10 + 1 School Web Tools December 31, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Edubloggers, Link Collections, Tools.add a comment
Just in case you missed getting that present you had your heart set on this year, here is a consolation present in the form of a list of 10+1 web tools for use in school. Note taking, bibliography, and even specialized paper tools are available, including one on how to delay turning in an assignment by turning in a file that won’t open. I found this collection from Lucy Gray’s delicious links.
10+ Web Tools To Save Your Butt In School | MakeUseOf.com
Best of 2008 Collections December 22, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Edubloggers, Hardware, History, Link Collections.1 comment so far
This is the time of year for reflection and the ‘best of 2008′ posts are popping up all over. Here are a few worth checking out:
- The Best Posts Of 2008 | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… Larry Ferlazzo’s collections of classroom tools are always worth a visit.
- The Top Gadgets of 2008 Just in case you were looking for a new cool gadget, here is a ‘best of’ collection from Wired.
- CrunchGear’s Best of 2008 plus the People’s Choice Best of 2008 Gala Awards Ceremony, and People’s Choice awards. The readers have spoken!
- Most Influential Edublog Post 2008 The Edublog Awards This is the list of Edublogs posts nominated as most influential for 2008.
Edublogs 2008 Awards December 21, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Edubloggers, Link Collections.add a comment
Edublogs has posted their 2008 award winners. This is an outstanding group of blogs in this year’s collection, a great place to look for bloggers of note to follow. Be sure to check them out.
http://edublogawards.com/and-the-2008-winners-are/
Pageflakes as Public Aggregator June 15, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Edubloggers, Link Collections, Tools.add a comment
I’ve tried setting up a Pageflakes page as an aggregator for all of the edu-bloggers for the two sections of the class I’m teaching, and I have to say I like it a lot better than other tools I’ve used. It was very easy to set up, and the page looks nice too!
http://www.pageflakes.com/mwoolums
Destination Mars May 6, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Articles/Videos, Edubloggers.add a comment
Brian Crosby is taking his kids to Mars on Wednesday, May 7th, and if all goes well, you’ll be able to go along with them as he has plans to Ustream the event.
Here is the Ustream link: Marsopolis 2008 Reno, Nevada, Ustream.TV: 350 fourth grade through eighth grade students participating in. Education
Here is the Learning Is Messy blog post link: Learning Is Messy – Blog » Blog Archive » Marsopolis … Messy Learning … And I’ll Ustream It?
Happy Birthday Cool Cat Teacher – We Get the Presents! April 27, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Edubloggers, Link Collections.add a comment
Cool Cat Teacher is celebrating her 38th birthday, and we are the ones who get the presents! Vicki Davis has decided to post 38 great tools to celebrate her birthday, and the list looks like a terrific ‘best-of’ collection. The list is linked and annotated, so it would be a terrific list to pass along to anyone interested in getting started.
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2008/04/38-birthday-presents-from.html
Baby Steps for Beginners March 8, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Edubloggers, Link Collections.1 comment so far
Vicki Davis, the Cool Cat Teacher, has started a series of articles for web 2.0 beginners. In the first installment, she provides best practices resources by making very effective use of tagging in del.icio.us and encourages others to set up their own accounts. This is a terrific list of links. She also suggests listening to podcasts while working on other things. I actually got my own start this way, listening to Bud the Teacher, EdTechTalk, Bob Sprankle, and others. Vicki also recommends setting 3 goals for yourself for the coming week to help focus on next steps. This probably would have helped save me many months of just trying to soak it all in without knowing what to do about it. Great resources and I hope Vicki follows up with many more parts to this series.
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2008/03/baby-steps-for-beginners-part-1.html#links
Colorado Conversation: Roundtable With Barbara and Clarence February 23, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Conference Sessions, Edubloggers.add a comment
This conversation is run through http://www.mebeam.com/alpharoom.php?room=colearning
Barbara Barreda – K-8 principal from Los Angeles, CA.
Clarence Fisher – 7th and 8th grade teacher from Snowlake, Manitoba
B- our students have a limited view of the world. Working with C’s students has expanded their horizons.
C- B and I met over the Internet, through blogs, through Skype
C- we wanted ‘Thin Walls’ to go beyond an online project. A lot of it was experimental. We started off with VoiceThreads. We went from there to blogs. We did a novel study together. We’re learning to be facilitators, to get out of the way, to develop the tools as they are needed.
B- my students live below the porverty level, but in a private school, our parents make a lot of sacrifices. We work to get computers donated, we use open source solutions.
C- we’ve found that the open source and web based solutions lend themselves to collaboration better than the commercial tools.
C- we’ve worked on common rubrics, some common grading standards. It is difficult to assess (through existing standards) manners and collaboration. We’ve had to develop many of the tools ourselves.
B- some of our teachers have shifted to assessing skills.
B- we’re going to be working on that global understanding through the rest of the year.
Are you seeing a change in the writing skills of students who are collaborating online? C- they become writers of their own account. They learn the authentic voices of that are their own. They learn about voice and audience. We live in a world where experts are going away and everyone has an equal voice. B- we have a better idea of students’ thinking than we would in regular classroom interactions because we have the whole conversation. C- the ability to access and review the transcript provides a window we don’t have otherwise.
C- students are IM-ing each other, but we haven’t see much social networking. B- I have a MySpace account and haven’t seen much interaction on the part of the students.
B- we’re trying to show that these are learning spaces, not just games. C- active mornitoring on the part of the teacher helps students learn to be good digital citizens.
C- the Asus eeepc’s we got were flying off the shelves for sustained silent reading. To me reading is reading.
B- give them (teachers) permission to make mistakes and time to try new things. (I think this applies to students too!)
