we can’t neglect the facts. It’s been estimated that our students will change careers fourteen

Fun, Fantastic, FREE

2008-02-17T11:54:00.005-06:00

I love Web 2.0 Tools! Kay Good (a library media specialist at a local school district and a great educator as well as a good friend) and I are doing a presentation at the MACE Conference in two weeks, all about the favorite Web 2.0 Tools in our toolkits.The only problem is picking which ones to share! There are so many! Going through our bookmarks and shared notebooks and de.licio.us tags, we

Multiple Intelligences and Thinking about Learning

2008-01-21T10:28:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite resources is the book, The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and Writing: Making the Words Come Alive by Thomas Armstrong, available here from ASCD. What does a book about the multiple intelligences have to do with technology integration?EVERYTHING! If what we are about is learning, then we need to use all of our multiple ways of learning to get that learning accomplished!

Time to Break Some Rules!

2008-01-07T19:58:00.000-06:00

I'm in hypertext mode again - jumping all over the internet from place to place, following threads. This time, I stumbled upon the Google Testing Labs Blog - yes, they not only have one, they air their conversations in public! More than interesting!Their motto is, "If it ain't broke, you're not trying hard enough!" What rules have you broken lately? In education, and in other venues as well,

Tis the Season to Count Your Blessings and Remember Others

2007-12-18T13:38:00.000-06:00

I come from a military family. My husband and I spent 20 years with the Air Force, and among our children we have two more military families, one Army, one Air Force.As you count your blessings this Christmas, please say a prayer for those whose families must endure separation as a father or a mother, son or daughter, brother or sister, serves our country.

Weathering the Weather

2007-12-18T08:21:00.000-06:00

Virtually all of our area suffered through winter weather last week. A huge ice storm, which felled trees and power poles, was followed up by a snow storm a few days later. At my own little home in the country, my husband and a friend are spending yet another day today with the tractor, trying to pile up the felled trees and limbs. We were lucky as we got power back in about 78 hours. As of

Researching Resources

2007-12-03T09:37:00.000-06:00

Today's topic - 21st Century Skills for Educators and Students. Here are some web resources for you to use, now and in the future. Of course, it is not all-inclusive, but these resources are all recommended by various professionals in the field.This is a public Google Notebook that I will keep updated as I find new resources; feel free to share this with other teachers and with your students!

Manage this?

2007-11-29T12:24:00.000-06:00

I wish I knew how to better manage time and resources. I've been using lots of new Web 2.0 tools - Google Tools (Notebooks, Shared docs, spreadsheets, and slides), Google Earth, SketchUp; social bookmarking like De.licio.us and Trailmarkers; several Ning social networking sites; photo sharing sites like Flickr and Picassa; video sharing sites like YouTube and TeacherTube; then there is SlideShare

Ancora Imparo – I am still learning!

2007-11-29T11:20:00.000-06:00

Dr. Tony Karrer said on his blog at elearningtech.blogspot.com, “I hate to generalize, but the thing that seems to be missing from most of my conversations with classroom teachers and administrators is a willingness to even try to re-envision their own learning, not just their students.” Isn't this a sad commentary for educators - that we are often unwilling to own our learning?Whats your PLE?

Wow! Student Project with Impact

2007-10-26T09:33:00.000-05:00

Two of 'my' teachers at one school never cease to amaze me, and they've done it again. These two are cooperating sixth grade teachers, and from the outside you might think they were a mis-match. The older one has taught way past his 'retirement' date, but he should never retire in my book. He always exhibits a genuine concern for all students. The other is thirty-some years younger, very active

'Cache' Up

2007-10-26T08:40:00.000-05:00

We did it! I did some geocaching with two groups of teachers last week from two different schools, and took some people from my team along with one of them. It was a great experience. One teacher told teachers from his home building that it was the 'best inservice' he'd been to in a long time!Teachers worked on lessons to do with their students that involve geocaching, matched up the standards

Cache This!

2007-10-16T15:28:00.000-05:00

Geocaching is, well, fun! My husband and I have recently tried this "sport"; downloading coordinates to a handheld GPS, following the hints left on the website at geocaching.com, and traveling the local area looking for caches. We've gone out twice so far, once with a four-year old grandson, and once with a grandson who is almost fourteen! Both enjoyed it! The older one was put in charge of the