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Educators who share and really understand the transformative power of teaching and connecting are inspirations! They can be halfway across the world and their energy and zest for living and learning can be felt like the sun lights planet earth. So, a big shout of Thank you to my friend Julie Lindsay for finding Jane Ross (a/k/a Jane in Java) in Jakarta, Indonesia. Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/janeinjava Blog: 1:1 in Practice at Sinarmas World Academy - http://1to1inpractice.blogspot.com/ This is seriously one of the most choc full, amazing blogs I've seen in ages. From her amazing student presentations at the mall to her really cool ebook on Moviemaking with kids , to first grade keynotes about what they eat for lunch (as part of the playnormous competition going on now)- the work they are doing will amaze you! Maybe what some people need here in the USA (and other countries who have rested on their laurels for so long) is to spend a little time with a cup 'o J...

flatclassroom09-3 - Workflow Software - Discussion - Teacher Feedback from Mrs. Davis This is an example of how I used Diigo to create an annotated link to give feedback on a wiki on Flat Classroom. I love using Diigo for giving wiki feedback because I can mark up the page. I like ot share them through groups that are private with my students and I and the annotated link feature is one of the best ways to do this. tags : flatclassroom , diigo , wiki , teaching , education , edu_trends , bestpractices Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

Who on earth would research TWITTER? Just read an article over on Education and Tech entitled There is Not Research About Twitter ( a response to EdWeeks Article about Twitter in the Classroom .) "There is not research but as more and more teachers start using Twitter in a variety of classroom projects, it seems the practice will be the only empirical foundation to let children get away with their multitasking and huge capacity to use social media tools like Twitter." I don't know where Milton has his facts about teachers using twitter in a lot of classroom projects, but I don't see it.  I see teachers using it to connect and create projects - USUALLY it is the teacher tweeting something out to get a response. I see a very very small few teachers like me using Twitter to allow their students to connect to experts in their field and each other as well as to understand online leadership and Web 2.0 networking. (I am the exception except for the profs doing this a...

How I create and publish podcasts » Moving at the Speed of Creativity If you want to know how one of the pro's makes and publishes podcasts, here is Wesley Fryer's how to - a must read for anyone working in this area of technology. tags : education , podcast , web2.0 , worldonline , edu_news , professionaldevelopment , web2 , bestpractices Pixton™ - Comic Strip Creator - Make Your Own Web Comics Online Another Comic location. This is supposed to have animated comics also as part of this. tags : education , learning , comic , web2.0 , www_world Comicbrush New comic making web app which also has an i-pod compatible app. This lets you combine drawings, photos, and ready to use artwork to create caricatures. This is great. You can also mash up regular backgrounds with caricatures in the foreground. tags : education , comic , web2.0 , worldonline , edu_newapp , curriculum TLC = Tech + Library + Classroom: Wordle and Books = Groovy Stuff! Love how Tara in Bangkok, Thailand used W...

Note: I would like to give you a concrete example. Surely, there are much bigger issues with net neutrality than just some school project that has heretofore touched only relatively few schools at this time. It helps to understand examples, so here it is. So, if you're wondering what net Neutrality means, it means that if two teachers who are across the world from each other want to create projects using free tools and let other teachers participate FOR FREE without any cost whatsoever for their school  that many people will not have access to that.  It means barriers for this. There are already organizations out there charging for participation in their projects and who knows at some point we may have to have that model just to keep things going - but our hope and dream is to keep this thing going and get enough money generated on the side and enough supporters (like Elluminate) who will help us with administrative costs so that schools that choose to collaborate with...

You've heard of a time suck?  Something that wastes your time and just sucks it down the drain.  Time management people teach you to watch for the little things that suck your time that add up to a total loss of productivity. So, I'd like to encourage you today to watch for the Happiness Drain.  These are the tiny little things that drain away your happiness and joy in life.  These thoughts are spurred on by the edutopia article, Teach Yourself How to Be Happier .  I think that to me one of the most important things I do is to guard my joy.  You know that you tend to become like the people you are around (this is why spouses start to look alike over the years!)  We mimic one another's facial expressions and phraseology without even realizing it (thus the spread of common imspeak and emoticons among teens in common groups.) So, ask yourself - are there relationships that are sucking the happiness out of my life?  Are there people who are neve...

Flat Classroom Project Expands Its Reach Write up on some flat classroom topics and what we're doing in my class this year. tags : education , flatclassroom , inthenews , press Gearing up for Another Flat Classroom Project « Haas | Learning Fred Haas' reflections are so very real when it comes to ambitious global collaborations. I had to laugh as he said about NetGenEd (last spring's project): "Without question it was a mildly harrowing but ultimately rewarding experience." The learning curve is TREMENDOUS but once you have it under your belt it is similar to your first year of teaching or boot camp for someone in the military. If you're wondering if this sort of thing is for you, take a read of Fred's very real reflections. Julie nor I NOR ANY global collaborator will ever say it is easy - if it is perhaps you're not having to be as engaged as perhaps you need to be. However, it is most rewarding! tags : education , learning , flatclassroom , edu_tr...

I have just got to take pictures of my room for you, just been so busy.  But this year, I wanted to wiki-fy my walls.  I want the very walls of my room to be places where students express and share what they are doing.  I've done this in two ways.  I have used velcro to stick small dry erase boards EVERYWHERE and also have used brightly colored duct tape to designate certain areas on my wall for certain types of things to be shared. But I think that perhaps what Angela Maiers shared Sunday Night on her blog is what I really want to do!  Idea Paint.   Their official Ideapaint websit e has some interesting applications for school but perhaps my question is... if Ideapaint works, why are we even buying dry erase boards?  Has anyone tested the heavy use of a school on this?  Is anyone using it now? So, let's try it out!  Also, I turned up a link for a free sample of Ideapaint from Momblognetwork -just fill out this form. IdeaPaint How ...

1:1 in Practice at Sinarmas World Academy This is a great blog that is choc full of what can (and should be done) and if you're not following http://www.twitter.com/janeinjava , you should. I just snagged this from Julie Lindsay and wow, I'm impressed with what they (and Jane) are doing. tags : education , learning , edublogger Myebook - Movie Making for Kids This ebook has over 10,000 views and it is about movie making for kids with just simple pictures. tags : education , learning , technology , edu_news , professionaldevelopment Welcome to Zon! | Enter Zon Massive multiplayer role playing game for learning Mandarin Chinese. Immersion is supposed to be the best way to learn and here it is! tags : education , learning , chinese , language , edu_newapp , web2.0 , worldonline , www_world , prediction E-Learning Journeys: Across My Desk (weekly) My friend Julie Lindsay (now in China) is such a great friend and inspiration to me. I haven't said in some time how much I appr...

This blog post is for Gerry Paille from British Columbia ( http://twitter.com/tuchodi ) who asked me on Twitter to explain a tweet about that Web 2.0 teaching is not easy. Here, Gerry, I Hope this is something you can use. When you play basketball yourself - you work on your shot and you practice. You're in your own mind - your own head. But then, one day you grow older and become a coach. Now, you have to get in the minds of other people. You have to not only understand basketball but psychology and team dynamics, motivational speaking, and the technical aspects of equipment. You have to not only see a player for what he/she is today but for what he/she could be. (Like how much are they going to grow in 3 years.) You have to put people in the best place that suits the team and not necessarily the person. It is a much more complex task than just managing yourself. This particular example embodies why using Web 2 in teaching can be more challenging than the traditional test...

This wiki based site organizes videos that will help kids learn:  meet WatchKnow .  In fact, don't just meet watch know, edit it a bit while you're at it. How to Edit on WatchKnow Just one catch, dude -- the videos it indexes ARE HOSTED ON YOUTUBE!!!  So, can you allow youtube videos without allowing youtube in your school?  I don't know but I do know that again, we are faced with this seemingly age old discussion of adding some sort of layer on top of youtube videos that Bud the Teacher and I discussed some time back. (See his post: for Vicki: An Expanded Tweet ) and my original post on Youtube edu . Again, Bud keeps coming back to the point that somehow he thinks I'm advocating youtube censorship!  NO such thing.  This is about repurposing youtube and making it work in such a way to be usable for education.  I'm not sure yet, but suspect that something like WatchKnow will do just that: but those who filter are going to have to f...

Teach Yourself How to Be Happier | Edutopia There are things we teach and things we SHOULD teach. Teaching ourselves to be happier is something we have to look for. tags : education , learning Technology Review: Blogs: TR Editors' blog: Will the Nook Eat the Kindle's Lunch? Barnes and Noble's response to the Kindle: The Nook. It uses the Android operating system (Google's mobile OS) and can install 3rd party Android Apps. It also has an MP3 player but does not have built in text to speech (so no UDL here) - If you use the free wifi at Barnes and Noble you can read any ebook for free - otherwise it is something that you need to buy. tags : education , ebook , library , librarian , wireless_connectivity , web2.0 , www_world , edu_news , edu_trends WatchKnow - Videos for kids to learn from. Organized. Site that organizes youtube videos for students. This is very cool. tags : education , web2.0 , worldonline , arts_entertainment Things That Keep Us Up at Night - 10/1/200...

Doug Johnson and Joyce Valenza have written an article on School Library Journal that is tearing through the blogs of librarians and media specialists like wildfire this October. If you want to come to the cusp of the debates swirling around libraries and media centers like Dorothy's Cyclone that took her to Oz, this is the article to read because truly, the items here hit at the core of school change. One piece particularly hit me as a teacher was the part on creative commons where Doug and Joyce say: It is also time to share with teachers and learners the rationale for Creative Commons  and other emerging concepts that are less restrictive than traditional copyright licensing. 1 Are we helping our students understand the issue of intellectual property from the point of view of the creator, not just the consumer? Librarians need to help students assign rights to their own creative works. They share information about a new world of sharing while respecting intellectual prop...

This is a web site designed to LOOK like your computer. I am passing this along because it looks so much like a legitimate page on your computer. One of our teachers called me over and I captured the screenshot so I could email it out to the other teachers at my school and also so you can see it as well. You can tell this is a scam because the URL is showing in the web browser bar. My teachers are great about NOT clicking when they have a question and they skype me or ask me and boy, do I appreciate it. So, here is a shout out today to one of our third grade teachers Mrs. Donna Worsham for using her "noggin" (as we say in South Georgia) and figuring out that she should call me and not click. If you don't know ask someone who does.  Using your noggin is going to save your school time and money because it is easier to keep problems from happening than to fix them!

Flat Classroom Conference Information Wiki You can find information out about the Flat Classroom conference and also view our video documentary of last year's conference also. This year Julie Lindsay, Bernajean Porter, and I are running the student strand which will also incorporate educators as well. tags : education , learning , flatclassroom , conference , professionaldevelopment flatclassroomconference - Flat Classroom at ASB Unplugged Form We are working towards this year's Flat Classroom Conference which will be held in conjunction with ASB Unplugged (since we are sharing opening ceremonies we are calling it a mini-conference.) The same powerful learning from last year's conference will be there and you as the teacher and your students will come away transformed! This is the application form and we do have some scholarships and host families for students although we do not have scholarships for airfare. This is in February and applications for scholarships and stu...

Microsoft exposes Firefox users to drive-by malware downloads | Zero Day | ZDNet.com Looks like the problems many of us have been having in Firefox (last week in particular) may actually be from Microsoft? Come on !! I love firefox and don't have my students use IE for this reason (slowness, lack of ad ons, viruses, malware.) The only time I'm using Chrome now is for special webapps (Toodledo) and also Google Wave (it seems to consume any other web browser.) This ZDNET article is a follow through from Stephen Downes' amazing resource sharing blog - if you haven't subscribed, you should. tags : education , learning , edu_newapp , techintegrator The Tiny Differences in the Littlest Brains ~ Stephen's Web ~ by Stephen Downes New book reviewed by Stephen Downes about gender differences in brains. tags : education , reading , research , edu_news Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

danieltenner.com — What problems does Google Wave solve? Excellent article on what Google wave is intended to be: a step up from email to allow for document collaboration. OK, now I finally get it. Seeing people talk about it replacing twitter, etc. I was like "nah - not with THIS" but seeing this blog post made the light go on - a must read for those who want to truly understand what google wave is for and to not get so hyper about what it isn't. tags : education , google , googlewave , workflow_software , virtual_communication , worldonline A flat world - Flat Classroom Project I love these views from my student and her use of the term "horizontal" teaching - I think she has inadevertently hit on a very important concept for us teachers to understand. "Everyone has different views, different things they are good at, and different things they know. In a classroom, the teacher used to stand in front of the students, and lecture all day long. Now many of ...

ISTE | ISTE 2010 Keynote Project International Society of Technology Educators is asking for your thoughts on their keynote for ISTE 2010. Go there and share! tags : education , learning , teaching , iste , edu_news Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

This is your time to contribute.  A massive debate is emerging over at ISTE's keynote discussion forum and as part of this massive edublogosphere (maybe it should be renamed edutweetosphere?) ISTE has crowdsourced one of their keynotes for ISTE 2010.  I've put in my two cents. Right now, two of the proposals that seem to be running through twitter are Kevin Hunnicutt's proposal and that by Scott Mcleod.  I'll share those proposals and then my personal thoughts and then share with you my own proposal for the keynote.  (note that just because someone proposes it DOES NOT MEAN that person is going to DO the keynote - right now it is about content - phase 2 is about speakers.) From Kevin Hunnicutt  (go to the ISTE forum to cast your vote for this one.) Thoughts from Me: To me, it is not just about the trends.  I think that ISTE will be chock full of trends, tools, and tactics.  I think that keynotes should take us past the cool factor int...

Middle School Debate IDEA :: International Debate Education Association Debate information on middle school debate information. tags : middleschool , debate , education Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus - An online thesaurus and dictionary of over 145,000 words that you explore using an interactive map. Another visual thesaurus that many people like. (I also use visuwords as it is free.) This is great for helping students define and understand vocabulary in context. tags : education , vocabulary , language , edu_newapp Tactile Defensiveness - The Facts About the Wilbarger Brushing Protocol Nice article about Wilbarger brushing and ADHD. See your occupational therapist. tags : education , ADHD The Willbarger Protocol There are many that report amazing results (and others who report nothing) from the Willbarger protocol for ADHD. All I know is that the teacher who had ADHD who had this done in the workshop on Tuesday said her knee pain went away and she was able to sit still w/out her knee jumpi...

Debate Ballots - Four Samples Four sample debate ballots tags : education , debate Outline of Concepts & Terms in Debate Strategies for Educational Debate. This is an outline from the 1972 book by William C. Colburn. There are four topics to teach: 1) Analyzing arguments and propositions, 2) Evidence and Assertions, 3) Arguments, and 4) The debate setting. tags : education , debate Group Teach Debate's best content Created a Diigo group today to compile resources to use to teach debate. I hope that any educators out there who teach debate will join in and share. tags : education , debate , bestpractices Multiple Intelligences - Implications Excellent information on multiple intelligences. I was highlighting this to work on using all intelligences to teach debate. tags : education , learning , all_teachers YouTube - Teaching Elementary Students to be Independent Letting students compare answers and learning. This harnesses interpersonal skills to help them learn math. Cool ...

Plagiarism Checkers: 5 Free Websites To Catch The Copycats 5 Websites to find plagiarism. I particularly would like to check Doc Cop which lets you upload files and check it. tags : education , plagairism , literature Rockman Et Al: Authentic Learning & Technology Fascinating cross-curricular project from Jennifer Tan's diigo bookmarks (she joined the educators group tonight.) Mathematics students determine whether Poe's story is mathematically sound using graphing calculators and computers. tags : education , math , literature , bestpractices Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

YouTube - Curt Bonk's Flat Classrooms Keynote: The World is Open Flat Classroom Project keynote for this quarter from Dr. Curtis Bonk where he discusses the trends that are opening up education. It is interesting to watch to see if you know what he is talking about (and who) and some people you know will be in these videos. tags : education , fcp , flatclassroom , edu_news Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

QR Codes Video about how can be used in education QR Codes are an important new technology that use something called hardlinking. tags : virtual_communication , mobile , govt_business , education , www_world Pest Control Information for School Kids and Teachers - PestWorldforKids.org Just got this in my email. I could see some really fun, funny public service announcements -- cross curricular project for science and technology. This is what they sent me: "The contest challenges students in grades 4 through 8 to use their biology and entomology knowledge, as well as their creativity, to create educational public service announcements (PSAs) that discuss the health and property risks posed by household pests. The grand prize winning entry will receive $3,000 for their school’s science department! We know that this award could mean a lot to one of the many schools in the country that are being forced to cut budgets and programs in this difficult economy. As a non-profit organizatio...