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TIE 2009 – Create, Communicate, Collaborate – Howie DiBlasi June 25, 2009

Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Conference Sessions, Link Collections, Safety, Tools.
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http://www.drhowie.com

Started with Green Eggs and Ham. More statistics about jobs moving from the US to overseas, from Friedman’s “The World is Flat”. Also mentioned Pink’s “A Whole New Mind” and Jim Collins “Good to Great” – get the right people on the bus, get them in the right seats, get the wrong people off the bus. Howie says we also need to get a driver. Short video about people who failed before achieving greatness (lincoln, etc). Can we still reward kids for doing anything rather than allowing them to fail? If you want change, be the change.

Will change happen if we don’t change our classrooms? Short video “Is this what the future in the US looks like” from ScreamingFrog. Skills for success:

These skills are all analytical. Video: “We are sinking”. Overview of outline in distributed documents. Interesting, Howie is talking about using Google Docs, but distributed files as an outline. We used a blog as a form of assessment – collecting comments as an assessment. http://mytooltest.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-do-you-assess-you-students-teachers.html
Web site evaluations - http://www.wiredsafety.org/wiredlearning/Evaluation/evalcriteria/index.htm#slide=1 It is important to foster critical thinking on the part of the web surfers in our classroom.
Web 2.0 100 tools for teachers – http://snurl.com/web2tools (slow loading). AltaVista use of host: (limit the results by domain) and link: (who links to that link) as tools to validate web sites.
Short demo of Jing – screencasting. Scratch – simple programming environment. Audacity – podcasting (This I believe example). What are my beliefs?
  • Everyone is not the same
  • Conflict isn’t always negative
  • Learning is individual to each person
  • Naps are important
  • We all deserve the opportunity to share our stories
  • Failure is a powerful teacher
Don’t be afraid of the technology, give it to the kids.
Podcasting in Plain English. Leads into a curriculum review with Bob Sprankle podcasts as an example. http://www.eduhound.com and http://www.curriki.org. Freeplay Music and others for sources of music to include in presentations. Curriculum links exploration. Google Docs presentation adding examples of ’six words that describe me’. My six words? “relax, reflect, don’t let other restrict you”. Other tools shown: Wordle, VoiceThread. Howie has an interesting style where he brings up a ‘newbie’ to demo the tool and the ‘experts’ in the audience provide support in using the tool. VoiceThread only lets you have 3 free threads. Brain is getting full.
Online tools, 280 Slides, PhotoShow, One True Media, Moblyng, Animoto, Rock You, My Jugaad, PhotoPeach. Look for the Educator (sometimes free) options in many of these tools! ePals. We would have to find a way for ePals and Gaggle.net to work with each other. Anyone using both? Contributions to your community. Johnny Lee, Wiimote interactive whiteboard, video from TED Conference. Ask high school electronics classes to make these for every classroom. Contribute back.
Stay connected (communicate) with Twitter (Texas teacher Twitter Experiment). Creates a back-channel. Increases number of participants in any conversation.
Dreaming. Building planes in the Air video from EDS.
Reflection: There was a lot to digest if you didn’t know about any of this. It would be nice to see the document posted in an online version instead of distributed as a file. Where would teachers start? Is there one best practice to implement?

Keeping Up With the Joneses April 8, 2009

Posted by Matthew Woolums in Link Collections, Tools.
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From time to time I’m asked how I know so much. I really don’t think I do, and most of what I know comes from somewhere else. So where does what-I-know come from? Below are some of my current favorites in no particular order:

Here are a couple of others from outside the realm of education:
What are your favorite sources of what-you-know?

Indispensable Tools March 19, 2009

Posted by Matthew Woolums in Link Collections, Tools.
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Looking for a collection of great online and downloadable tools for use in the classroom? Drew Buddie has compiled a pretty impressive list on a PB Wiki. If nothing else, you could use this list to see just how ‘up to date’ you are. See how many you know about or are using.

indispensibletools / FrontPage

Another Bookmarking Tool January 17, 2009

Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Link Collections, Tools.
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TechCrunch has a brief (elevator pitch) post about a new social bookmarking tool called Sqworl that collects many bookmarks into a single link. It is very simple to use. Just create a sqworl, add links to sites along with descriptions, and you get a public link that you can share. Here is an example I made with links to other social bookmarking sites. sqworl | bookmarks

Elevator Pitch Friday: Sqworl (One Link To Rule Them All)

Cool Web 2.0 For Beginners January 10, 2009

Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Link Collections.
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Vicki Davis, the Cool Cat Teacher, has published a nice introduction article on Web 2.0. If you are just getting started yourself, or if you know someone who is ready to get started, it is an excellent beginners guide. Resources are linked, and the article includes assignments that provide a helpful focus.

Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Basics for Beginners: What is Web 2.0?

Creative Commons for the Educator January 4, 2009

Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Fair Use, Link Collections, Tools.
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Very nice collection of Creative Commons resources for use in the classroom on the Drape’s Takes blog. There are 4 short parts: understanding the rules, resources for using CC in your curriculum, encouraging remixing, and teaching students about CC. By way of a tweet from Angela Maiers. Twitter / Angela Maiers: Great post on creative com …

Drape’s Takes: The Educator’s Guide to the Creative Commons

10 + 1 School Web Tools December 31, 2008

Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Edubloggers, Link Collections, Tools.
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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.
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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: