Author of the wonderful award winning Langwitches blog Silvia Tolisano (Twitter name is @langwitches), has written a must-read post. Looking at the advent of Web 2.0 and the way it is perceived by parents, Tolisano addresses the skills developed and used by students in using tools such as blogs, creating podcasts and adding to wikis rather than the tools themselves. To read this post, go to Silvia’s blog now!
If anyone doubted the absolute brilliance of US teacher librarian Dr Joyce Valenza (as if they could!), then this presentation and accompanying information will make them join us believers.
Dr Valenza has produced a creative and engaging presentation for the 2009 K12 Online Conference Getting Started Keynote. Entitled The Wizard of Apps, this video will influence my professional practice for years to come. Discussing how students can stay safe online, Dr Valenza also showcases many Web 2.0 tools that can be moulded into effective ‘information skills’; that is, how students can and should find and organise the best online information.
Running at just over 50 minutes, it is certainly an excellent investment of time. You may wish to share the video and links with teaching colleagues and/or your personal learning network. (Loved the way students and teachers collaborated on the production of the video.)
Uberblogger Richard Byrne has the most amazing site for teachers wishing to integrate technology into learning and teaching. The Free Technology for Teachers blog has won numerous awards and has a huge following.
Featuring guides such as Free Guide to Technology Integration (that explains how to create documents and presentations; tools to improve communication between schools and parents; tools for student collaborative projects and alternatives to YouTube) and Beyond Google (“fifteen tools and strategies to help your students (and colleagues) to explore the web beyond the first two pages of Google results”) as well as informative posts on items such as:
1. 30+ Alternatives to YouTube
2. Twelve Essentials for Technology Integration
3. Seven Ways to Find Teachers on Twitter
4. 10 Places to Make and Find Flashcards
5. 35+ Educational Games and Games Resources
6. Ten Grammar Games and Lesson Resources
7. Ten Spelling Games and Lessons
8. 9 Resources for Website Evaluation Lessons
9. Netbook vs. Cheap Notebook Decision
10. Four Free Tools for Creating Screencasts
11. Great Timeline Builders
Free Technology for Teachers is a must-subscribe-to blog. Richard provides some more information for readers:
The purpose of this site is to share information about free resources that teachers can use in their classrooms.
In 2008 Free Technology for Teachers was awarded the Edublogs Award for “Best Resource Sharing Blog.”
In 2009 Free Technology for Teachers was again awarded the Edublogs Award for “Best Resource Sharing Blog” and was awarded the Edublogs Award for “Best Individual Blog.”
Free Technology for Teachers is read by an audience of more than 15,000 daily subscribers (current as of December 15, 2009).
About the blogger (Richard Byrne):
My full-time job is teaching US History and Civics to high school students at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in South Paris, ME. In the past I have also taught courses in global studies and English/ Language Arts.I believe that when used correctly, technology has the power to improve student engagement and student achievement. I also believe that technology gives teachers the ability to form powerful, global, professional learning communities.
In 2009 I was nominated for an Edublogs “Lifetime Achievement” Award. I am a Google Certified Teacher.
Congratulations to Richard Byrne on an incredible blog. Great to see that he has been acknowledged for his contribution to professional learning for teachers worldwide.
For anyone who uses Twitter, Chirps is a clever way to add your own audio to your tweets.
Audio messages can be recorded via computer or text entered into the Chirps site which is then converted to speech. Chirps is free to join.
NetSmartzKids is a website set up to teach children and young adults about using the internet safely. It uses fun, interactive games to help develop safe online strategies. The website explains:
NetSmartz® is an interactive, educational safety resource from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC) and Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) for children aged 5 to 17, parents, guardians, educators, and law enforcement that uses age-appropriate, 3-D activities to teach children how to stay safer on the Internet.
The goal of the NetSmartz Workshop is to extend the safety awareness of children to prevent victimization and increase self-confidence whenever they go online. These goals include to
- enhance the ability of children to recognize dangers on the Internet
- enhance the ability of children to understand that people they first “meet” on the Internet should never be considered their friend
- encourage children to report victimization to a trusted adult
- support and enhance community education efforts
- increase communication between adults and children about online safety
The NetSmartz Workshop teaches children the rules for online safety.
- I will tell an adult I trust if anything makes me feel scared, uncomfortable, or confused.
- I will ask my parents or guardian before sharing my personal information.
- I won’t meet in person with anyone I have first “met” online.
Potentially a useful site, especially for the younger student. Thanks to Angela Maiers for this link.
Although 60 second recap is a site of US origin, it could be very useful for promoting reading and showing creative examples of ways students can respond to texts. Basically, 60 second recap is a site that makes films that summarise texts such as Animal Farm, Jane Eyre, Of Mice and Men, Hamlet and Pride and Prejudice.
Users don’t need to sign up to gain access to the videos, however, those who do join can add their responses to the chosen texts and even request 60 second recaps to be filmed for specific texts.
Thanks to Joyce Valenza for this link.
If you ever need to build your own website and tools like wikis and blogs won’t do, try Joomla. Joomla allows users to build, develop and maintain their own website, even if they have little or no experience or knowledge of doing so. Joomla’s easy to use site does most of the work for you. Some more information from the Joomla website:
Joomla is an award-winning content management system (CMS), which enables you to build Web sites and powerful online applications. Many aspects, including its ease-of-use and extensibility, have made Joomla the most popular Web site software available. Best of all, Joomla is an open source solution that is freely available to everyone.
What’s a content management system (CMS)?
A content management system is software that keeps track of every piece of content on your Web site, much like your local public library keeps track of books and stores them. Content can be simple text, photos, music, video, documents, or just about anything you can think of. A major advantage of using a CMS is that it requires almost no technical skill or knowledge to manage. Since the CMS manages all your content, you don’t have to.
What are some real world examples of what Joomla! can do?
Joomla is used all over the world to power Web sites of all shapes and sizes. For example:
- Corporate Web sites or portals
- Corporate intranets and extranets
- Online magazines, newspapers, and publications
- E-commerce and online reservations
- Government applications
- Small business Web sites
- Non-profit and organizational Web sites
- Community-based portals
- School and church Web sites
- Personal or family homepages
Who uses Joomla?
Here are just a few examples of Web sites that use Joomla:
- MTV Networks Quizilla (Social networking) – http://www.quizilla.com
- IHOP (Restaurant chain) – http://www.ihop.com
- Harvard University (Educational) – http://gsas.harvard.edu
- Citibank (Financial institution intranet) – Not publicly accessible
- The Green Maven (Eco-resources) – http://www.greenmaven.com
- Outdoor Photographer (Magazine) – http://www.outdoorphotographer.com
- PlayShakespeare.com (Cultural) – http://www.playshakespeare.com
- Senso Interiors (Furniture design) – http://www.sensointeriors.co.za
More examples of companies using Joomla can be found in the Joomla Community Site Showcase.
Joomla! seems the right solution for me. How do I get started?
Joomla is free, open, and available to anyone under the GPL license. Read Getting Started with Joomla to find out the basics then try out our online demo and you’ll quickly discover how simple Joomla is. If you’re ready to install Joomla, download the latest version here you’ll be up and running in no time.
It seems like Joomla may be a very useful tool.
PBS teachers is a website devoted to learning and teaching brought to you by the US television network PBS.
There is an incredible amount of teacher resources here and they are not all US based. There are many online resources for those of us outside the USA to use. Organised by level:
and then by the subjects
There are classroom resources, discussions and information on forthcoming and recent professional development.
The site is attractive and well organised and there is sure to be something to suit just about everyone. Featured initiatives such as ‘Raising readers’ that links to stories and reading activities and the PBS video portal that collects shows broadcast on PBS (these ARE available to people outside the US, unlike the BBC iPlayer) are other useful aspects of the site.
Also, see this School Library Journal article: PBS, NASA partner to help educators with climate change lessons. PBS teachers is a very useful site for teacher resources.
Sharendipity is a site that lets you create your own games and then upload them to the site, embed them into other websites or just use games that other people have developed.
Their website states:
Sharendipity is the fun and easy way to create fun, social games without programming that can be shared with your friends or embedded on your website. Or simply browse and play the creations of others, challenging your friends to beat your high score! Create a game in four easy steps or try the advanced game creator!
There is a wiki and a blog to assist if you need it as well as a forum to consult other Sharendipity members. Looks like fun for teachers and students alike.
Livebinders is a free site and bills itself as ‘The knowledge sharing place’. It is a type of online binder where a number of websites can be ‘put inside’ the binder as a collection. Two great examples of use would be as an ePortfolio of websites that you have developed (blogs, wikis, netvibes, etc.) and as a repository for students’ school assignments, whether it be as a bibliography of sites uses or sites the students have developed themselves during their school career.
From the learn more section of the website comes the following information:
A better way to share multiple links quickly and simply
Take Control of Your Information
- View links like pages in a book instead of URLs on a page
- Combine PDFs and Word docs with the links you collect
- Organize your links and documents into tabs and subtabs
Save Time
- Conveniently update information without having to resend links
- Avoid the hassle of finding links in old emails and long bookmark lists
- Update LiveBinders from one place
Share with Pride
- Build a library of livebinders
- Allow others to view your public and private binders
- Embed livebinders on blogs, web pages and desktops
LiveBinders is Free!
- Sign Up to create an account so you can store your livebinders right away
- Add the ‘LiveBinder It’ Bookmark Tool to your browser toolbar
- Start browsing the web. Find a link you want to save then click on the ‘LiveBinder It’ to automatically add the link to a new livebinder
It is easy to add a LiveBinders button to your browser and each time you’d like to save a site, just click on ‘links’, then ‘add to LiveBinders.’ Here is a LiveBinder that I created earlier:
(One LiveBinders is open, click on each tab to open each website.)
As you can see, LiveBinders can be embedded into blogs, wikis and the like.
Be aware that students need to be 13 years or older to sign up for a LiveBinders account.