Just a few interactive teaching tools that are out there.
Great Web 2.0 tools include a very user friendly format for making arcade games with your questions and answers.
http://web20teach.blogspot.com/
Pull this site up on your smartboard and you have a countdown timer!
http://e.ggtimer.com/
Downloadable PowerPoints for the following games
math jeopardy 3rd grade.ppt Millionaire.ppt Squares.ppt Password.ppt wheel of fortune.ppt Survivor PPT Template.ppt weakest Link.ppt
Zoomerang allows you to create an online survey with up to 20 questions and 100 responses for free.
Try them out. I know I love the ones I am using.
P. S. Let’s not forget Pete’s PowerPoint Stations with MANY PowerPoint templates.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Virtual Classroom
Sorry I have been gone for a while. I went to Greece and Turkey on vacation. It was an amazing trip. It gave me an entirely new perspective. I highly recommend it. I really didn't deal with the technical side of life. But I am back.
So, lets talk about virtual learning space. Moodle provides a free virtual classroom space. There are over 678,000 registered users all over the world. Have you ever used Moodle? I have used Blackboard and it is very understandable and usable. Moddle is free. I was wondering if anyone out there sees a need or desire for a personal learning space or is it only of value for long distance learning. Would you be more likely to use a virtual learning space, a blog or a wiki?
So, lets talk about virtual learning space. Moodle provides a free virtual classroom space. There are over 678,000 registered users all over the world. Have you ever used Moodle? I have used Blackboard and it is very understandable and usable. Moddle is free. I was wondering if anyone out there sees a need or desire for a personal learning space or is it only of value for long distance learning. Would you be more likely to use a virtual learning space, a blog or a wiki?
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Resources for Teachers
There are MANY resources for educators online. A lot of them are very good. There are many communities for teacher and sources to share information as well as collaborate on projects with classrooms all over the world. Some of the ones that have bubbled to the surface are:
Microsoft has The Innovative Teachers program http://co1piltwb.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/mcoeredir/mcoeredirect.aspx?linkId=11667889&s1=13c05137-b00a-947c-66fb-84d219980c5c
IEarn has projects with other teachers around the globe. I copied a list of some of the projects below;
SEEKING PARTNERS: iEARN PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES
1. iEARN team in Sierra Leone invites participation in Helping Youth Say No to Gun Violence Project.
2. Read and contribute to Kindred, a global family history project.
3. Join schools in Morocco, Oman, Palestine and the USA in the Electronic School Magazine Project.
4. New Connecting Math to Our Lives through Photography activities.
5. Join classes in Qatar and USA creating Solar Cookers.
6. Hello iEARN food lovers - class in Moldova seeking partners for group of adult students - ages 20 years old.
7. Participate in the PEARL Online Journalism Festival.
8. iEARN schools around the world fly kites for peace.
RESOURCES, CONTESTS, WEBSITES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
9. iEARN signs MOU with Elluminate, Inc.
10. iEARN school in USA wins Goldman Sachs Award.
11. English language teacher resource features iEARN classes in Egypt and Thailand.
12. Enter the 2009 SIGtel Online Learning Award Competition.
13. Participate in Xperimania for a chance to win resources for your science classrooms.
14. Call for entries: 2009 My Hero Short Film Festival.
15. Early Childhood Education Online Tools.
UPCOMING EVENTS
16. Annual YouthCaN Conference in NYC, USA, April 4-6, 2009.
17. iEARN-India National Conference in Pune, May 2-4, 2009.
18 iEARN-Morocco (MEARN) to host 16th Annual iEARN Conference and 13th Youth Summit, July 19-25, 2009.
19. World Children's Summit in Yokohama, Japan, August 10-12, 2009.
MIT has a program to teach about computer programming called Scratch. It is very user friendly and fun to work with. It allows for as much or as little creativity as one brings to it. It is a free download which means at school the IT department needs to install it. http://scratch.mit.edu/
Thinkfinity offers lesson plans interactives and more.
http://thinkfinity.org/
Thinkquest.org Think.com is now part of ThinkQuest -- A learning platform where teachers and students create learning projects, participate in a website competition, and browse a library of student projects.
There are tons out there and each has it’s own twist. I don’t want to overwhelm but there are a few to look at. Enjoy and let me know what you think.
Microsoft has The Innovative Teachers program http://co1piltwb.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/mcoeredir/mcoeredirect.aspx?linkId=11667889&s1=13c05137-b00a-947c-66fb-84d219980c5c
IEarn has projects with other teachers around the globe. I copied a list of some of the projects below;
SEEKING PARTNERS: iEARN PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES
1. iEARN team in Sierra Leone invites participation in Helping Youth Say No to Gun Violence Project.
2. Read and contribute to Kindred, a global family history project.
3. Join schools in Morocco, Oman, Palestine and the USA in the Electronic School Magazine Project.
4. New Connecting Math to Our Lives through Photography activities.
5. Join classes in Qatar and USA creating Solar Cookers.
6. Hello iEARN food lovers - class in Moldova seeking partners for group of adult students - ages 20 years old.
7. Participate in the PEARL Online Journalism Festival.
8. iEARN schools around the world fly kites for peace.
RESOURCES, CONTESTS, WEBSITES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
9. iEARN signs MOU with Elluminate, Inc.
10. iEARN school in USA wins Goldman Sachs Award.
11. English language teacher resource features iEARN classes in Egypt and Thailand.
12. Enter the 2009 SIGtel Online Learning Award Competition.
13. Participate in Xperimania for a chance to win resources for your science classrooms.
14. Call for entries: 2009 My Hero Short Film Festival.
15. Early Childhood Education Online Tools.
UPCOMING EVENTS
16. Annual YouthCaN Conference in NYC, USA, April 4-6, 2009.
17. iEARN-India National Conference in Pune, May 2-4, 2009.
18 iEARN-Morocco (MEARN) to host 16th Annual iEARN Conference and 13th Youth Summit, July 19-25, 2009.
19. World Children's Summit in Yokohama, Japan, August 10-12, 2009.
MIT has a program to teach about computer programming called Scratch. It is very user friendly and fun to work with. It allows for as much or as little creativity as one brings to it. It is a free download which means at school the IT department needs to install it. http://scratch.mit.edu/
Thinkfinity offers lesson plans interactives and more.
http://thinkfinity.org/
Thinkquest.org Think.com is now part of ThinkQuest -- A learning platform where teachers and students create learning projects, participate in a website competition, and browse a library of student projects.
There are tons out there and each has it’s own twist. I don’t want to overwhelm but there are a few to look at. Enjoy and let me know what you think.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Cell Phones
The question I have been mulling over is where and how we can use the omnipresent cell phone in classes. Hall Davidson from Discovery School does a presentation on cell phones in education. He starts by having people take out their cell phones and answer a question. You can go to http://www.polleverywhere.com/ and get an account that with a downloadable spreadsheet that will update with every vote. Users send a text message or go to a website and vote and it updates on the spreadsheet. You can watch people vote. A personal account is $15 and presenter is $65.
How about a quiz on the cell phone? Students can text in the answers. Imagine how motivated your students would be to do a quiz on their cell phones.
Gcast is a great site to create podcasts. Now, I understand that it would take energy to create these podcasts but it meets the kids where they live. To start out I am hoping to get advisory groups to make weekly ‘Remdawg” podcasts with info, news, maybe challenges, interviews, etc. They can choose the topic, music and content. I wonder if we can get the kids to embrace this. I think it could be a powerful connection to the school and the community.
Other uses for cell phones in classes might include using Twitter to connect group work, blog posts, accessing pictures and doing searches. Qik.com lets you share live video. Jott.com offers voice to text. There are sites that translate and many, many more options.
Step one is to embrace the technology instead of banning it. So, that being said, do you see Remington Middle School encouraging the use of cell phones in classes any time soon or do you see that in the far distance?
How about a quiz on the cell phone? Students can text in the answers. Imagine how motivated your students would be to do a quiz on their cell phones.
Gcast is a great site to create podcasts. Now, I understand that it would take energy to create these podcasts but it meets the kids where they live. To start out I am hoping to get advisory groups to make weekly ‘Remdawg” podcasts with info, news, maybe challenges, interviews, etc. They can choose the topic, music and content. I wonder if we can get the kids to embrace this. I think it could be a powerful connection to the school and the community.
Other uses for cell phones in classes might include using Twitter to connect group work, blog posts, accessing pictures and doing searches. Qik.com lets you share live video. Jott.com offers voice to text. There are sites that translate and many, many more options.
Step one is to embrace the technology instead of banning it. So, that being said, do you see Remington Middle School encouraging the use of cell phones in classes any time soon or do you see that in the far distance?
Monday, March 23, 2009
Tech Blogs
In an attempt to write an article for the blog for this week, I started surfing. There are some amazing blogs out there. Made me wonder what I am doing writing this, however. Not to be so easily deterred, here I am again.
Some of the blogs I found and what they are doing this week.
Yes Tech! has a great article on President Obama’s. This blog covers a wide range of topics about technology and education.
Webblogg-ed, Will Richardson, deals with Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and the future of education. Will Richardson is well known for trying to push our education system into the 21st century.
Media Matters- Hall Davidson’s blog. Hall Davidson works with Discovery School and works with video and long distance education. He has great topics like how to merge two movies so it appears that someone is, for instance, walking up to a dinosaur.
Ning in Education This blog is most concerned with using social networks for education.
Moving at the Speed of Creativity Wesley Fryer- His most recent post was about how race still matters for dropouts and student identity. His range of topics is pretty broad.
These are just a few of the better known blogs on computer education. They all have great ideas to ponder but none is the end all be all. Hope you like them.
Some of the blogs I found and what they are doing this week.
Yes Tech! has a great article on President Obama’s. This blog covers a wide range of topics about technology and education.
Webblogg-ed, Will Richardson, deals with Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and the future of education. Will Richardson is well known for trying to push our education system into the 21st century.
Media Matters- Hall Davidson’s blog. Hall Davidson works with Discovery School and works with video and long distance education. He has great topics like how to merge two movies so it appears that someone is, for instance, walking up to a dinosaur.
Ning in Education This blog is most concerned with using social networks for education.
Moving at the Speed of Creativity Wesley Fryer- His most recent post was about how race still matters for dropouts and student identity. His range of topics is pretty broad.
These are just a few of the better known blogs on computer education. They all have great ideas to ponder but none is the end all be all. Hope you like them.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Available Resources
We have Inspiration on the machines in both labs. It is a program that designs graphic organizers but few teachers use it. It allows students to represent a topic on the organizer as a picture. It allows an unlimited number of choices of types of graphic organizers. Students work with this software in computer class.
Photoshop is loaded on the machines in the lab and should be used by no more than 10 at a time but it is an amazing program and some of the kids who want a challenge would LOVE it.
We also have a camcorder that is dedicated to teacher use to record school activities. It is rarely used.
So, we have some resources that we aren’t using. Any thoughts about how to get them circulating?
Photoshop is loaded on the machines in the lab and should be used by no more than 10 at a time but it is an amazing program and some of the kids who want a challenge would LOVE it.
We also have a camcorder that is dedicated to teacher use to record school activities. It is rarely used.
So, we have some resources that we aren’t using. Any thoughts about how to get them circulating?
Thursday, March 5, 2009
webinars
Sorry, I am not feeling 100% and got a little behind in my blogging. I will try to do better.
I recently attended a webinar offered by PBS on teaching and learning with digital natives. It was pretty cool. A LOT is going on all at once. There were over 160 attendees including Kathy Schrock. Not that I am a groupie or anything but I was impressed. The chat with 160 people goes at lightening speed while the presenter is speaking so it is a test of multitasking but was a great experience and every direction I looked or listened there was great info. That webinar is archived at pbs.org as well as another on Changing Views of Race.
The next webinar is Remixing Shakespeare for 21st Century Students, the next webinar in the PBS Teachers LIVE! series. Mark your calendars for March 18 from 8-9:30 p.m and it looks great. In April, there is one on 21st century resources for Earth Day and May is Effective Technology integration.
. You need to download a little program and then you will be in the “classroom”. I hope you will attend one and let me know about it. They are really well done
I recently attended a webinar offered by PBS on teaching and learning with digital natives. It was pretty cool. A LOT is going on all at once. There were over 160 attendees including Kathy Schrock. Not that I am a groupie or anything but I was impressed. The chat with 160 people goes at lightening speed while the presenter is speaking so it is a test of multitasking but was a great experience and every direction I looked or listened there was great info. That webinar is archived at pbs.org as well as another on Changing Views of Race.
The next webinar is Remixing Shakespeare for 21st Century Students, the next webinar in the PBS Teachers LIVE! series. Mark your calendars for March 18 from 8-9:30 p.m and it looks great. In April, there is one on 21st century resources for Earth Day and May is Effective Technology integration.
. You need to download a little program and then you will be in the “classroom”. I hope you will attend one and let me know about it. They are really well done
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