Daily Finds

Learning about Podcasting

2006-10-04T14:12:00.000-04:00

This week I'm doing a presentation on podcasting. I've created a set of resources for this. I've also got some demo pocasts available at this feed.

Read, Write, Think

2006-04-11T08:10:00.000-04:00

This morning at the College School we spent quite a bit of time looking at useful Read, Write, Think tools. This site is always being updated so regular visits will always yield some new, useful items.

Character Trading Cards -- 3rd and up
This would work for comparing two characters in a book. This could be used for capturing information about any character in a book and could be a way to capture insights that might not be identified in more traditional writing tasks.

Get the Reel Scoop: Comparing Books to Movies-- K - 8 max
Although this is listed for grades 3-5, the variety of worksheets and plans can be adapted to support classroom discussions or reports for grades K-8.

How Does My Garden Grow? Writing in Science Field Journals
-- K-2 recommended, could use up to 4th with adaptations
This lesson plan supports the traditional seed-growing activity by providing organizers for science journals. There are good links, including a video of a plant that did grow successfully.

Letter Generator -- 2 - 4
This interactive tool provides a scaffold for students to create letters online. Finished products can only be printed but there is a selection of different stationary. Students must finish the letter in one sitting.

Developing Reading Plans to Support Independent Reading
-- 4 -8 depending on scaffolding
This plan uses the online graphic map to help students and teachers develop reading plans to be used to helps kids choose new books by detecting patterns in what they have enjoyed in the past.

Word Sorts for Beginning and Struggling Readers -- pre- and early struggling readers
This plan includes a variety of on- and off-line activities including a Flash activity for reinforcing word attack skills.

Stapleless Book -- any grade

This tool was deemed NOT GOOD by the reviewers, especially for the early reader/writers who might find this most useful. Even though there are lots of templates to create the book, you can't insert your own pictures. It doesn't print the pictures so students have to deal with words before pictures making it less useful for young students.

There is a Stapleless Book Planning Sheet that might be helpful to use offline.

Notetaker - 2 - 8
This online tool helps kids organize ideas into a formal outline of 5 levels. Includes a tutorial and can be saved for further work by cutting and pasting from the preview or printed.

Guess What's in the Bag activity - K - 2
This lesson plan supports the development of descriptive vocabulary.

Poetry Resources from Read,Write, Think
Finally, here's a quick list of poetry resources.
Shape Poem -- limited because of the limited number of shapes 1-3
Diamante Poems - very good -- any age
Acrostic Poems -- good -- 3rd and up
Letter Poem -- weak -- don't bother with this one.

EDC Feature Articles: Tech-Savvy students Influence Teacher Choices in the Classroom

2006-02-06T16:33:00.000-05:00

EDC Feature Articles: Tech-Savvy students Influence Teacher Choices in the Classroom explains how the most tech-savvy students drive the way teachers teach, as well as the content of the curriculum. They are also positively influencing other students. This comes from a survey of teachers.

Why Rubrics?

2005-12-19T11:03:00.000-05:00

I came across this quote in an article from COSN. It's actually from Reinventing Government by David Osborne and Ted Gaebler.

What gets measured, gets done.
If you don't measure results, you can't tell success from failure.
If you can't recognize failure, you can't correct it.
If you can't see success, you can't reward it.
If you can't see success, you can't learn from it.

A Gcast Podcast

2005-12-14T16:04:00.001-05:00

Here's something new. I can create account at gcast.com. Then I just call a toll-free number and record my message. Bingo! No software, no hosting and my podcast is all online! Check this out: psine's Podcast: "Dec 14, 2005 Phone call"

More great terms

2005-11-16T11:15:00.000-05:00

Continuing from my last post, here's a new one: GoogleWashing.
Prevent Googlewashing From Harming You

Besides that, buried in the article is a quote from a "relevance data analyst for MSN Search." That's got to be high up on the example jobs that are new for the 21st century!

Fun Phrases for the Week

2005-11-11T14:45:00.000-05:00

This week I've come across two new memes that should show up more often.

Architectural Inversion -- http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?doc_cd=131689

Mental Multitasking Wetware -- http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2005/10/26.html

These are both just fun to think about!

Sunset from Flickr

2005-11-11T12:49:00.000-05:00

Sunset
Originally uploaded by karo.lina.

Here's another photo I liked from flickr. And I added it to my blog by searching at flickr and then clicking "blog this" right above the picture.

Low Tide via Flickr

2005-10-10T13:06:00.000-04:00

Low Tide
Originally uploaded by Ally123.

Here's a new site (well, new to me) that I'm exploring today. The site is flickr which allows anyone to post photos. The interesting and new thing about this site is that it also allows "social tagging" so that anyone can tag anyone else's photos. In fact, the photo I'm blogging about right now was found by using the "random photo" tool developed by some other flickr user. I have my blog entered in flickr and I can post it on my own site.

What Wiki should I use?

2005-09-29T20:16:00.001-04:00

I'm adding this to my blog today because I've gotten the question three times in the past two days so it seemed like a good time to summarize things.

The first part of the question usually is "Where can I set up a wiki so my students and I can try this out?" My experience has led me to two places where you can do this for free: Seedwiki.com and Xwiki.com Both are free and give you enough room to get a decent sized project going. Both have recently upgraded their offerings as they now also support commercial clients. Another interesting one is WikiSpaces, although I have not tried this one. The other free wiki space that gets a lot of coverage is JotSpot. I've only gotten a site and dabbled a bit, but it is less straightforward and less wiki-like for my tastes.

The second part of the question usually is "We'd like to host our own wikis here. What software should we use?" Over the past year OET has tried out a few different pieces of software. Our criteria included easy editing, representative of the common wiki conventions, relatively simple to install and maintain, and free.

At this point, we are using PMWiki on our IIS server. This also requires Perl and we are using the free version of ActivePerl.

The definitive answer to all of this is really the definition of wiki at Wikipedia. This will also lead you to the WikiBook project and the Wiki Science: How to Start a Wiki book. The beauty of this, of course, is that since these are wikis, the community keeps them up-to-date!

My First Podcast

2005-09-24T14:47:00.000-04:00

I wanted to try out creating and publishing a podcast. I've put the MP3 file on my own server space. And this link should launch the words of wisdom.... Well, you be the judge.

Technology and Multiple Intelligences

2005-09-23T15:48:00.000-04:00

These pages by Annette Lamb explain the kinds of tools and strategies to use technology to address multiple intelligences. Each intelligence is explained briefly. Then various technologies and their support for the specific learning style is explained.

This is part of the larger Eduscapes Professional Development site.

Measuring Digital Opportunity for America's Children

2005-06-24T19:34:00.000-04:00

The Children's Partnership has released a new report, Measuring Digital Opportunity for America's Children, which looks at the ways the Internet and ICT can improve children's lives across a range of measures. The report also points out an opportunity gap, otherwise known as the digital divide, between different groups of kids.

Digital Storytelling

2005-06-13T14:59:00.000-04:00

This site, developed at the University of Houston College of Education, is a course in itself on what digital storytelling is. It also has great stories that can be used as multimedia content for other classes.

2005-06-09T20:36:00.000-04:00

Is this News for 2014?

This is a great take on what news might evolve to by 2014. Take a look at the video created at Georgia Tech. US News has an interesting summary and commentary on the item.

2005-06-07T21:08:00.000-04:00

New Maps for the 21st Century

A great place to find maps these days is Google Maps. These folks have added additional features and built on top of its functionality.

An article from Forbes: Google Maps Make Demographics Come Alive

Examples

2005-05-04T11:27:00.000-04:00

Campus Technology: Tinker before training

This is a reader response to an earlier article and makes the point that teachers need to be lifelong learners. This is a very articulate examination of just why teachers are not as tech literate as students.

2005-03-24T15:23:00.000-05:00

These resources address the question of how to manage computers in the classroom.

Computer Classroom Management from Internet4Classrooms
This collection of links covers everything from one computer in the classroom to a full computer lab.

Managing Technology: Tips from the Experts
From Education World, this website offers 33 tips to make technology-based lessons in your classroom run a bit more smoothly. Includes ways to use red plastic cups, colored dots, and plastic hooks to help manage the student flow.

National Teacher Training Institute’s Managing Students With Computers Online Workshop
This brief workshop offers best practices for helping you and your students get the most out of your computers in the classroom or in the lab. This provices helpful tips on making whole class presentations and on dealing with special issues and challenges.

2005-03-17T21:30:00.000-05:00

EDUCATING THE NET GENERATION

Published by EDUCAUSE, this free book discusses the aptitudes and learning styles of those who have grown up with information technology. The book contains 15 chapters by various writers and is available in HTML and PDF formats. Professional printing options are also available. (Source: UCF-AECT listserv) Related URL: http://www.educause.edu/books/educatingthenetgen/5989

From News for Educators Online Now

2004-12-01T15:56:00.000-05:00

Dr. Kathie Nunley's Layered Curriculum Web Site for Educators

This site presents an attractive way to manage a classroom offering multiple options for students to learn the content via their own path. Units are set up with required and optional activities such that all students must attempt C level work, but there are additional options for B and A level work. Also, within the levels, there are opportunities to attain the grade in several different ways.

Besides all of the background information, there is a rich library of sample units that can be downloaded and adapted. Most units contain technology applications and/or web resources.

2004-11-29T14:09:00.000-05:00

Assign-a-Day
http://assignaday.4teachers.org

This FREE tool from HPR*TEC is designed to enhance teacher and student communication through an on-line teacher-managed calendar. Teachers create a calendar for each of their classes and add assignments for the students to view. Students view their teachers’ calendars in order to see assignments for classes they might have missed, or to get an overview of the class.

This is only for school, activity and class calendars and others will be removed. Also, calendars with no entries are deleted within 2 weeks.

Calendars are open to whoever chooses to look at them, no passwords. They can also be seen in a "print" version. You can link right to the calendar from your webpage or send the students and parents to the main page to search by number or teacher name.

2004-11-10T10:26:00.000-05:00

SURFING THE NET WITH KIDS
Each week at Barbara Feldman's Surfing the Net with Kids site, she picks a single topic (such as Rainforests, Hubble Space Telescope, Mozart, Dolphins, or Plate Tectonics) and chooses the best sites to explore. The entries are dated so you can tell when each resource list has been updated.
http://www.surfnetkids.com

2004-10-15T10:08:00.000-04:00

RED HERRING Wiki wars
Think this year's presidential debates have been rough? Check out Wikipedia

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia Web site that allows community members to edit entries, has turned into the latest battleground between political parties. Disputes over content related to President Bush and Senator Kerry have been growing since August, prompting site administrators to warn users that election-related entries may be the focus of "contention and debate -- possibly diminishing their neutrality." Indeed, the continual tweaking of content on the Bush and Kerry entries has forced administrators to periodically "freeze" the pages, locking out would-be tweakers. Even so, Bush's entry has been edited 3,953 times and Kerry's has been modified 3,230 times. In comparison, the entry on Jesus has been edited only 1,855 times since the site's inception in 2001. Wikipedia creator Jimmy Wales says next year he will begin using editors to review content for accuracy and will allow users to rate the entries for quality. "It's complex because it's a social community and feelings can be hurt," says Wales. (Red Herring 14 Oct 2004) (clipped from NewsScan 10/15/04)

2004-10-01T11:27:00.000-04:00

Digital Divide?Where To Go From Here - Kaiser Family Foundation

This issue brief, “Children, The Digital Divide, and Federal Policy,” includes new research findings and reviews the latest information on wiring the nation’s schools and libraries, including points of access, the speed of connection, and what children are doing online. The report also examines current Federal policies and policy ideas that could address the new digital divide.

2004-09-23T09:59:00.000-04:00

Beginner's training for Office 2003

Microsoft provides over 100 self-paced tutorials with tests to help learn each of the Office products. Although these are for Office 2003, many of the skills are very basic and are offered in every version of Office. There are automatic downloads into the target programs so you can practice what they are teaching on your own computer. There are also tests for each item.

2004-03-17T15:03:00.000-05:00

Using the Web to communicate

Two sites, RightMarch.org and MoveOn.org, provide daily blogs of political updates for the conservative and liberal American political viewpoints.

In addition, MeetUp.org uses the web to set up real meetings in a specific location on a given topic by voting on the web.

2004-03-16T16:57:00.000-05:00

Literacy Software: A Primer
Answers to some common questions

This article from Scholastic Administrator is a great beginner for resources to use for supporting reading with technology from pre-readers through middle school students. There are pointers to recommended web sites and software as well.

2003-05-30T19:50:00.000-04:00

Children's Books Online: the Rosetta Project, Inc.

http://www.childrensbooksonline.org/

{Illustrated antique children's books} Children's book fans like me will be excited with this find. Read illustrated children's books in their original formats online or download the entire book for free. Go to the library and select a book to read, which pulls up the thumbnails page of the book. Click on the thumbnails to view the page or scroll to the bottom to download the entire book. There are books available in multiple languages. When I took children's literature in college, I did a project on Three Blind Mice, so I checked out the book. Looking at the online version was an experience, with its elaborate drawings that you rarely find in today's books. Don't let the site's annoyances put you off this valuable site. The butterflies get in the way of the links to the book, so keep trying to click on the book link to read the book. Meryl ran up the digital hill to fetch a computer. She fell down and broke her CPU and her monitor came tumbling after.

Source: Lockergnome

2003-05-07T17:01:00.000-04:00

How Much Information
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info/

This study is an attempt to measure how much information is produced in the world each year. We look at several media and estimate yearly production, accumulated stock, rates of growth, and other variables of interest.

2003-04-29T16:52:00.000-04:00

Digital Video for the Web
http://stream.uen.org/medsol/digvid/index.html

This extensive resource covers all aspects of putting digital media on the web. It covers: needs; production, users computer; data rates; media architecture; streaming, video standards and formats; codecs; compression; frames; sampling; and optimization. Includes information for QuickTime, Windows Media, and Real.
Created by Paul E. Burrows, University of Utah.

Source: Blue Web'n

2003-04-29T15:05:00.000-04:00

Online Timeline Creator
http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/timeline/index.html

This tool from Read, Write, Think allows students to create, edit and print a timeline. The only drawback is that you can only edit while you are on the site. There is no provision for saving and editing later.

2003-04-24T14:52:00.000-04:00

FindMyHosting
http://www.findmyhosting.com

FindMyHosting provides information and user ratings for finding web hosting solutions. Extensive listings updated daily.

2003-04-21T16:41:00.000-04:00

Digital Video for the Web

This extensive resource covers all aspects of putting digital media on the web. It covers: needs; production, users computer; data rates; media architecture; streaming, video standards and formats; codecs; compression; frames; sampling; and optimization. Includes information for QuickTime, Windows Media, and Real.

Created by Paul E. Burrows, University of Utah.

2003-03-16T09:45:00.000-05:00

Visual Thought v1.4 [6.8M] W9x/2k/XP FREE

http://www.bombshellstudios.com/samples/co/vt.html

{Diagramming and flowcharting} I live and breathe boxes and arrows in my office job as a process analyst in a software development shop. Unlike the software I use at the office and at home, this one is free. Before running the program, enter the License Key by clicking the Admin icon from the Visual Thought program group on the Windows Start Menu and the Admin dialog box appears. Enter the License Key into the dialog box and click OK. The license key is available on the download page. It's good for 14 years... so what happens after 14 years? Then again, 14 years is ancient in computer software years, and something better will come along. The purpose of Visual Thought is to visually communicate relationships between things. The tutorial guides you through your first drawing. Unfortunately, there are no tooltips on the main toolbar, and you'll need to dig through the tutorial to find out what each represents. Based on my experience with previous flow programs, I could figure out a few things without needing help. Drawing the connecting lines took work. It's rough around the edges, but it's free and it offers a lot for the money. Small businesses and students will probably appreciate the software most. Don't count on tech support, though, since all the e-mails I've sent to them have bounced. Part of the problem may be that the company that created the software has been bought out.
Source: Lockergnome Windows Daily, 3/16/03

2003-03-14T10:28:00.000-05:00

COMPUTER USE BENEFITS MATH AND SCIENCE LEARNING
A forthcoming National Science Foundation review, "Effects of Using Instructional Technology in Elementary and Secondary Schools: What Controlled Evaluation Studies Say," found that most valuation studies reported significant positive effects of instructional technology on mathematics and science learning, but not all technological approaches appeared to be equally effective.
Source: National Science Foundation http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/infbrief/nsf03301/start.htm

2003-02-28T12:59:00.000-05:00

The Changing Technology

One of the hardest things for most people to understand is the compound effect of the exponential rate of improvement of information technology. For the last four decades, both the speed and the storage capacity of computers have doubled every eighteen to twenty-four months; the cost size and poser consumption have become smaller at about the same rate. The bandwidth of computer networkds has increased at an even faster rate (a thousandfold in just the last decade), and the traffic on the (Internet continues to double every one hundred days. For the foreseeable future, all of these trends will continue; the basic technology to support them exists now.

William A. Wulf, Higher Education Alert: The Information Railroad is Coming, EDUCAUSE Review, January/February 2003, p.14

2003-02-21T16:05:00.000-05:00

"In 2001, the National Center for Education Statistics found that 98 percent of public schools had drawn up acceptable use policies defining the ruls for Internet use on campuses. Of those schools, 74 percent were using some form of software to filter the Web's estimated 2.1 billion pages -- a number growing at a rate of 7 million a day."

Technology & Learning, January 2003
http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/TL/2003/01/update.html

2002-05-01T14:46:00.000-04:00

FlexWindow -- Here is yet another simple way to add content to the web. This requires setting up an initial web page and then updating by sending email. Take a look at the sample I set up at http://www.udel.edu/sine/test/flextest.html

I'd envision this as a homework assignment page. In high school or middle school, you could even have one of these for each class and email the appropriate one to update it.

Of course, you could also link any of the pages to your main page.

2002-04-29T16:01:00.000-04:00

Noodletools, the bibiliography maker, has gone commercial, but now the Slate Citation Machine (http://landmarks4schools.org/citation_machine/cm_web.php3) is available. This site will collect your information and spit it back in correct APA or MLA format. You just need to cut and paste the resulting citation to create a bibliography.

2001-11-13T10:56:00.000-05:00

TutorialFind has taken on the job of cataloging all the tutorials on the web. Sometimes their definition of tutorial gets a little broad and they include what I'd consider articles. However, the stuff they do include is of very high quality. For example, the first item on the list of new tutorials today is an 80-page intro to PowerPoint with annotated pictures throughout. This is definitely the place to look BEFORE you create your own training materials.

2001-11-13T10:47:00.000-05:00

TerraFly is a great new site that makes use of aerial photos and a huge database to allow you to do a virtual fly-over of anywhere in the US. It uses Java to allow you to search and manipulate the images. Beware... this is a pretty intensive app so your computer or your browser may get pushed, but it's worth the trip!

2001-10-18T16:24:00.000-04:00

Itools on the Apple site allows people who are connecting from a Mac to set homepages, send cards or use online disk space to share files.

2001-10-16T11:17:00.000-04:00

Rubistar at http://rubistar.4teachers.org/ This is a great tool for creating rubrics for any task or project. You can select from their many existing rubrics, pick and choose among their categories or develop your own. The finish product can be used as a web page or printed. You can also go back and edit the rubric later on.

This is a great way to get started using rubrics or, for more experienced folks, to develop their own incorporating work from others.

2001-10-10T10:30:00.000-04:00

Places for kids to publish web pages.
Kidsville.net
http://www.kidsville.net/
No ads and an easy editor that also helps learn about HTML by specifying all the formatting details

Express Page
http://www.expage.com
No signup. Just name your page, use the easy editor, and you are on the web!

Hometown AOL
http://hometown.aol.com
AOL's tried and true editor but you must have an AOL screen name from an account or from using IM

2001-10-02T10:40:00.000-04:00

I found a very cool link that allows you to create graphic organizer worksheets to your specifications on the Web and then print them. Take a look at http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/graphic_org/ They have tools for Venn Diagrams, KWL, Time Lines, Concept Webs and SQ3R charts.

2001-09-27T16:27:00.000-04:00

I've been setting up Gaggle.net accounts for students and teachers at a school I am working with. This service is free, although they do have banner ads on all pages and pop-ups from time to time. So far, we've brought the 5th to 8th graders online and they have proven to be able to ignore the ads. This service allows us to limit who the students can write to and who can write to them. It screens for bad language. It also allows the teacher to view any mail to or from students under his or her care.

Teachers have to deal with all blocked mail allowing it to go through or stopping it. Right now we are set so they can only write to people within the school. The only problem we've had so far is that the kids aren't careful with spelling and so mail looks like it's going to someone not in the system and gets blocked.

Very cool system!

2001-09-26T08:32:00.000-04:00

Today's finds are a combination of Blogger.com, where I can post something new quickly and easily, and blogBuddy, which is a little, free program that runs on my computer to send things to Blogger. BlogBuddy is from SourceForge.