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.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
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?
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