Check out this short video from TED Talks with some thought provoking changes in the way we receive Information over the Interned.

Twitter

Micro blogging is just like traditional blogging but messages  are limited to a certain amount of characters. It is similar to texting on a cell phone. Here is a video clip that helps explain how Twitter works and  how useful it can be. Common Craft videos on YouTube have great mini tutorials on many technology tools, just search for the name of the tool "in plain English". This one is "Twitter in plain English."

Blogging and Microblogging

Many of the classes in our school are communicating and collaborating through blogs this year. What a great way to share ideas!
We use Blogger but there are many other tools that also work well. In addition to having students contribute to and create their own blogs on Blogger, many classes are also microblogging with Twitter. Here is a quick video explaining what a blog is "in plain English"

Animoto Tutorial

Here is a video tutorial I created to show you how to create your own Animoto.

Livebinders for Education

Here are two Livebinders I created. One is a collection of educational tools and resources and the other is a digital collection of information about educational standards and assessment.

               

   

Susan Crowley

               

   

Technology Tools for Education

Technology Tools for Education

Great Site for Video Clips

I just found a great site for video clips to be used in multi media projects. It is keyword searchable and copyright friendly. I have written to the developers to make sure that as Fair Use  it can be used in school and to see  if clips can be posted on a wiki. Here is the URL. http://movieclips.com/browse/

Infographic

I just added Daily Infographic to my RSS feed. Each weekday the site  posts what they consider to be the best graphic representation of data found on the web. The AP English classes also added it to their blog and use it as a prompt for class discussions.  It provides a unique way for students to gather information and shows them how that information can be visualized in a creative way. It is a wonderful tool to inspire creative thinking. I think that it would compliment lessons that involve using Glogster. Students could find some great examples there.

Social Bookmarking with Diigo

This week I have been exploring some of the features of Diigo, a social bookmarking tool. Social bookmarking tools allow you to curate some of the information that you find on the Web and share it with others. I have been saving  websites on both Delicious and Diigo for a while now but I never had the time to explore all the other features that Diigo has to offer .Both resources allow you to save annotated  links to websites videos, and pictures. They also make it easy to organize and share what you have found. Although these are great features, I have discovered this week that Diigo is so much more than that.
Diigo is a personal research tool.  Not only can you save your favorite resources and share them with others, you can highlight , add sticky notes, write comments, and collaborate with others.
Teachers can register for Educator Accounts which allow them to register the members of their class and form groups. It is a perfect way to have students collaborate on projects. I have embedded a video below so you can see some of the basic features of Diigo. There are also many tutorials on the site.

Animoto

Last week I explored how to make videos using Animoto. With a few simple steps, Animoto produces multimedia videos that can be used in a variety of ways. All you have to do is download the pictures and video clips you want to include in the Animoto. Text slides can also be added. You can rearrange the pictures by clicking and dragging them wherever you want them. They also give you copyright free music to chose from. You can select a theme and Animoto analyzes the music, photos, and video clips and compiles them into a custom video. I had used Animoto before but I had never used video clips and I wanted to learn how to do that. It was just as easy as adding photographs. I was able to take the video and photographs with my cell phone.
Anyone can create a short video for free. The free  account has some limitations. The video is only 30 seconds long. Educators can also up for a free account for with unlimited videos. (Click on the Education link
 at the bottom of the page.
On the website there are examples to explore so you can get some ideas about how to use Animoto. There is a sample video that explains how to use functions in math. I created a virtual field trip of Gettysburg using pictures I took on a history trip a while ago. My students are creating book trailers of their favorite books. I even made a video of the wedding I went to just this weekend.

Here are links to a couple of the videos that I created.

http://animoto.com/play/1GnJ14EEYG0xSVZcYFH98Q
http://animoto.com/play/LpRQxqGP7X1a3saPuqO4Jw

Voicethread

This week I used Voicethread as a summarizer for a mini research project our students had done on the 1930's and John Steinbeck's novella, Of Mice and Men. I had experimented just a little with this powerful communication tool last semester but did not really use it in my classes. I went to a technology workshop a few months ago  One of the sessions was on Voicethread and I have wanted to explore some of the possible educational uses for it ever since but had not had the time. I thought that using this tool to have students reflect on their projects would be a great way to share what they learned. 

Voicethread is a web based application that allows you to have conversations about images, documents, or presentations that you download. Because it is web based , there is no need to download the application and students can easily access it anywhere anytime as long as they have an Internet connection. Once you download the object that you want to be the topic of conversation, students can participate  in a variety of ways. They can use a microphone, webcam, cellphone, or they can even type in text.  With an educator account, teachers can create classroom accounts. The creator of the account can also set permissions. It can be can be open and  anyone can read or post on the Voicethread or it can be closed to group members only. 

We used the Voicethread to reflect on our research assignment but the possibilities are endless. It could be used as activator to establish prior knowledge of a subject. It could be used to communicate and collaborate in almost any subject area. In the workshop that I went to, the teacher said that she had her students create accounts and used them to do a course reflection at the end of the year. There are many other possibilities as well. Lesson ideas can be found at http://VoiceThread.com/Library Just click on the browse tab.

Here is a link to the Voicethread that I started this Friday. Students should be adding reflections over the weekend. 

https://voicethread.com/share/2835248/ 

Getting Started

I played around with blogs last semester but this is my first serious attempt at exploring blogs and using them in my classroom. In my 21st Century Teaching and Learning course, we searched for some of the better educational blogs out there in the "Great World Wide Web". Here are a few of my own personal favorites.

Favorite Blogs

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/- This blog is an incredible resource for teachers. There was a great tutorial handbook for using all the free tools that Google has to offer. There is also a whole page on blogs. I found some video tutorials there on setting up a blog on Blogger. I wish that I had had that when trying to set up my blog and explaining how to add posts and comments to my students.

http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/neverendingsearch The Never Ending Search is a blog created by Joyce Valenza, a well known leader in  the library media  field. I liked the simplicity of her site. I has great resources and ideas for one to digest one small bite at a time. I think the blog is actually a newsletter for school library Journal.

http://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/ The Daring Librarian is a blog that I also found useful. She had a post about a QR code lesson that she did with elementary students. I was just introducing my students to QR codes this week. There was another interesting post about consolidating all the informat5ion stored on multiple flash drives.
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/    David Warlick’s blog offers reflective thoughts on education, technology, and pedagogy.