Today's Interesting Links

Links for 2009-03-30 [del.icio.us] 2009 Horizon Report K-12 The Horizon Report series is the product of the New Media Consortium's Horizon Project, an ongoing research project that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, research, or creative expression within education around the globe. Nine great reasons why teachers should use Twitter | Laura Walker What's the point of Twitter? Why should educators get involved? What difference does using Twitter make? Here are some answers that you might like to share.

Links for 2009-03-29 [del.icio.us] On The Media: Transcript of "The Witnesses That Didn't" (March 27, 2009) Forty-five years ago, Kitty Genovese was murdered in Queens and, as the story goes, 38 witnesses watched the assault for half an hour but no one intervened. Historian Joseph De May says the truth is a bit more complicated. ahsthisibelieve » home The Arapahoe High School's This I Believe Goes Global Project If you're a teacher that would like one or more of their classes to participate in this project, please Email Karl with your name, school name, location, grade level(s)/ages, how many classes, and time frame that you'd like to work on this project. Karl will then try to match you with another class, create a wiki page for the two classes, and send you that information. Take Part in the National Day on Writing Writing is a daily practice for millions of Americans. But few notice how integral writing has become to daily life in the 21st century. To draw attention to the remarkable variety of writing we engage in and help make writers from all walks of life aware of their craft, NCTE is working to establish October 20, 2009, as the National Day on Writing.

Today's Interesting Links

Links for 2009-03-27 [del.icio.us] Google Voice Just saw this on TED Talk podcast - sync all your phone numbers so that when a person calls you, it rings all your phones. Previously called Grand Central, Google bought this service and is offering it (soon) as Google Voice. VoiceThread-Educator's Guide A friendly introduction to using VoiceThread written by an educator with educators in mind. This guide will introduce you to the basic VoiceThread interface and take you through the simple steps involved with creating VoiceThread. cristama's interwriteboard Bookmarks on Delicious A wonderful set of links for using interactive whiteboards. Sunday Forum: In defense of the classics Recently, a fellow English teacher, Nancy Schnog of The McLean School in suburban Washington, D.C., published a Washington Post op-ed wherein she argues, "All too often, it's English teachers ... who close down teen interest in reading." Ms. Schnog marshals battalions of evidence: student after devastated student whose wholesome love of reading was defiled by some out-of-touch English schoolmarm bent on analyzing "The Scarlet Letter" word for polysyllabic word. Drop Classics; Replace w/High Interest? - English Companion we were discussing whether students should still be forced to read classics (like, say Frankenstein, so not THAT old)... Some have stated that students won't read them so we shouldn't bother. My concern is that education is not entertainment and that I feel students can discover the relevance of older novels and how humankind and the world change in some ways, but remain constant in so many others. Videos - Ning Network Creators How-to screencasts for new Ning users.

Today's Interesting Links

Links for 2009-03-26 [del.icio.us] Joan Ganz Cooney Center - Advancing Children's Learning in a Digital Age The Joan Ganz Cooney Center will focus new attention on the challenges children face today, asking the 21st century equivalent of her original question, "How can emerging media help children learn?"

Today's Interesting Links

Links for 2009-03-25 [del.icio.us] Please Share Your Contact Details If You’re Interested In Connecting With Other Classrooms | The Edublogger So how do you find classrooms to communicate with in other countries? Hadn't thought of that when I wrote the Quick Start Tips For New Skype Users post but fortunately Mike and David Ashby did. Using skype in the classroom « On an e-journey with generation Y My students argue that videoconferencing with another class in, another country, is the best and most powerful experience for them. They beg for more and more. It is now 12 months since our first experiments with skyping students in Korea. Free webpage authoring options | ISTE’s NECC09 Blog Webpage authoring software programs have come a long way since the mid-1990s when the World-Wide Web was starting to take off, just as web standards have evolved by leaps and bounds. While more advanced (and expensive) WYSIWYG ("What You See Is What You Get") webpage authoring programs are available, several free and cross-platform programs remain available which can be utilized in school courses for students studying the basics of webpage design. Teacher Professional Development Sourcebook: Reinventing Professional Development in Tough Times Instead of hiring presenters to come to their schools, they downloaded free archived video presentations from the Web site of the K-12 Online Conference, an annual grassroots gathering of instructional technology aficionados. Then they featured the videos as part of a special series of staff development sessions for teachers on technology topics. Members of the district's tech team and Web-savvy teacher leaders facilitated the sessions, leading discussions on the presentations and addressing teachers' practical concerns. In some cases, they even conducted live follow-up interviews with the original presenters via Skype, the free Internet phone service. TakingITGlobal - For Educators / TIGed TIGed provides rich, interactive learning experiences designed to improve students' global citizenship, critical thinking, and leadership skills, bringing the world to students and preparing students for the world! open thinking » What is a PLN? Or, PLE vs. PLN? I thought it was appropriate to ask the question to my PLN (or what I perceive as my PLN) via Twitter. I asked if anyone had a definition for a PLN, or if they knew the difference between a personal learning network and personal learning environment (PLE). I received varied responses, and the majority of these are pasted below. Home | Sprout Builder - Create living content. Sprout is the quick and easy way for anyone to build, publish, and manage widgets, mini-sites, mashups, banners and more. Any size, any number of pages. Include video, audio, images and newsfeeds and choose from dozens of pre-built components and web services.

Tweet Me!

This past February, the Pew Internet and American Life Project put out a report on Twitter users.

"For many Twitter users, learning about and sharing relevant and recent nuggets of information is a primary utility of the service. While Twitter users are just as likely as others to consume news on any given day, they are more likely to consume it on mobile devices and less likely to engage with news via more traditional outlets."

So Twitter’s simple explanation of its service as posting “answers to one simple question: 'What are you doing?'” is an oversimplification. Twitter is being used for more than posting a simple status update.

Instead, Twitter has become a way for many to build and connect to their Personal Learning Network (PLN). Edublogger, writer, and presenter David Warlick has spent a great deal of time reflecting on this phenomenon. Warlick writes,

"…new techniques for organizing digital networked information have enabled us to fashion new kinds of networks that extend far beyond our immediate location and face-to-face connections, and to grow our networks based not on explicit decisions, but through the ideas of other nodes (people and resources), whose ideas intersect with ours."

Twitter has not only expanded where and how we find resources, but who we go to for that information and when we can do it. As the Pew study indicates, Twitter is being used to find and share information anywhere and everywhere. Whether we are in the classroom and want to connect our students with those from around the world, or standing in line at the coffee shop wondering how to define a PLN, Twitter is helping teachers forge connections and collaborate with those in our field. And in most cases, it is instantaneous. Take a look at the response Dr. Couros received when he posted a tweet about Personal Learning Networks (PLNs). If I need feedback on a lesson, I can tweet a link and have feedback from all over the world within just a few minutes. Which is why every teacher should be twittering!

For those educators new to Twitter, I’ve posted some links below. You’ll also find this information on the WardsWorld wiki.

WHAT IS TWITTER?
Check out this explanation of Twitter in Plain English, or learn about Twitter from one of its creators, Evan Williams. Blogger Rafe Needleman also writes about Twitter in his article on CNet titled "Newbie's Guide to Twitter." In the article, Needleman outlines some of the basics of the Twitter service:

• Twitter is an online service designed to connect you with a group of friends called “followers” through short (140 character limit) messages.


• You select the friends you want to follow.


• You set your privacy limit for how much others are able to see.


• Twitter is a way to connect with others, whether they are people you know or people who share a similar interest with you that you meet through the service.


• Needleman writes, “Twitter is useful for close-knit groups. If you follow your friends, and they follow each other, you can quickly communicate group-related items, such as ‘I'm going to the pub on Fourth Street, come on along.’ …If you enter items into Twitter, they can be private, so only friends you've authorized can see them. Items can also be made public, which means anyone who knows your Twitter ID can read and subscribe to them.”


• And the best part? Twitter is free.

SETTING UP AN ACCOUNT:

• Check out this quick tutorial on setting up your Twitter account


• Or, use this handout developed by Darren Rowse at www.twitip.com/tag/twitter-for-beginners


• Another good resource is the EduCause article titled “7 Things You Should Know About Twitter


• Liz Davis, a technology blogger and educator, offers these words of advice to teachers using Twitter

HOW TO FOLLOW OTHER EDUCATORS:
Check out this fabulous article titled “Seven Ways to Find Teachers on Twitter.” The article links to some great resources, including

• Twitter 4 Teachers PB Wiki was started by ed tech specialist Gina Hartman.


• Educators on Twitter is a Google Docs Spreadsheet started by edublogger Liz B. Davis


• Twitter for Teachers is a wiki started by Rodd Lucier with the purpose of educating teachers about the use of Twitter as an educational tool and as a professional development tool


• Jane Hart, founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, has compiled a list of nearly 800 educators on Twitter


• The Twitter search located at the bottom of the Twitter page


• Check out this wonderful resource on how to build your online learning using Twitter: "Using the Power of Twitter: Building Online Learning"

EDUCATORS TO FOLLOW:

• Follow me! Jennifer Ward


• Kristin Hokanson is the PAECT Regional Director, Keystone Technology Integrator, Discovery Educator, and Classrooms for the Future Coach with a wealth of resources posted on her wiki page


• MisterLamb is a math teacher and CFF Coach with wonderful ideas for using cell phones in the classroom


• Dianne Krause is an Instructional Technology Specialist who sends out tweets with all sorts of great links for teachers


• Chris Lehmann is the principal of Philadelphia’s Science Leadership Academy and host of the EduCon conferences
• Will Richardson wrote a really great book titled Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms based on some of his blog posts on Weblogg-ed. Follow him at willrich45


• Robert Hughes in Massachusetts puts together the Twitter page called The Teacher Page which sends out messages containing all sorts of links to lesson plans


• Have you seen Shift Happens? Well, Karl Fisch put it together


• With the help of Scott McLeod, a wonderful edublogger at Dangerously Irrelevant


• Have you ever been on the Web English Teacher website? Carla Beard puts it together


• David Warlick is a guru when it comes to education and technology. Check out his book Redefining Literacy 2.0


• Vicki Davis is the Cool Cat Teacher


• Silvia Tolisano is langwitches and also writes the blog by the same name


• Liz Davis sends out great tweets with all sorts of great links


• Mr. Mayo is a middle school English teacher who has used Twitter with students

EDUCATIONAL USES FOR TWITTER:

• The blog AcademHacK has a wonderful list of potential uses in the classroom.


• I’m collecting all sorts of ideas for using Twitter in schools. Follow my list of links on Delicious - http://www.delicious.com/msward/twitter


• Ron Jones put together a great list of uses in his article “Using Twitter as an Educational Tool.” He mentions educators who have used Twitter to create notes for a conference or even a specific class using hashtags, teach grammar, and even write collaborative stories.


• “George Mayo, an eighth grade English teacher at Silver Spring International Middle School in Montgomery County, Maryland, recently used Twitter as a tool to collaboratively write a story by his students. Mayo invited his students and students around the world via his Many Voices Twitter account to add to an ongoing story with individual ‘tweets.’ After six weeks and the help of more than 100 students and six different countries, the story was finished… Afterward he made the book available for his students to download for free.”

Today's Interesting Links

Links for 24 March 2009 [del.icio.us]

• thenetworkedlearner » home
  The mission of our organization is to transform education by developing in teachers the desire to become life-long learner, collaborators and inspirational motivators of each other and our students. We believe this can be accomplished through fostering creativity and allowing our students to explore their own passions through the use of technology and the development of personal learning networks. Come and join our community. This wiki is a complementory space where community members can post projects, lectures, online resources and other materials to share with the community. We also offer educational courses that help both teachers and students integrate technology into their life.
• Re-Balzacification — The Phoenix of the Sky
  A wonderful Hypertextopia project for Dai Sijie's Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. By clicking on "The Grand Library," there are many more connections to Dai Sijie's work.

Links for 23 March 2009 [del.icio.us]

• Techy Tips for not so techy teachers - Google Docs
  A collaboration of ideas for quick and simple ways to use technology in the classroom - ANY classroom!
• Four Web 2.0 Collaborative-Writing Tools | 21st Century Connections
  Collaborative writing is useful for projects, for peer-editing, and for many other writing tasks limited only by teacher/student imagination. Teachers can use web-based collaborative writing tools to provide feedback on student assignments, to make suggestions and comments on projects and to highlight required changes to a member of the project.
• MyStickies, Sticky Notes for the Web
  To put it simply, MyStickies allows you to place little yellow squares of digital paper anywhere and everywhere you feel like in the whole wide web. Along with the ability to put sticky notes on webpages mystickies offers a powerful interface to browse, search, sort, edit and generally have a wonderfull time with your sticky notes from any computer that has internet access.

Links for 20 March 2009 [del.icio.us]

• eThemes | eMINTS
  eThemes is an extensive database of content-rich, age-appropriate resources organized around specific themes. These resources are created for educators to use in their classrooms.
• Skype in Schools / FrontPage
  Want to establish global connectivity in education, but don't know where to start? *Directory - list yourself, your class, or your school alphabetically by state. *Other Directories - a collection of other guest speaker directories, skype directories, and collaborative learning directories *Experiences - share how you have used Skype with your students. *Skype & Extras - augment Skype functionality with plugins. *Supporting Research - take a moment and discuss research that you've come across in support of Skype in education. Please feel free to share research that is attempting to discredit the use of Skype in education. *Want Ads - have a project your class is working on and need some outside support via Skype? Post an advertisement for a class or school interested in a particular Skype session.
• Using the Power of Twitter: Building Online Learning « Thumann Resources
  How can educators around the world use technology to connect, collaborate, teach, support and inspire each other? Collaborative Internet applications allow educators to create online communities that support their professional learning and relieve their isolation.

Today's Interesting Links

Links for 2009-03-19 [del.icio.us] Posted: 20 Mar 2009 12:00 AM PDT Top 100 Edu Tweeters | Online Degree World Twitter is a growing tool for personal, business, and educational conversations. Not surprisingly, many schools, educators, and other educational entities have jumped on the bandwagon, and they have lots to share. Check out this list to find some of the best educational sources on Twitter today. From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones in Learning: Cell Phone Conferencing A Free Tool for Teaching! Cell phones can be a handy conferencing tool for teaching and learning. Part of teaching is being able to conference with students, parents, experts, and members of the community. Often conferences and meetings are conducted face-to-face. Recently with the rise of web conferencing tools some schools are starting to take advantage of these internet-based tools for virtual conferencing and even professional development. However if students, teachers at home, parents, or other community members do not have access to the Internet, they are unable to participate in these web conferences. BUT...They can if they have a cell phone (any cell phone will do).

Today's Interesting Links

Links for 2009-03-13 [del.icio.us] Posted: 14 Mar 2009 12:00 AM PDT lizbdavis shared http://educationaltechnology.ca/couros/1425 Edublogger Liz Davis was recently interviewed by Sheila Coles of the Morning Edition about Twitter. She talks about some of the implications of Twitter for teaching, learning, and privacy. Wired Campus: A Professor's Tips for Using Twitter in the Classroom - Chronicle.com January 28, 2008 - Chronicle of Higher Education A Professor's Tips for Using Twitter in the Classroom Using Twitter as an Education Tool - Search Engine Watch (SEW) Using Twitter as an Education Tool By Ron Jones, Search Engine Watch, Sep 25, 2008 Web 2.0 Teaching Tools: Twitter Tweets for Higher Education A list of great resources and ideas for using Twitter in the classroom academhack » Blog Archive » Twitter for Academia I thought I would explain how I use it, specifically for academic related uses, and teaching.

Links for 2009-03-12 [del.icio.us] Posted: 13 Mar 2009 12:00 AM PDT peer2peersharing » Web 2.0 Sites to Make your Projects Come Alive several sites and resources with which you can create elements to put into your website or digital portfolio.

Today's Interesting Links

Links for 2009-03-11 [del.icio.us] (03/12/2009 12:00)

• Classroom 2.0 LIVE
  Classroom 2.0 is a wonderful resource, but this tag site is specifically for their upcoming Moodle Live training. Haven't used a moodle before? Check it out!
• Atomic Learning's eBook on How to Flatten Your Classroom - Movies
  Seven Steps to Flatten Your Classroom is a new e-book by edublogger Vicki Davis. Download it here for free. And while you are at it, check out the Atomic Learning site. It is chuck full of great lesson plan ideas.
• Royalty Free Music, Free Sound Effects, Free Royalty Free Music Loops
  Looking for royalty free audio files to use with your Photo Story or Movie Maker project? You'll find hundreds of files here.
• Dangerously Irrelevant: Slide - Banning students' computers
  Dr. Scott McLeod posted this slide on the banning of cell phones in school. Where do you fall on this debate? Check out the comments that follow the image to read how other educators feel about cell phones in school.
• Langwitches » Don’t Believe Everything You See Online
  Why is our first impulse to believe something that we see, read or hear? Especially if it is in print, online or comes in an “officially” looking packaging? How do we teach ourselves and our students, that another impulse has to follow the first one immediately: Evaluate…critical thinking… learn to listen for and to your own “gut feeling”… cross referencing… Information literacy is an important part of being literate. Being able to know how to read and write alone, just doesn’t “cut it anymore”.
• Prezi - The zooming presentation editor
  With the help of Prezi you can create maps of texts, images, videos, PDFs, drawings and present in a nonlinear way. Move beyond the slide, it only takes 5 minutes to learn how to use Prezi.
• Content Partners - Free lesson plans, homework help and professional development for teachers, students and parents | Verizon Thinkfinity
  Thinkfinity Content Partners produce nine discipline-specific, standards-based web sites that include lessons for teachers, activities to use in and out of the classroom, games for young children and teen, adult literacy resources and reference materials for anyone in the education field, as well as for parents and after-school practitioners.
• Web English Teacher
  Web English Teacher presents the best of K-12 English / Language Arts teaching resources: lesson plans, WebQuests, videos, biography, e-texts, criticism, jokes, puzzles, and classroom activities.
• English Companion - Where English teachers meet to help each other
  If you're an English teacher, I hope you have heard of Jim Burke. His website (http://www.englishcompanion.com) and books are wonderful resources for English teachers. This ning site is a wonderful extension of his work and a place to engage with other English teachers.
• PLP Visioning Boot Camp for Leaders : Powerful Learning Practice, LLC
  Join Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Will Richardson this summer for PLP’s “Visioning Boot Camp for Educational Leaders,” an intensive, small-group, three-day workshop for school leaders who want to understand how 21st Century technologies are challenging curriculum and pedagogy and providing economical new ways for learning.
• creative writing prompts . com ideas for writers
  Use the creative writing prompts and creative writing ideas to create stories, poems and other creative pieces from your imagination. The writing prompts can even help you come up with creative content for blogs and blog stories.

Today's Interesting Links

Links for 2009-03-07 [del.icio.us] Posted: 08 Mar 2009 12:00 AM PST Best of History Web Sites A wonderful resource for history teachers with links and materials from just about every period of time. Links to Tens of Thousands of Legal Music Downloads Looking for royalty free music to use with your Window Movie Maker or Photo Story projects? Well, look no further! Copyright in the K-12 Classroom An excellent resource on educational copyright laws. A must see for teachers. Best Online Interactive Museum Exhibits for Students | Making Teachers Nerdy A wonderful resource for all teachers, but social studies teachers in particular might find this list of online museum exhibits particularly useful. Connecting Peers, Perspectives, and Pedagogy Online C3PO stands for Connecting Peers, Perspectives, and Pedagogy Online. This website is designed to give educators the resources they need to connect with other classrooms from around the world in order to collaborate and learn in an authentic 21st century environment. There are a number of high school English teachers looking to make connections. English teachers - this is a must see! Social Networks in Education » home Looking to connect with other teacher? This is a wonderful list of teacher social networking opportunities. ed4wb » Blog Archive » 30 Discussion Starter Videos Looking for videos to start conversations in your class, especially around ideas of 21st century learning? Check out this list of 30 Discussion Starter Videos by Bill Farren at ed4wb.org.

Today's Interesting Links

Links for 2009-03-06 [del.icio.us] Posted: 07 Mar 2009 12:00 AM PST Interactives Put together by Annenberg, this portion of Learner.org offers wonderful interactive lesson plans by content area. A great resource! Free Technology for Teachers: Seven Ways to Find Teachers on Twitter Wonderful resource for finding fellow edubloggers.

Links for 2009-03-05 [del.icio.us] Posted: 06 Mar 2009 12:00 AM PST From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones in Learning An interesting blog about using cell phones in schools. jason ohler : Home A great resource for digital storytelling. Incompetech Royalty free music sites Freeplay Music, Broadcast Production Music Library, Free and Mp3 Music Downloads, See Usage Terms. Royalty free music source