Glowing with Glogs!

Glogster is a super cool website that allows you do create posters in the cyber-world. This tool isn't only tons of fun - it also allows for tons of creativity. Have your students create a glogster page about themselves as an introductory activity or about any important figure and/or character you learn about throughout the school year.

Comics are Cool

Comics are cool again with Toon Doo! Have students create comics for all sorts of purposes! Have a laugh with characters solving math problems, a comic strip surrounding the Bill of Rights, the plot to a story, analyzing problems and so much more! The possiblities are endless, and students will claim that they are actually enjoying themselves while producing work for your class! Yay!

Text-to-Movie

Xtranormal is an awesome Web 2.0 tool that is Xtracool! With this neat application students can turn any text into an animated video. Want the students to tell a story? Why not do it visually with animation, sound, and various features! I am having my students retell short stories with this tool - Kate Chopin's stories will be viewed in a whole other way! The best thing about this Web 2.0 tool is that it is VERY easy to use. I learned how to manage it within minutes. Try it out - you can't help but have fun!

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Here is an awesome website with a list of some amazing resources. This is the place to go to learn about integrating great Web 2.0 tools into your curriculum.

Don't be afraid - go out there and learn as much as you can. Our students are yearning for these tools! Enrich your curriculum with Web 2.0 tools! Click on "Web 2.0 for the Classroom" and it will direct you to the wonderful website created by fellow educator, Sue Somerford.

PODCASTS: Personal on Demand

PODCASTS - What a great idea!
Watch the video below to learn what a podcast is and how one uses a podcast.

How did I use podcast as an educator?

At the beginning of the year I was on maternity leave and podcasts were an amazing tool to utilize during my leave. I was able to create lessons, post them on my podcast website, and leave it to my long term substitute teacher to simply press play or direct my students to my website.

I have also used podcasts to create "radio shows" with my students. My eleventh grade English classes created stories and then recorded them using the free downloadable program called "Audacity" and then we uploaded those stories to my podcast website. The stories were available for all to hear and I was able to create lessons based off their own stories - and the best part they didn't have to be in class to hear them! They could simply go to my website and download them onto their mp3 players. The possibilities are endless - what's your ideas?

Wiki, Wiki, Wha?

What's a wiki?
Wikis are collaborative websites that encourage others to collaborate and work with others in a community like atmosphere. One great factor about a wiki is its ease in which pages can be updated and changed by the general public. Wikis are used for personal use, business use, or school use. I feel that if you do not have a class website then a wiki is a good place to start. You could have direct communication with your students, have the ability to upload documents, and be accessible to your students and parents at any time. Wikis are growing in popularity and should be considered an ideal tool to use within the classroom.

To learn more about wikis watch the video created by Common Craft called "Wikis in Plain English". I have also linked this sentence to navigate to my wiki called "English Carn" that was created with the free program Wikispaces. There isn't much on the site, but maybe it will give you ideas about how to create one for your classroom.

Tech Humor

Our students aren't dumb they just aren't engaged. Let's "hook" our students with technology.

Open Source Software and ePortfolios

To view my teaching ePortfolio simply click on the picture

Open Source Software is increasing its popularity with the onset of electronic portfolios. For both students and business professionals an electronic portfolio can prove quite useful and popular when trying to stand out above the crowd in an demanding workforce. There are numerous ways to create portfolios, but by having a website that contains all of your information you save time and the frustration of keeping all of it together. You simply hand your future employer a card with your website on it. The appearance of organization is apparent and your use of technology skills shine. Try it out for yourself or create portfolios with your students!

Through eTech Ohio my school had the wonderful opportunity of trying out an Open Source portfolio powered by Sakai. My English department decided to utilize this software as Career Portfolios for our students to create. However, the possibilities are endless. You could very easily utilize this software to create a showcase of student work, create a place to showcase what's going on in your classroom, or use it to simply compile documents for any reason.

Open Source Software...A Little Info

Introduction

Open source doesn't just mean access to the source code.

The distribution terms of open-source software must comply with the following criteria:

1. Free Redistribution

The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.

2. Source Code

The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form. Where some form of a product is not distributed with source code, there must be a well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no more than a reasonable reproduction cost preferably, downloading via the Internet without charge. The source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate forms such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed.

3. Derived Works

The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.

4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code

The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of "patch files" with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code. The license may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software.

5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups

The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.

6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor

The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.

7. Distribution of License

The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.

8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product

The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program's being part of a particular software distribution. If the program is extracted from that distribution and used or distributed within the terms of the program's license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution.

9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software

The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software. For example, the license must not insist that all other programs distributed on the same medium must be open-source software.

10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral

No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of interface.

– Open Source Initiative, http://opensource.org/docs/osd

What's Up Google Doc?

I have found Google Docs to be a great collaboration tool! You have a centralized location in which you can upload documents and/or presentations and have others go in and be able to work with you and edit all in one area. No more annoying email attachments, multiple files being saved, and wasted time. Google Docs gives you the opportunity to truly work together within a group all the while being efficient.

How can I use it in my classroom?
There are numerous ways to utilize this tool within your lessons. You could post online quizzes, have a project that the entire class works on together, create groups that can create presentations together without hassle, students could write group stories, or edit one another's essays without wasting paper on multiple copies.

To find out more on this neat Web 2.0 tool visit YouTube and view: Google Docs in Plain English.

"Blog, Blog, Blog"

You may be hearing this term quite a bit these days. Well, there is good reason for it! As you know, you are on a blog right now. Blogs are a great way to express your ideas and/or opinions on any topic you may so desire. It's kind of like online journaling. So, why not use it in the classroom? The following is one way I utilized blogs in the classroom, but note there are many more ways than just this lesson - be creative!

My 12th grade language arts students read the book, A Child Called It, by David Pelzer. As they read, they were required to keep a blog as if they were a character in the book. For each chapter that they read they needed to write a detailed blog explaining what was happening in their (the character's) life at that moment. They were then required to go out to others blogs and respond to their blogs as well. My students thoroughly enjoyed this assignment and I will definitely do it again. If you would like more information on the assignment please go to my class website and click on the "A Child Called It" folder.

What could you do with blogging?
To learn more on blogging visit the Common Craft website and view their video: "Blogs in Plain English".

Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers

Tools for Teachers
BLOGS
WIKIS
PODCASTS
VODCASTS
RSS FEEDS
iGOOGLE
GOOGLE DOCS
GOOGLE MAPS
GPS
GEOCACHING
TAGS
FLICKR
TWITTER
SOCIAL NETWORKING
OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE
AND MANY, MANY MORE!

Web 2.0 - What the heck is that?

The term "Web 2.0" describes the changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aim to enhance creativity, communications, secure information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web.
Tim O'Reilly coined this term in 2004 and claims that "Web 2.0 encapsulates the idea of the proliferation of innerconnectivity and inneractivity of web-delivered content.”

"Rich" Curriculum

How "rich" is your curriculum? Our students are coming to us fully engulfed in a technologically enhanced world. Whether they are listening to podcasts, writing on their blogs, uploading videos on You Tube, or surfing various social networking websites they are always "on-line" in some way. So why are we not utilizing this technological connection within our classrooms? Let's use technology to our advantage and "hook" our students with technologically integrated lessons. Our students are asking for it; let's give it to them!