Teaching students with new tools, enthusiasm, and belief that teaching is a noble calling.
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Tuesday, June 30, 2009
IPhone iTouch Birds of a Feather
Connectivity has been pretty rough here and I'm sorry I haven't been able to get to you, the readers out there who want to know the deal.
I've been writing blog posts in notepad (because MS word does such a horrible job with code) and will post later. Now, gearing up for a busy day with 3 presos and a stint in exhibit hall. Just going to watch debate on ustream for now.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Daily Spotlight on Education 06/29/2009
Wiki for middle school students to share french language learning.
School journalism wiki for a middle school in California. The students write and maintain this wiki.
Roosevelt Elementary School 3rd grade wiki that has all types of projects.
Embedding a time zone widget on your wiki
Embedding tools on wiki pages.
Citing Personal Information on Wikis for Flat Classroom Project
Our guidlines for posting personal information on a wiki.
How to cite sources using the source citation code in wikispaces.
Wiki Netiquette for Flat Classroom Projects
Wiki netiquette for our Flat Classroom wiki projects.
Voices Of The World - votw-2008-9
Voices of the world project. This is a project that kindergarten teacher Maria Knee participates with. It is a fascinating collaboration of students.
tags: education, wikis, wiki, all_teachers, bestpractices, technology, digitalcitizenship, elementary
Kindergarten project studying Monarch Butterflies
Monarch Butterfly wiki project from Maria Knee's kindergarten classroom.
Excellent samples and information on the use of wikis in education.
Digiteen Diigo group that we use with our students on the digital citizenship project. The 9 aspects of digital citizenship correspond with the 9 aspects from Mike Ribble and Gerald Bailey's Digital Citizenship in schools.
tags: education, learning, digital, citizenship, best practices
Here are the procedures for how we use the Diigo group with the flat classroom projects - we've used this with flat classroom and we've used it with the digiteen projects and ad4dcss (advocates for digital citizenship, safety, and success)
flatclassroomproject2008 - Tagging Standards
On the Flat Classroom 2008 Tagging standards page, you can see the main tags coming from the bookmarks (and can drill down and see what they and our expert teachers tagged them.
You can see standard tags, subgroups, and overall bookmarks.I really like the site community feature - go in here and type the site communities and you can see what is linking to your site and being bookmarked.
This is the tag community for education, the neat thing is that you can find related groups, bookmarks and people around a topic. This is very powerful.
You can drill down and look at tag communities to find other things that are interesting on your topic.
Dangerously Irrelevant: NECC - Edubloggercon, Web 2.0 Smackdown, Chicks That Click
This is an excellent summary of the tools shared in Web 2.0 smackdown.
tags: education, learning, tools, web2smack, edu_newapp, edu_news
EtherPad: Realtime Collaborative Text Editing
A lot of people like this for doing collaborative wikis.
tags: education, learning, tools, all_teachers, bestpractices, technology
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Daily Spotlight on Education 06/28/2009
New Improved Web 2.0 Smackdown Keychain from Kevin Hunnicut - EBC
This is a great presentation and Kevin did a great job presenting. He concluded the smackdown. Great offline tool to help teachers understand and keep up with innovations.
tags: education, learning, web2_smackdown, web2smack, edu_trends
Livestream - Broadcast LIVE streaming video
This used to be mogulus - you can have a full tv channel here. My understanding is that you can stream from your cellphone here.
Education 2.0 - Edmodo - Free Private Microblogging For Education
Microblogging service built for students and teachers.
Create an event via SMS - Google Calendar Help - Annotated
Send an event to your Google Calendar
Check your calendar via SMS - Google Calendar Help
In the US, you can interact with your Google Calendar via SMS.
Text to GVENT '48368'
'next' - next scheduled event
'day' - today
'nday' - next dayYou can upload to vimeo using your cell phone and then edit.
Welcome to RiffTrax Cuts! | RiffTrax
Add sound effects and morph your video using rifftrax. So, this is how you can take things and remix and re-embed. There are some obvious reasons when you go to the site that I would ONLY use this for college level and above.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Daily Spotlight on Education 06/27/2009
Google Mobile | Blogger for your phone
You can blog from your cellphone if you have a blogger blog. This actually lets you sign up for a blog from your mobile.
Jott has a lot of free services. I used to pay for the services (until I got my itouch and it does many of these things) but it is great for those who travel a lot or who type slowly and away from the computer a lot.
FreeConferencePro | Unlimited full-featured teleconferencing for FREE
Set up free conference calls and allows as many people as you like to set up and participate in the conference call. Many of us use skype, however, if you go over 10, and people are just in the US, you could use this instead.
The great things is that this gives you recording of the conference with no time limit. The MP3 file is given to the host.tags: education, learning, cellphone, voice, mp3, edu_newapp
Enhanced Visual Voicemail For Cell Phones | YouMail
This one is from Liz Kolb and is a site that allows you to have extra management features for your email including translating the messages into text. You can create multiple voicemails and greet students and others by name (it reads off caller id.)
You can have students call and leave a message for you as their assignment. It converts to an mp3 for you. Could also use for something like radio call in show, and pull Mp3 files off and then turn into a podcast by remixing in audacity.This website lets you record both video and audio from your cell phone or online and automatically send it to your blog or other website. This is also a for-pay service.
twitterfeed.com : feed your blog to twitter
So, if you want twitter to automatically tweet (like when your class blog is updated,) then set up twitter feed to automatically post anything to twitter that has an RSS feed. I do this for my classroom to send my blog or any current information that students need to have.
Email your cellphone pics to your Ning Photo - Annotated
Uploading photos to your Ning profile from your cell phone.
Twitter: The Fastest Way to Get Informed. Or Misinformed.&|&Technologizer
Always verify what you see on twitter.
Tom Daccord recomments using this screencapture program for the mac, it is free. He says by far it is the best for Mac.
tags: Mac, education, screencapture, mac, all_teachers, technology
Mr. Robbo, the PE Geek, filmed this video on his cell phone about how he uses QR Codes in the classroom. He filmed it on his cellphone and uploaded it to qik -- he is in Australia!
tags: education, cellphone, qrcodes, classroom, mobile, web2.0, wireless_connectivity, prediction
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Daily Spotlight on Education 06/26/2009
60 Percent of Teens Text While Driving | LiveScience
Percentage of teens who text while driving. This is a concern and one that you should alleviate.
tags: education, cellphone, govt_business, mobile, story_empath
Online content is being accessed on a weekly basis from their cell phone.
Gadgets -For Everyday Photography, Cell Phones Becoming Camera of Choice
Over 90% of adult cell phone users have a camera with 45.9% of them using their cell phone at least once a week!
HI_TeenMobileStudy_ResearchReport.pdf (application/pdf Object)
Summary of research study about teenagers and cell phone use.
CTIA - The Wireless Association - How teens are shaping and reshaping their wireless world.
Recent Study on teenagers and their cell phone habits.
Survey: Teens' Cell Phones Indispensable - CBS News
Research shows that cell phones are a vital part of student identities with four out of five students having a cell phone. Now, nearly half of kids aged 8-12 years own cell phones. Most kids get their first cell phone between 10 and 11.
"Sexting" Shockingly Common Among Teens - CBS News
20% of Teens participate in sexting or sending nude pictures via text message.
tags: education, learning, arts_entertainment, mobile, wireless_connectivity
Cell Phone Execs Will Face Questions On Text Messaging Price Hikes | NEWS JUNKIE POST
Congressional hearing on the rising cost of text messaging will be next Tuesday.
US Teens Going Online Wirelessly Without Limits or Controls
The majority of teenagers who access the Internet via mobile phone have no parental or software based restrictions on what they can view. 19% go online via their cell phone.
Google Mobile | SMS for your phone
How you can use SMS from your cell phone. Additionally, those who do not have cell phones can use the cell phone simulator to practice these terms: define, etc.
Setting cell phone reminders from your computer.
How to Upload Video to YouTube from Your Cell Phone | eHow.com
You can upload videos from your cell phone.
When One Twitter Account Is Not Enough
How to set up multiple twitter accounts. This is appropriate for teachers who need a personal twitter account and want to have one for their classroom.
How to Make Your Twitter Account Private | eHow.com
How to make your twitter account private, which is very appropriate for students and your classroom twitter account.
Twitpic - Share photos on Twitter
Website for sharing pictures on twitter.
Tons of free content for your cell phone including ringtones.
tags: education, learning, wireless_connectivity, mobile, arts_entertainment
Cell Phone Tricks You Just Gotta Learn! - Associated Content
Interesting cell phone tricks which I'll have to learn - the universal emergency number is 112 -- really, I think this is important to teach and share.
If you have a mini-phonetree (25 people you need to send one voice message per day) - dial my calls will send messages to 25 people a day. If you have a group of people to brief. The messages must be 30 seconds in length or less.
Lifehacker - Geek to Live: Make a ringtone from any MP3 - Cell Phones
This old post on making a ringtone from an mp3 is something that I'm going to learn how to do.
Juicecaster - Free Mobile Videos and Pics for MySpace, Facebook, YouTube - JuiceCaster
Juicecaster lets you post videos and photos from your cell phone.
QR-Code Reader & Software - Mobile Barcodes
This is the best information I've seen on QR Codes readers including links and instructions for how to do this.
Twenty Uses for QR Codes and Tags for Marketing « Digital Business by Will Hawkins
This is information on QR codes for Marketing but in this there is potential for schools - particularly ubiquitous "hardlinks" between educational experiences like museums.
tags: education, learning, mobile, story_empath, prediction, invention, govt_business
QuickMark Mobile Barcode - QuickMark for PC
This software turns your webcam into a QR code reader. From Mr. Robbo the PE Geek.
tags: education, learning, qrcodes, information_change, wireless_connectivity, worldonline, prediction
Dennis Richards shared this in our workshop and it is so true - these are the stages that we all go through when looking at any technology.
It is important to understand that as people connectin the world, that sometimes it takes time for people to accept change and research bears this out. This research shows the phases of change that all people go through based upon research by Hall & Loucks, 1979
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Daily Spotlight on Education 06/25/2009
Put your face on a star of Star Trek and embed it on your blog. Lots of fun!
The Reel School - Home of Kentucky PSA 2006 Video Contest - Last year's entries
The Kentucky PSA contest focused on cyberbullying. Am going to take some time to review. What a great thing to do!
Hands across the world - Flat Classroom Conference
This photograph snapped by five students from five different countries at the flat classroom conference says it all.
tags: education, flatclassroom, story_empath, flatclassroomconference
YouTube - Answers to Qatar Questions
Students reflecting on Flat Classroom Conference in Qatar. I particularly like at 3:15 when Steve talks about the friends he has met.
horizonproject - Social Networking
One of the best wiki collaboration in our projects.
How People are Flattening their Classrooms around the world - Twitter / Search - #flated
Was thinking tonight how we should be succinctly sharing our stories of global collaboration - if you have one about how a classroom is collaborating, just twitter it, the hyperlink, the locations, and include #flated in the hyperlink and we'll continue to get great lists! I'm learning so much from you and am now following and retweeting them, especially those with links!
tags: education, learning, flatclassroomproject, flatclassroom
Flat Classroom Projects Help Wiki
This is the help wiki for all of our flat classroom projects and how we do the things we do. I realized that I hadn't shared it!
tags: flatclassroom, education, innovation, bestpractices, help
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Catching the Flattening Bug and the Great Debate of 2008
Tonight I had dinner with Tom Daccord as we continued to prep for tomorrow's workshop. I must say that I am so impressed and continue to be impressed with The Great Debate of 2008. Tom, the project's founder shared how the project started with a simple few wiki pages and a Ning and how it basically took on a viral life of its own. He said that the students were so eager to share and far exceeded his expectations.
This is it! It is flattening. Authentic audiences with authentic research with differentiated artifacts and good teachers -- it is so powerful it is addictive.
As I listened to him talk, I could see it. I could see the glint. THAT GLINT. Sort of like an adrenaline junkie who has first gone skydiving and you know they are hooked -- the glint of someone who has seen the thrill of excellent, meaningful education where the students are motivated and just almost wear you out with how much they do. It is addictive and just great!
Now, we're getting ready for class tomorrow and you can see our agenda on the wiki. On Friday at 1 pm EDT we will be using Elluminate to reflect on what we have learned. (If you are in the workshop, feel free to share the agenda page - the link will be posted there on Friday morning. People from anywhere can participate as you have your Teacher Summit to reflect on what you have learned.)
I am so excited about this workshop - it has been a chance to take the materials and content that Julie and I have developed and take it to the next level!
So, if you're in the workshop - see you tomorrow!
Related articles by Zemanta
- This is the edge and it ROCKS! (coolcatteacher.blogspot.com)
- Digiteen Project speaks with Mike Ribble (123elearning.blogspot.com)
- Eracism: Accolades for student visionaries (123elearning.blogspot.com)
- Guidelines for Effective Wiki-Editing (coolcatteacher.blogspot.com)
NECC Calendar
There are so many GREAT people at NECC and I hope to meet as many of you as possible. For now, I have an awesome group of educators that Tom Daccord and I will be teaching how to flatten their classroom tomorrow at Boston University. (You know if you're in Boston, there might be one or two slots open, not sure, though.)
Friday, we do plan to have an elluminate session - as soon as it is scheduled, it will appear on the calendar below. Hope to see you at NECC or virtually as many of these sessions will be streamed and thank you.
Daily Spotlight on Education 06/24/2009
Learning the Skeleton with QR codes « Mr Robbo – The P.E Geek
OH, Mr. Robbo - I am already just crazy about him! Here he talks about how he teaches the skelton with QR Codes.!
tags: education, learning, virtual_communication, wireless_connectivity, mobile, story_empath
Mobile Tagging with QR-Code, BeeTagg and Datamatrix
This system lets you scan qr codes and you have to download it and put it on your phone - it is called a QR reader.
This blog post shares the results of a QR Code hunt. As I learn more about hardlinking, this is a fascinating topic.
Mobile phones and learning - a presentation from the UK
QR Code - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Explanation from Wikipedia about QR codes and hardlinking.
QR codes create a hyperlink between a picture in the real world and th eonline world -- this is called mobile tagging and the act of linking is called a hardlink.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Hardlink to the Future: QR Codes
So, if this was in the physical world -- say by my door, someone could read it with a QR code reader and it would give them the information coded into it via a text message - or perhaps eventually put that information into their contacts.
Now, this sounds kind of silly to some, however, it has some very interesting applications. For example, you want to remember the details about a person - you can snap a picture and all the information is there without having to write it down or worry about the fact that you were too far away for it to show up in the photo.
Nike did this with a Mountain Dew promotion this past February using MMS - which is texting that includes pictures. Geraldine Jones from the University of Bath seems to be doing some interesting work in this area and QR Code scavenger hunts are popping up.
Hall Davidson has been talking about these for some time in his ever popular cell phones in schools presentation (which I think he's giving at NECC again this year.)
This is definitely an emerging field of which I am NOT an expert. I'm sitting here with lovely printed QR codes trying to make my cell phone read them and convert them in to text and right now, it looks like my Motorola v750 doesn't meet the "qualifications" to make this work. Just so you know what I know. I've pasted in the many twitter responses on QR Codes and perhaps we can learn together. One thing is for sure, I will make this WORK before Saturday when I'm doing a cell phone workshop. There are so many great things, but to me, using these in museums and in the "real world" can create some deep learning experiences -- see, now these QR codes are just attached to text, but what happens when they have video, audio, and more attached to them. Your child who is fascinated by the caveman exhibiltion at the Smithsonian will scan the QR code and have delivered to his cell phone video, audio, perhaps even books (in a Kindle like way) relating to his topic.
Hardlinking is going to be important because it is the next natural progression of things. GPS devices and QR Codes are further linking us into a rich web of learning.
The first response that most people have to this sort of thing is:
How stupid?
Too much technology, why don't we get out and play?
Who on earth would want to do that?
However, as my Dad used to say -- if everybody thinks it is a good idea - you're too late. I seem to recall the same things being said about twitter 2 years a go. This is life and life is change.
So, if you are a QR Code expert - teach me and how do I make this bloomin' cell phone read those things without racking up horrible data charges! Ughh!
Twitter responses below.
- leighmurrell@coolcatteacher That is why I heart twitter. I would love to learn about it! Are you going to present it at NECC?2 minutes ago from TweetDeck in reply to coolcatteacher
- ajwms@coolcatteacher Oh yes, museums would be awesome! We were thinking marketing 4 schools and media within online courses! BeeTag wks gr8 4 me12 minutes ago from TweetDeck in reply to coolcatteacher
- msquihuis@coolcatteacher there are better QR Code readers for iphone - QuickMark, Intelliscan, Neoreader #iphone #qr code22 minutes ago from TweetDeck in reply to coolcatteacher
- ajwms@coolcatteacher They say things follow you. Your post is so timely as we are just starting to explore QR codes here..I am totally fascinated26 minutes ago from TweetDeck in reply to coolcatteacher
- cuevash@coolcatteacher wow, you are going 2 b busy. I would have notes too. You've got fabulous material. Time 2 shine-be well.about 7 hours ago from UberTwitter in reply to coolcatteacher
- dajbelshawJust watched short Edutopia video showcasing what @coolcatteacher has been up to. Great stuff! (http://bit.ly/lEzsh)about 7 hours ago from TweetDeck
- scsdmedia@coolcatteacher Could it be http://bit.ly/3lyj1 . Not a cell phone tho.about 10 hours ago from Nambu in reply to coolcatteacher
- LSA_Paul@murcha, @julielindsay and @coolcatteacher Sorry I missed this. Could have participated as an Oz teacher seeing I am in Sydney this week :(about 10 hours ago from twhirl in reply to murcha
- murchaI think that was the first time that three schools shared the student summit. An amazing experince. Thanks @julielindsay and @coolcatteacherabout 10 hours ago from web
- AugmentedAdvertRT: @coolcatteacher hi I use Bee Tag which reads QR codes Lots of work being done on this in UK Tricias had a.. http://tinyurl.com/mhmdb5about 10 hours ago from twitterfeed
- mathtrain.@coolcatteacher I use the barcodes on my Mathtrain site and I put them on my biz cards too! I use kaywa.about 13 hours ago from TwitterFon
- orunner@coolcatteacher hi I use Bee Tag which reads QR codes Lots of work being done on this in UK Tricias had a QR as her avatar for a whileabout 14 hours ago from Tweetie in reply to coolcatteacher
- AugmentedAdvertRT: @coolcatteacher QR Codes?: @coolcatteacher QR Codes? http://tinyurl.com/kw3ndvabout 14 hours ago from twitterfeed
- qrpower@coolcatteacher - you're talking about a QR code. You can create them here: http://lo.ly/37 and learn about them.. http://bit.ly/XaVtUabout 15 hours ago from twitterfeed
- theikidsblog@coolcatteacher - you're talking about a QR code. You can create them here: http://lo.ly/37 and learn about them here - http://lo.ly/22about 15 hours ago from web
- npratt@robindcrow hey Robin try following: @kerrygallivan, @wfryer, @bethstill, kgustin, @debrennersmith, @coolcatteacher, @isteconnectsabout 15 hours ago from web in reply to robindcrow
- leighmurrell@coolcatteacher hall davis talked about it in his cell phone preso at CUEabout 16 hours ago from TweetDeck in reply to coolcatteacher
- qrpower@coolcatteacher re: personal barcode - I think this is the one you may be thinking of: http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ .. http://bit.ly/SYx9Iabout 17 hours ago from twitterfeed
- qrpower@coolcatteacher QR code there are several readers you can get for your phone http://bit.ly/P0ud0about 17 hours ago from twitterfeed
- cwebbtech@coolcatteacher re: personal barcode - I think this is the one you may be thinking of: http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ (from @tscheeler).about 17 hours ago from TweetDeck in reply to coolcatteacher
- coachburk@coolcatteacher My friend has an Android phone and he get take picture of the Barcode of things and it will show him prices elsewhereabout 17 hours ago from web in reply to coolcatteacher
- sfens@coolcatteacher I don't get how the bar code thing works, what would you be learning?about 17 hours ago from Netvibes
- kathweaver@coolcatteacher Microsoft has a "tag" program that you can take a picture of a tag and it's linked to a contactabout 17 hours ago from TwInbox
- dragonsinger57@coolcatteacher QR code there are several readers you can get for your phoneabout 17 hours ago from iTweet in reply to coolcatteacher
- rec54@coolcatteacher Yeah, go to scanlife.com - you can put it on business cards or whatever and then take a pic with the ScanLife app for iPhoneabout 17 hours ago from web in reply to coolcatteacher
- njtechteacher
@coolcatteacher Listen to @betchaboy podcast QR codes are interesting: http://bit.ly/ngH9sabout 17 hours ago from web in reply to coolcatteacher
- Lilylauren@coolcatteacher http://www.scanlife.com/atl...about 17 hours ago from TweetDeck
- cogdog@coolcatteacher QRcode generator http://qrcode.kaywa.com/about 17 hours ago from web in reply to coolcatteacher
- damian613@coolcatteacher http://is.gd/19KtTabout 17 hours ago from web in reply to coolcatteacher
- damian613@coolcatteacher QR Codes?about 17 hours ago from web in reply to coolcatteacher
- Lilylauren@coolcatteacher more info http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...about 17 hours ago from TweetDeck in reply to coolcatteacher
- Lilylauren@coolcatteacher hey they are EZ codes more info here http://bit.ly/9KyQF they are cool i knw a littleabout 18 hours ago from TweetDeck in reply to coolcatteacher
- alfredtwo@coolcatteacher http://www.microsoft.com/tag/ perhaps?