What's in the Super Book of Web Tools for Educators?
In my excitement over releasing The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators I left out posting a table of contents separate from the document.
Creating a Personal Learning Network with Web 2.0 Tools
Creating a Personal Learning Network with Web 2.0 Tools is a site that helps teachers set up and create a PLN. It has information and resources from multiple teachers and includes a variety of resources for teachers to use to connect with other educators. The site was created as part of a presentation for FETC 2009.
I'm a huge proponent of PLNs and this is definitely a great site to use to create or expand your own PLN.
Related Articles:
http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/p/create-personal-learning-network.html
Using VoiceThread in Moodle - Documentation
For users of Moodle, VoiceThread recently announced some useful new information. VoiceThread has published documentation for integrating VoiceThread modules into Moodle 1.9. In this documentation you will find all you need to know to embed VoiceThreads into Moodle, creating VoiceThread assignments with Moodle, and authenticating with single sign-on.
Applications for EducationHere's an idea that I've previously shared about using VoiceThread in a history classroom:VoiceThread could be used as a great tool for students, parents, and teachers to collaborate on a local history project. Local historical societies are always looking for people willing to share information and knowledge. Creating a VoiceThread to share with a local historical society would be a great way for students to learn about their local history and perform a community service at the same time. Students and teachers could invite their parents and grandparents to share their knowledge of local history in the VoiceThread conversation.
Great Web 2.0 Resources for Students
There are some really great Web 2.0 Resources for Students out there that can help students with their school work, getting organized, and using other Web 2.0 resources. Here is a list of some of my favorites.TRACKCLASS:Trackclass is a great, free resource for students. The site allows students to track their classes and assignments, and even will send reminders (email or SMS) for upcoming assignment due dates and test dates. There is also a note taking utility so students can take notes on it if they have a computer in school, or transcribe notes later. You can even attach files to each class and assignment to keep things organized. It is a great way for students to stay organized.There is also a version for mobile phones and the iPhone, so students can stay organized no matter where they are.I found it very easy to use, with a great help section. I wish they had this when I was in school! I was even thinking that teachers could use this too.
Shoshiku is another free class organizer, similar to Trackclass. It has a calendar, notes, task list, and reminder system like Trackclass. It is not as full featured, in my opinion, as Trackclass, but it is easy to use and some students may like it better than Trackclass.
Dweeber is a homework collaboration site that also has tools to help students learn better. It is described as a homework social network. Students sign up, for free, and can add their friends, known as "dweebs" to their network. Students can work on homework together and help each other out. It even as a virtual whiteboard so that they can work together just as if they were in the same room. There is a message center, study sessions, and even a place to post links to web sites that you find helpful in doing your work.
This is a great resource for students who can't get together physically to work on homework or projects.
Google Student Blog:
I am a huge user and fan of Google's many applications and their use in education. I use Blogger for this blog and my classroom blogs, Google Sites for my classroom site, Google Docs, Google Earth, iGoogle and much more with my students and for my own use. I show my students Google's applications because they are easy to use, useful, and free.
Google recently launched the Google Student Blog. This blog site is a great resource for students who use Google's products. It includes information, updates, how-to's, tips, and much more on how to use Google's applications as a student. If your students use Google's products, they should be reading theGoogle Student Blog. Scribblar:
Scribblar is an online meeting room / white board. Students can use it to collaborate on projects, teachers can tutor via the computer, and teachers can use it for collaborative meetings and projects.
Scribblar gives the users a virtual white board on the screen and writing tools to create text, lines and shapes. They can even add images.
There is also a chat window on the side bar so that users can talk to each other while working. There is even a live chat system if you have a microphone and speakers.
I see students using this to work on homework problems together. Teachers could use this to help students with homework after school or on the weekends.
Scribblar can now support PDF files. Free users can upload PDFs with up to 5 pages. Your uploaded PDF will be turned into an editable image in Scribblar.
Evernote
Evernote is a great, free resource that allows you to easily capture information using whatever device or operating system you use. It then makes this information accessible and searchable from anywhere. Their tagline: Remember Everything.
You can capture task lists, notes, web pages, white boards, business cards, pictures, and even clip web pages toEvernote.
You can download a desktop version of the software, for free, which will sync to the Evernote web server, or you can just access it through the internet on their web page. You can also access it through a mobile device. They have downloadable applications for the iPhone, Blackberry, Android, and Windows Mobile devices. You can also access their mobile website on any web-enabled phone.
You can create new notes via desktop, web, or mobile version. You can also use your camera phone or web cam to take a snapshot and Evernote can even recognize the text in the image. You can also email notes, clip web pages, record audio notes, and scan papers, receipts and more into Evernote.
Their website has easy to follow instructions and help sections. Students can use Evernote to take notes in class, share notes with other students, capture notes off of a whiteboard or poster using their smartphone camera, and much more.
Dropbox
Dropbox is a service that allows you to sync your files on your computer with their system as a backup. This also allows you to access the files anywhere. You can also sync the files across multiple computers. This means that you have automatic backup of your files and 24/7 access to your files. I have it set up to sync a folder on my home computer and school computer so I don't have to worry about having multiple versions or forgetting a flash drive.
There are also Dropbox apps for iPhone, Android, iPad and there is one coming for Blackberry. There is an independent app for Palm webOS, but you can also access the mobile site from any web-enabled phone. Imagine being able to access all of your files on your smartphone!
One feature that is very nice is the fact that it works with network drives like we use in my district. Some of the other cloud file storage and sync systems can't work with network drives. I was very happy to see this was able to be done with Dropbox.
Students can use this to access and back up their files anywhere. They can also share files with each other which is useful when working on projects.
E-Learners:This web site has some great resources for students and teachers, including test prep, study skills, organization, grammar and writing, and career planning. Everything broken down by topic and is listed on one page, so it is easy to find things.
I created a Google Presentation about Google and other free applications and resources for students that I will be sharing with my students next week. I feel that these are the tools and resources that will be the most useful to them, with the shortest amount of training time required.
I thought I would also share it with you. You can view it HERE.
Audio of Best of the EdTech Web 2010
Last Friday at ACTEM's annual conference and again on Monday at CECA's annual conference I gave my Best of the EdTech Web 2010 presentation. Bob Sprankle recorded the audio of Friday's presentation and it is now available on his blog Bit by Bit. Listen to the recording here.
The slides from my talk are embedded below.
3 Tools to Help You Save Paper & Ink in Your Classroom
Print What You Likeis a simple web tool that lets users select just a portion of a website. This is particularly useful for printing articles from websites or blogs that do not have a "printer friendly" option. Print What You Like is not simply a cropping tool, users can also remove images from the background or foreground of a website before printing.
If you have ever wanted to print an article from a blog or a website, but wish you could do it without printing all of the ads and widgets in the side columns, you should take a look at PrintFriendly.PrintFriendly strips away all of the ads and side bar content allowing you to print only the article on the page. There are two ways to use PrintFriendly. You can copy and paste an article's url into the PrintFriendly homepage or use thePrintFriendly bookmarklet. I tried it both ways and much prefer using the bookmarklet as it doesn't require any toggling between browser tabs or windows. Below is a video overview of PrintFriendly.
Popout
Printliminator is a handy little bookmarklet for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. Printliminator allows you to highlight a webpage and select only the elements which you wish to print. You can installPrintliminator in seconds by just clicking and dragging it into your browser's toolbar. Watch the video below to learn more about Printliminator.
Popout
Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010
Jane Hart, a social business consultant, and founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, has been compiling a list of the top 100 tools for learning since 2007.The 2010 list is currently being compiled and you can view the full list here – Emerging Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010.Interestingly, you can compare the ranking of the tools over the last four years. So far, it is fascinating to see how popular Twitter and YouTube have become since 2007. It is also interesting to see how many top 100 tools there are this year that were not rated in previous years. Most of the tools on the list so far are free which is great to see.Voting will close on 17th October 2010. I encourage all educators to take the time to share their Top Tools, to help make a comprehensive and useful list for all.It was a very tough choice but my top 10 tools are
Top 10 Sites for Bookmarking and Annotating
Annotation is asummary made ofinformation in a book,document, online record, video, software code or other information, "in the margin", or perhaps just underlined or highlighted passages (wikipedia). This is a very useful skill or tool to have that goes along w/ bookmarking, when it comes to managing information the web.
Top 10 sites for Bookmarking & Annotating
- Diigo - Excellent site for bookmarking and annotating w/ the ability to create student accounts, simply the best!!
- Delicioius - Probably the most popular bookmarking site on the web w/ lots of educators to be found!!
- iCyte - Similar to Diigo w/ the ability to annotate and then share or embed into a site.
- Rooh.It - A great way to highlight content on the web and then share w/ others and add comments!
- Digg - A popular way to bookmark w/ the ability to share w/ others, comment, and even generate a widget for a website.
- Trailmeme - An innovative site w/ a beautiful user interface for annotating web content and generating a unique user interface/path to follow.
- Jog the Web - Similar to Trailmeme and very user friendly (nice Web 2.0 jogs to follow!!).
- Pinboard - A very simple site to bookmark w/out all of the clutter that some of the more popular sites have. Also, works well w/ mobile devices!!
- School Noodle - A great way for teachers to bookmarks sites and then share these resources w/ other educators!!
- Krunchd - A nice way to take a collection of sites and create one unique URL for all of them.
Perk Up your Projects
Perk Up your Projects is a great wiki that I just found out about from Naomi Harm. This is a website filled w/ a ton of resources for educators that focuses on Web 2.0 and different applications that can be used in the classroom. Also, a number of different projects can be found w/ examples such as: timelines, slideshows, comic creators, etc etc.
I highly recommend giving Perk Up your Projects by clickinghere!!!
Wikispaces PD Training Wiki
Today, on their blog Wikispaces introduced a new resource for professional development facilitators. Wikispaces's PD Presenter Toolkitis a wiki that is designed to help you introduce other educators to wikis. The PD Presenter Toolkit includes a presenter's guide, slides, and a series of six graduated activities that you can use to help other educators learn how to use Wikispaces and how wikis in general can be used in education. The PD Presenter Toolkit also includes a list of wikis used in a variety of grade levels and content areas.
Applications for EducationIf you find yourself introducing educators to the concepts of and educational uses for wikis, the PD Presenter Toolkit is a wiki that you should check out. The PD Presenter Toolkit, based on a workshop developed by Dr. Mark Wagner, could be used as is or you could use some of the resources and blend them with your own ideas to make a PD workshop as relevant as possible for your school.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
11 Techy Things for Teachers to Try This Year
A Great Alternative To Traditional Book Reports
Zoho Wiki
Zoho Wiki is an online portal for creating a collaborative website. This can be an excellent tool for schools as it allows educators to create interactive online content for students. It's almost like a full fledged content management system.
Straight from their site a list of their features:
- Wikis help Teachers to create virtual classrooms for their students to stay connected beyond classroom and harness the power of an extended classroom.
- Maintain online schedules and calendars for students to track project / assignment deadlines.
- Host pictures, slide shows, photo galleries, video clips of school or classroom events.
- Encourage parent's participation in classroom activities and keep them updated on their children's performance.
- Showcase the positive happenings in a classroom or school in your website.
Click here for more info on how Zoho Wiki can be used in the classroom!!
Try Edublogs Campus for Free for a Semester
Edublogs is a blogging platform that is quite popular with educators.Edublogs provides services for individuals, for classrooms, and for entire school systems. Edublogs Campus is the service for classrooms and school systems that allows teachers to manage the blogs their students create. Edublogs Campusis normally a fee-based service, but right now they are making a nice free offer. Right now you can sign up for Edublogs Campus and use it for free for a semester with no strings attached. Learn more here.
For those people who are interested in individual Edublogs accounts, the free version of Edublogs inserts ads into your blog. For $40/year edublogs removes those advertisements.
Fotobabble - Turn Pictures Into Audio Stories
Fotobabble is a free service that allows you to quickly turn a picture into an audio picture story. Using Fotoabble is easy, just upload an image toFotobabble, allow Fotobabble to access your computer's microphone, and start recording your voice. You can comment on your photo, explain what's happening your photo, or tell a story related to your photo. When you've completed your recording you can save it in your Fotobabble account, contribute to a public gallery and or embed it into your blog.
What's in the Super Book of Web Tools for Educators?
In my excitement over releasing The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators I left out posting a table of contents separate from the document.
Creating a Personal Learning Network with Web 2.0 Tools
Creating a Personal Learning Network with Web 2.0 Tools is a site that helps teachers set up and create a PLN. It has information and resources from multiple teachers and includes a variety of resources for teachers to use to connect with other educators. The site was created as part of a presentation for FETC 2009.
I'm a huge proponent of PLNs and this is definitely a great site to use to create or expand your own PLN.
Related Articles:
http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/p/create-personal-learning-network.html
Using VoiceThread in Moodle - Documentation
For users of Moodle, VoiceThread recently announced some useful new information. VoiceThread has published documentation for integrating VoiceThread modules into Moodle 1.9. In this documentation you will find all you need to know to embed VoiceThreads into Moodle, creating VoiceThread assignments with Moodle, and authenticating with single sign-on.
Applications for EducationHere's an idea that I've previously shared about using VoiceThread in a history classroom:VoiceThread could be used as a great tool for students, parents, and teachers to collaborate on a local history project. Local historical societies are always looking for people willing to share information and knowledge. Creating a VoiceThread to share with a local historical society would be a great way for students to learn about their local history and perform a community service at the same time. Students and teachers could invite their parents and grandparents to share their knowledge of local history in the VoiceThread conversation.
Great Web 2.0 Resources for Students
There are some really great Web 2.0 Resources for Students out there that can help students with their school work, getting organized, and using other Web 2.0 resources. Here is a list of some of my favorites.TRACKCLASS:Trackclass is a great, free resource for students. The site allows students to track their classes and assignments, and even will send reminders (email or SMS) for upcoming assignment due dates and test dates. There is also a note taking utility so students can take notes on it if they have a computer in school, or transcribe notes later. You can even attach files to each class and assignment to keep things organized. It is a great way for students to stay organized.There is also a version for mobile phones and the iPhone, so students can stay organized no matter where they are.I found it very easy to use, with a great help section. I wish they had this when I was in school! I was even thinking that teachers could use this too.
Shoshiku is another free class organizer, similar to Trackclass. It has a calendar, notes, task list, and reminder system like Trackclass. It is not as full featured, in my opinion, as Trackclass, but it is easy to use and some students may like it better than Trackclass.
Dweeber is a homework collaboration site that also has tools to help students learn better. It is described as a homework social network. Students sign up, for free, and can add their friends, known as "dweebs" to their network. Students can work on homework together and help each other out. It even as a virtual whiteboard so that they can work together just as if they were in the same room. There is a message center, study sessions, and even a place to post links to web sites that you find helpful in doing your work.
This is a great resource for students who can't get together physically to work on homework or projects.
Google Student Blog:
I am a huge user and fan of Google's many applications and their use in education. I use Blogger for this blog and my classroom blogs, Google Sites for my classroom site, Google Docs, Google Earth, iGoogle and much more with my students and for my own use. I show my students Google's applications because they are easy to use, useful, and free.
Google recently launched the Google Student Blog. This blog site is a great resource for students who use Google's products. It includes information, updates, how-to's, tips, and much more on how to use Google's applications as a student. If your students use Google's products, they should be reading theGoogle Student Blog. Scribblar:
Scribblar is an online meeting room / white board. Students can use it to collaborate on projects, teachers can tutor via the computer, and teachers can use it for collaborative meetings and projects.
Scribblar gives the users a virtual white board on the screen and writing tools to create text, lines and shapes. They can even add images.
There is also a chat window on the side bar so that users can talk to each other while working. There is even a live chat system if you have a microphone and speakers.
I see students using this to work on homework problems together. Teachers could use this to help students with homework after school or on the weekends.
Scribblar can now support PDF files. Free users can upload PDFs with up to 5 pages. Your uploaded PDF will be turned into an editable image in Scribblar.
Evernote
Evernote is a great, free resource that allows you to easily capture information using whatever device or operating system you use. It then makes this information accessible and searchable from anywhere. Their tagline: Remember Everything.
You can capture task lists, notes, web pages, white boards, business cards, pictures, and even clip web pages toEvernote.
You can download a desktop version of the software, for free, which will sync to the Evernote web server, or you can just access it through the internet on their web page. You can also access it through a mobile device. They have downloadable applications for the iPhone, Blackberry, Android, and Windows Mobile devices. You can also access their mobile website on any web-enabled phone.
You can create new notes via desktop, web, or mobile version. You can also use your camera phone or web cam to take a snapshot and Evernote can even recognize the text in the image. You can also email notes, clip web pages, record audio notes, and scan papers, receipts and more into Evernote.
Their website has easy to follow instructions and help sections. Students can use Evernote to take notes in class, share notes with other students, capture notes off of a whiteboard or poster using their smartphone camera, and much more.
DropboxDropbox is a service that allows you to sync your files on your computer with their system as a backup. This also allows you to access the files anywhere. You can also sync the files across multiple computers. This means that you have automatic backup of your files and 24/7 access to your files. I have it set up to sync a folder on my home computer and school computer so I don't have to worry about having multiple versions or forgetting a flash drive.
There are also Dropbox apps for iPhone, Android, iPad and there is one coming for Blackberry. There is an independent app for Palm webOS, but you can also access the mobile site from any web-enabled phone. Imagine being able to access all of your files on your smartphone!
One feature that is very nice is the fact that it works with network drives like we use in my district. Some of the other cloud file storage and sync systems can't work with network drives. I was very happy to see this was able to be done with Dropbox.
Students can use this to access and back up their files anywhere. They can also share files with each other which is useful when working on projects.
E-Learners:This web site has some great resources for students and teachers, including test prep, study skills, organization, grammar and writing, and career planning. Everything broken down by topic and is listed on one page, so it is easy to find things.
I created a Google Presentation about Google and other free applications and resources for students that I will be sharing with my students next week. I feel that these are the tools and resources that will be the most useful to them, with the shortest amount of training time required.
I thought I would also share it with you. You can view it HERE.
Audio of Best of the EdTech Web 2010
Last Friday at ACTEM's annual conference and again on Monday at CECA's annual conference I gave my Best of the EdTech Web 2010 presentation. Bob Sprankle recorded the audio of Friday's presentation and it is now available on his blog Bit by Bit. Listen to the recording here.
The slides from my talk are embedded below.
3 Tools to Help You Save Paper & Ink in Your Classroom
Print What You Likeis a simple web tool that lets users select just a portion of a website. This is particularly useful for printing articles from websites or blogs that do not have a "printer friendly" option. Print What You Like is not simply a cropping tool, users can also remove images from the background or foreground of a website before printing.If you have ever wanted to print an article from a blog or a website, but wish you could do it without printing all of the ads and widgets in the side columns, you should take a look at PrintFriendly.PrintFriendly strips away all of the ads and side bar content allowing you to print only the article on the page. There are two ways to use PrintFriendly. You can copy and paste an article's url into the PrintFriendly homepage or use thePrintFriendly bookmarklet. I tried it both ways and much prefer using the bookmarklet as it doesn't require any toggling between browser tabs or windows. Below is a video overview of PrintFriendly.
Popout
Printliminator is a handy little bookmarklet for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. Printliminator allows you to highlight a webpage and select only the elements which you wish to print. You can installPrintliminator in seconds by just clicking and dragging it into your browser's toolbar. Watch the video below to learn more about Printliminator.
Popout
Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010
Jane Hart, a social business consultant, and founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, has been compiling a list of the top 100 tools for learning since 2007.The 2010 list is currently being compiled and you can view the full list here – Emerging Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010.Interestingly, you can compare the ranking of the tools over the last four years. So far, it is fascinating to see how popular Twitter and YouTube have become since 2007. It is also interesting to see how many top 100 tools there are this year that were not rated in previous years. Most of the tools on the list so far are free which is great to see.Voting will close on 17th October 2010. I encourage all educators to take the time to share their Top Tools, to help make a comprehensive and useful list for all.It was a very tough choice but my top 10 tools are
Top 10 Sites for Bookmarking and Annotating
Annotation is asummary made ofinformation in a book,document, online record, video, software code or other information, "in the margin", or perhaps just underlined or highlighted passages (wikipedia). This is a very useful skill or tool to have that goes along w/ bookmarking, when it comes to managing information the web.
Top 10 sites for Bookmarking & Annotating
- Diigo - Excellent site for bookmarking and annotating w/ the ability to create student accounts, simply the best!!
- Delicioius - Probably the most popular bookmarking site on the web w/ lots of educators to be found!!
- iCyte - Similar to Diigo w/ the ability to annotate and then share or embed into a site.
- Rooh.It - A great way to highlight content on the web and then share w/ others and add comments!
- Digg - A popular way to bookmark w/ the ability to share w/ others, comment, and even generate a widget for a website.
- Trailmeme - An innovative site w/ a beautiful user interface for annotating web content and generating a unique user interface/path to follow.
- Jog the Web - Similar to Trailmeme and very user friendly (nice Web 2.0 jogs to follow!!).
- Pinboard - A very simple site to bookmark w/out all of the clutter that some of the more popular sites have. Also, works well w/ mobile devices!!
- School Noodle - A great way for teachers to bookmarks sites and then share these resources w/ other educators!!
- Krunchd - A nice way to take a collection of sites and create one unique URL for all of them.
Perk Up your Projects
Perk Up your Projects is a great wiki that I just found out about from Naomi Harm. This is a website filled w/ a ton of resources for educators that focuses on Web 2.0 and different applications that can be used in the classroom. Also, a number of different projects can be found w/ examples such as: timelines, slideshows, comic creators, etc etc.
I highly recommend giving Perk Up your Projects by clickinghere!!!
Wikispaces PD Training Wiki
Today, on their blog Wikispaces introduced a new resource for professional development facilitators. Wikispaces's PD Presenter Toolkitis a wiki that is designed to help you introduce other educators to wikis. The PD Presenter Toolkit includes a presenter's guide, slides, and a series of six graduated activities that you can use to help other educators learn how to use Wikispaces and how wikis in general can be used in education. The PD Presenter Toolkit also includes a list of wikis used in a variety of grade levels and content areas.
Applications for EducationIf you find yourself introducing educators to the concepts of and educational uses for wikis, the PD Presenter Toolkit is a wiki that you should check out. The PD Presenter Toolkit, based on a workshop developed by Dr. Mark Wagner, could be used as is or you could use some of the resources and blend them with your own ideas to make a PD workshop as relevant as possible for your school.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
11 Techy Things for Teachers to Try This Year
A Great Alternative To Traditional Book Reports
What's in the Super Book of Web Tools for Educators?
In my excitement over releasing The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators I left out posting a table of contents separate from the document.
Creating a Personal Learning Network with Web 2.0 Tools
Creating a Personal Learning Network with Web 2.0 Tools is a site that helps teachers set up and create a PLN. It has information and resources from multiple teachers and includes a variety of resources for teachers to use to connect with other educators. The site was created as part of a presentation for FETC 2009.
I'm a huge proponent of PLNs and this is definitely a great site to use to create or expand your own PLN.
Related Articles:
http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/p/create-personal-learning-network.html
Using VoiceThread in Moodle - Documentation
For users of Moodle, VoiceThread recently announced some useful new information. VoiceThread has published documentation for integrating VoiceThread modules into Moodle 1.9. In this documentation you will find all you need to know to embed VoiceThreads into Moodle, creating VoiceThread assignments with Moodle, and authenticating with single sign-on.
Applications for EducationHere's an idea that I've previously shared about using VoiceThread in a history classroom:VoiceThread could be used as a great tool for students, parents, and teachers to collaborate on a local history project. Local historical societies are always looking for people willing to share information and knowledge. Creating a VoiceThread to share with a local historical society would be a great way for students to learn about their local history and perform a community service at the same time. Students and teachers could invite their parents and grandparents to share their knowledge of local history in the VoiceThread conversation.
Great Web 2.0 Resources for Students
There are some really great Web 2.0 Resources for Students out there that can help students with their school work, getting organized, and using other Web 2.0 resources. Here is a list of some of my favorites.TRACKCLASS:Trackclass is a great, free resource for students. The site allows students to track their classes and assignments, and even will send reminders (email or SMS) for upcoming assignment due dates and test dates. There is also a note taking utility so students can take notes on it if they have a computer in school, or transcribe notes later. You can even attach files to each class and assignment to keep things organized. It is a great way for students to stay organized.There is also a version for mobile phones and the iPhone, so students can stay organized no matter where they are.I found it very easy to use, with a great help section. I wish they had this when I was in school! I was even thinking that teachers could use this too.
Shoshiku is another free class organizer, similar to Trackclass. It has a calendar, notes, task list, and reminder system like Trackclass. It is not as full featured, in my opinion, as Trackclass, but it is easy to use and some students may like it better than Trackclass.
Dweeber is a homework collaboration site that also has tools to help students learn better. It is described as a homework social network. Students sign up, for free, and can add their friends, known as "dweebs" to their network. Students can work on homework together and help each other out. It even as a virtual whiteboard so that they can work together just as if they were in the same room. There is a message center, study sessions, and even a place to post links to web sites that you find helpful in doing your work.
This is a great resource for students who can't get together physically to work on homework or projects.
Google Student Blog:
I am a huge user and fan of Google's many applications and their use in education. I use Blogger for this blog and my classroom blogs, Google Sites for my classroom site, Google Docs, Google Earth, iGoogle and much more with my students and for my own use. I show my students Google's applications because they are easy to use, useful, and free.
Google recently launched the Google Student Blog. This blog site is a great resource for students who use Google's products. It includes information, updates, how-to's, tips, and much more on how to use Google's applications as a student. If your students use Google's products, they should be reading theGoogle Student Blog. Scribblar:
Scribblar is an online meeting room / white board. Students can use it to collaborate on projects, teachers can tutor via the computer, and teachers can use it for collaborative meetings and projects.
Scribblar gives the users a virtual white board on the screen and writing tools to create text, lines and shapes. They can even add images.
There is also a chat window on the side bar so that users can talk to each other while working. There is even a live chat system if you have a microphone and speakers.
I see students using this to work on homework problems together. Teachers could use this to help students with homework after school or on the weekends.
Scribblar can now support PDF files. Free users can upload PDFs with up to 5 pages. Your uploaded PDF will be turned into an editable image in Scribblar.
Evernote
Evernote is a great, free resource that allows you to easily capture information using whatever device or operating system you use. It then makes this information accessible and searchable from anywhere. Their tagline: Remember Everything.
You can capture task lists, notes, web pages, white boards, business cards, pictures, and even clip web pages toEvernote.
You can download a desktop version of the software, for free, which will sync to the Evernote web server, or you can just access it through the internet on their web page. You can also access it through a mobile device. They have downloadable applications for the iPhone, Blackberry, Android, and Windows Mobile devices. You can also access their mobile website on any web-enabled phone.
You can create new notes via desktop, web, or mobile version. You can also use your camera phone or web cam to take a snapshot and Evernote can even recognize the text in the image. You can also email notes, clip web pages, record audio notes, and scan papers, receipts and more into Evernote.
Their website has easy to follow instructions and help sections. Students can use Evernote to take notes in class, share notes with other students, capture notes off of a whiteboard or poster using their smartphone camera, and much more.
DropboxDropbox is a service that allows you to sync your files on your computer with their system as a backup. This also allows you to access the files anywhere. You can also sync the files across multiple computers. This means that you have automatic backup of your files and 24/7 access to your files. I have it set up to sync a folder on my home computer and school computer so I don't have to worry about having multiple versions or forgetting a flash drive.
There are also Dropbox apps for iPhone, Android, iPad and there is one coming for Blackberry. There is an independent app for Palm webOS, but you can also access the mobile site from any web-enabled phone. Imagine being able to access all of your files on your smartphone!
One feature that is very nice is the fact that it works with network drives like we use in my district. Some of the other cloud file storage and sync systems can't work with network drives. I was very happy to see this was able to be done with Dropbox.
Students can use this to access and back up their files anywhere. They can also share files with each other which is useful when working on projects.
E-Learners:This web site has some great resources for students and teachers, including test prep, study skills, organization, grammar and writing, and career planning. Everything broken down by topic and is listed on one page, so it is easy to find things.
I created a Google Presentation about Google and other free applications and resources for students that I will be sharing with my students next week. I feel that these are the tools and resources that will be the most useful to them, with the shortest amount of training time required.
I thought I would also share it with you. You can view it HERE.
Audio of Best of the EdTech Web 2010
Last Friday at ACTEM's annual conference and again on Monday at CECA's annual conference I gave my Best of the EdTech Web 2010 presentation. Bob Sprankle recorded the audio of Friday's presentation and it is now available on his blog Bit by Bit. Listen to the recording here.
The slides from my talk are embedded below.
3 Tools to Help You Save Paper & Ink in Your Classroom
Print What You Likeis a simple web tool that lets users select just a portion of a website. This is particularly useful for printing articles from websites or blogs that do not have a "printer friendly" option. Print What You Like is not simply a cropping tool, users can also remove images from the background or foreground of a website before printing.If you have ever wanted to print an article from a blog or a website, but wish you could do it without printing all of the ads and widgets in the side columns, you should take a look at PrintFriendly.PrintFriendly strips away all of the ads and side bar content allowing you to print only the article on the page. There are two ways to use PrintFriendly. You can copy and paste an article's url into the PrintFriendly homepage or use thePrintFriendly bookmarklet. I tried it both ways and much prefer using the bookmarklet as it doesn't require any toggling between browser tabs or windows. Below is a video overview of PrintFriendly.
Popout
Printliminator is a handy little bookmarklet for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. Printliminator allows you to highlight a webpage and select only the elements which you wish to print. You can installPrintliminator in seconds by just clicking and dragging it into your browser's toolbar. Watch the video below to learn more about Printliminator.
Popout
Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010
Jane Hart, a social business consultant, and founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, has been compiling a list of the top 100 tools for learning since 2007.The 2010 list is currently being compiled and you can view the full list here – Emerging Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010.Interestingly, you can compare the ranking of the tools over the last four years. So far, it is fascinating to see how popular Twitter and YouTube have become since 2007. It is also interesting to see how many top 100 tools there are this year that were not rated in previous years. Most of the tools on the list so far are free which is great to see.Voting will close on 17th October 2010. I encourage all educators to take the time to share their Top Tools, to help make a comprehensive and useful list for all.It was a very tough choice but my top 10 tools are
Top 10 Sites for Bookmarking and Annotating
Annotation is asummary made ofinformation in a book,document, online record, video, software code or other information, "in the margin", or perhaps just underlined or highlighted passages (wikipedia). This is a very useful skill or tool to have that goes along w/ bookmarking, when it comes to managing information the web.
Top 10 sites for Bookmarking & Annotating
- Diigo - Excellent site for bookmarking and annotating w/ the ability to create student accounts, simply the best!!
- Delicioius - Probably the most popular bookmarking site on the web w/ lots of educators to be found!!
- iCyte - Similar to Diigo w/ the ability to annotate and then share or embed into a site.
- Rooh.It - A great way to highlight content on the web and then share w/ others and add comments!
- Digg - A popular way to bookmark w/ the ability to share w/ others, comment, and even generate a widget for a website.
- Trailmeme - An innovative site w/ a beautiful user interface for annotating web content and generating a unique user interface/path to follow.
- Jog the Web - Similar to Trailmeme and very user friendly (nice Web 2.0 jogs to follow!!).
- Pinboard - A very simple site to bookmark w/out all of the clutter that some of the more popular sites have. Also, works well w/ mobile devices!!
- School Noodle - A great way for teachers to bookmarks sites and then share these resources w/ other educators!!
- Krunchd - A nice way to take a collection of sites and create one unique URL for all of them.
What's in the Super Book of Web Tools for Educators?
In my excitement over releasing The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators I left out posting a table of contents separate from the document.
Creating a Personal Learning Network with Web 2.0 Tools
Creating a Personal Learning Network with Web 2.0 Tools is a site that helps teachers set up and create a PLN. It has information and resources from multiple teachers and includes a variety of resources for teachers to use to connect with other educators. The site was created as part of a presentation for FETC 2009.
I'm a huge proponent of PLNs and this is definitely a great site to use to create or expand your own PLN.
Related Articles:
http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/p/create-personal-learning-network.html
Using VoiceThread in Moodle - Documentation
For users of Moodle, VoiceThread recently announced some useful new information. VoiceThread has published documentation for integrating VoiceThread modules into Moodle 1.9. In this documentation you will find all you need to know to embed VoiceThreads into Moodle, creating VoiceThread assignments with Moodle, and authenticating with single sign-on.
Applications for EducationHere's an idea that I've previously shared about using VoiceThread in a history classroom:VoiceThread could be used as a great tool for students, parents, and teachers to collaborate on a local history project. Local historical societies are always looking for people willing to share information and knowledge. Creating a VoiceThread to share with a local historical society would be a great way for students to learn about their local history and perform a community service at the same time. Students and teachers could invite their parents and grandparents to share their knowledge of local history in the VoiceThread conversation.
Great Web 2.0 Resources for Students
There are some really great Web 2.0 Resources for Students out there that can help students with their school work, getting organized, and using other Web 2.0 resources. Here is a list of some of my favorites.TRACKCLASS:Trackclass is a great, free resource for students. The site allows students to track their classes and assignments, and even will send reminders (email or SMS) for upcoming assignment due dates and test dates. There is also a note taking utility so students can take notes on it if they have a computer in school, or transcribe notes later. You can even attach files to each class and assignment to keep things organized. It is a great way for students to stay organized.There is also a version for mobile phones and the iPhone, so students can stay organized no matter where they are.I found it very easy to use, with a great help section. I wish they had this when I was in school! I was even thinking that teachers could use this too.
Shoshiku is another free class organizer, similar to Trackclass. It has a calendar, notes, task list, and reminder system like Trackclass. It is not as full featured, in my opinion, as Trackclass, but it is easy to use and some students may like it better than Trackclass.
Dweeber is a homework collaboration site that also has tools to help students learn better. It is described as a homework social network. Students sign up, for free, and can add their friends, known as "dweebs" to their network. Students can work on homework together and help each other out. It even as a virtual whiteboard so that they can work together just as if they were in the same room. There is a message center, study sessions, and even a place to post links to web sites that you find helpful in doing your work.
This is a great resource for students who can't get together physically to work on homework or projects.
Google Student Blog:
I am a huge user and fan of Google's many applications and their use in education. I use Blogger for this blog and my classroom blogs, Google Sites for my classroom site, Google Docs, Google Earth, iGoogle and much more with my students and for my own use. I show my students Google's applications because they are easy to use, useful, and free.
Google recently launched the Google Student Blog. This blog site is a great resource for students who use Google's products. It includes information, updates, how-to's, tips, and much more on how to use Google's applications as a student. If your students use Google's products, they should be reading theGoogle Student Blog. Scribblar:
Scribblar is an online meeting room / white board. Students can use it to collaborate on projects, teachers can tutor via the computer, and teachers can use it for collaborative meetings and projects.
Scribblar gives the users a virtual white board on the screen and writing tools to create text, lines and shapes. They can even add images.
There is also a chat window on the side bar so that users can talk to each other while working. There is even a live chat system if you have a microphone and speakers.
I see students using this to work on homework problems together. Teachers could use this to help students with homework after school or on the weekends.
Scribblar can now support PDF files. Free users can upload PDFs with up to 5 pages. Your uploaded PDF will be turned into an editable image in Scribblar.
Evernote
Evernote is a great, free resource that allows you to easily capture information using whatever device or operating system you use. It then makes this information accessible and searchable from anywhere. Their tagline: Remember Everything.
You can capture task lists, notes, web pages, white boards, business cards, pictures, and even clip web pages toEvernote.
You can download a desktop version of the software, for free, which will sync to the Evernote web server, or you can just access it through the internet on their web page. You can also access it through a mobile device. They have downloadable applications for the iPhone, Blackberry, Android, and Windows Mobile devices. You can also access their mobile website on any web-enabled phone.
You can create new notes via desktop, web, or mobile version. You can also use your camera phone or web cam to take a snapshot and Evernote can even recognize the text in the image. You can also email notes, clip web pages, record audio notes, and scan papers, receipts and more into Evernote.
Their website has easy to follow instructions and help sections. Students can use Evernote to take notes in class, share notes with other students, capture notes off of a whiteboard or poster using their smartphone camera, and much more.
DropboxDropbox is a service that allows you to sync your files on your computer with their system as a backup. This also allows you to access the files anywhere. You can also sync the files across multiple computers. This means that you have automatic backup of your files and 24/7 access to your files. I have it set up to sync a folder on my home computer and school computer so I don't have to worry about having multiple versions or forgetting a flash drive.
There are also Dropbox apps for iPhone, Android, iPad and there is one coming for Blackberry. There is an independent app for Palm webOS, but you can also access the mobile site from any web-enabled phone. Imagine being able to access all of your files on your smartphone!
One feature that is very nice is the fact that it works with network drives like we use in my district. Some of the other cloud file storage and sync systems can't work with network drives. I was very happy to see this was able to be done with Dropbox.
Students can use this to access and back up their files anywhere. They can also share files with each other which is useful when working on projects.
E-Learners:This web site has some great resources for students and teachers, including test prep, study skills, organization, grammar and writing, and career planning. Everything broken down by topic and is listed on one page, so it is easy to find things.
I created a Google Presentation about Google and other free applications and resources for students that I will be sharing with my students next week. I feel that these are the tools and resources that will be the most useful to them, with the shortest amount of training time required.
I thought I would also share it with you. You can view it HERE.
Audio of Best of the EdTech Web 2010
Last Friday at ACTEM's annual conference and again on Monday at CECA's annual conference I gave my Best of the EdTech Web 2010 presentation. Bob Sprankle recorded the audio of Friday's presentation and it is now available on his blog Bit by Bit. Listen to the recording here.
The slides from my talk are embedded below.
3 Tools to Help You Save Paper & Ink in Your Classroom
Print What You Likeis a simple web tool that lets users select just a portion of a website. This is particularly useful for printing articles from websites or blogs that do not have a "printer friendly" option. Print What You Like is not simply a cropping tool, users can also remove images from the background or foreground of a website before printing.If you have ever wanted to print an article from a blog or a website, but wish you could do it without printing all of the ads and widgets in the side columns, you should take a look at PrintFriendly.PrintFriendly strips away all of the ads and side bar content allowing you to print only the article on the page. There are two ways to use PrintFriendly. You can copy and paste an article's url into the PrintFriendly homepage or use thePrintFriendly bookmarklet. I tried it both ways and much prefer using the bookmarklet as it doesn't require any toggling between browser tabs or windows. Below is a video overview of PrintFriendly.
Popout
Printliminator is a handy little bookmarklet for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. Printliminator allows you to highlight a webpage and select only the elements which you wish to print. You can installPrintliminator in seconds by just clicking and dragging it into your browser's toolbar. Watch the video below to learn more about Printliminator.
Popout
What's in the Super Book of Web Tools for Educators?
In my excitement over releasing The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators I left out posting a table of contents separate from the document.
Creating a Personal Learning Network with Web 2.0 Tools
Creating a Personal Learning Network with Web 2.0 Tools is a site that helps teachers set up and create a PLN. It has information and resources from multiple teachers and includes a variety of resources for teachers to use to connect with other educators. The site was created as part of a presentation for FETC 2009.
I'm a huge proponent of PLNs and this is definitely a great site to use to create or expand your own PLN.
Related Articles:
http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/p/create-personal-learning-network.html
Using VoiceThread in Moodle - Documentation
For users of Moodle, VoiceThread recently announced some useful new information. VoiceThread has published documentation for integrating VoiceThread modules into Moodle 1.9. In this documentation you will find all you need to know to embed VoiceThreads into Moodle, creating VoiceThread assignments with Moodle, and authenticating with single sign-on.
Applications for EducationHere's an idea that I've previously shared about using VoiceThread in a history classroom:VoiceThread could be used as a great tool for students, parents, and teachers to collaborate on a local history project. Local historical societies are always looking for people willing to share information and knowledge. Creating a VoiceThread to share with a local historical society would be a great way for students to learn about their local history and perform a community service at the same time. Students and teachers could invite their parents and grandparents to share their knowledge of local history in the VoiceThread conversation.
Great Web 2.0 Resources for Students
There are some really great Web 2.0 Resources for Students out there that can help students with their school work, getting organized, and using other Web 2.0 resources. Here is a list of some of my favorites.TRACKCLASS:Trackclass is a great, free resource for students. The site allows students to track their classes and assignments, and even will send reminders (email or SMS) for upcoming assignment due dates and test dates. There is also a note taking utility so students can take notes on it if they have a computer in school, or transcribe notes later. You can even attach files to each class and assignment to keep things organized. It is a great way for students to stay organized.There is also a version for mobile phones and the iPhone, so students can stay organized no matter where they are.I found it very easy to use, with a great help section. I wish they had this when I was in school! I was even thinking that teachers could use this too.
Shoshiku is another free class organizer, similar to Trackclass. It has a calendar, notes, task list, and reminder system like Trackclass. It is not as full featured, in my opinion, as Trackclass, but it is easy to use and some students may like it better than Trackclass.
Dweeber is a homework collaboration site that also has tools to help students learn better. It is described as a homework social network. Students sign up, for free, and can add their friends, known as "dweebs" to their network. Students can work on homework together and help each other out. It even as a virtual whiteboard so that they can work together just as if they were in the same room. There is a message center, study sessions, and even a place to post links to web sites that you find helpful in doing your work.
This is a great resource for students who can't get together physically to work on homework or projects.
Google Student Blog:
I am a huge user and fan of Google's many applications and their use in education. I use Blogger for this blog and my classroom blogs, Google Sites for my classroom site, Google Docs, Google Earth, iGoogle and much more with my students and for my own use. I show my students Google's applications because they are easy to use, useful, and free.
Google recently launched the Google Student Blog. This blog site is a great resource for students who use Google's products. It includes information, updates, how-to's, tips, and much more on how to use Google's applications as a student. If your students use Google's products, they should be reading theGoogle Student Blog. Scribblar:
Scribblar is an online meeting room / white board. Students can use it to collaborate on projects, teachers can tutor via the computer, and teachers can use it for collaborative meetings and projects.
Scribblar gives the users a virtual white board on the screen and writing tools to create text, lines and shapes. They can even add images.
There is also a chat window on the side bar so that users can talk to each other while working. There is even a live chat system if you have a microphone and speakers.
I see students using this to work on homework problems together. Teachers could use this to help students with homework after school or on the weekends.
Scribblar can now support PDF files. Free users can upload PDFs with up to 5 pages. Your uploaded PDF will be turned into an editable image in Scribblar.
Evernote
Evernote is a great, free resource that allows you to easily capture information using whatever device or operating system you use. It then makes this information accessible and searchable from anywhere. Their tagline: Remember Everything.
You can capture task lists, notes, web pages, white boards, business cards, pictures, and even clip web pages toEvernote.
You can download a desktop version of the software, for free, which will sync to the Evernote web server, or you can just access it through the internet on their web page. You can also access it through a mobile device. They have downloadable applications for the iPhone, Blackberry, Android, and Windows Mobile devices. You can also access their mobile website on any web-enabled phone.
You can create new notes via desktop, web, or mobile version. You can also use your camera phone or web cam to take a snapshot and Evernote can even recognize the text in the image. You can also email notes, clip web pages, record audio notes, and scan papers, receipts and more into Evernote.
Their website has easy to follow instructions and help sections. Students can use Evernote to take notes in class, share notes with other students, capture notes off of a whiteboard or poster using their smartphone camera, and much more.
DropboxDropbox is a service that allows you to sync your files on your computer with their system as a backup. This also allows you to access the files anywhere. You can also sync the files across multiple computers. This means that you have automatic backup of your files and 24/7 access to your files. I have it set up to sync a folder on my home computer and school computer so I don't have to worry about having multiple versions or forgetting a flash drive.
There are also Dropbox apps for iPhone, Android, iPad and there is one coming for Blackberry. There is an independent app for Palm webOS, but you can also access the mobile site from any web-enabled phone. Imagine being able to access all of your files on your smartphone!
One feature that is very nice is the fact that it works with network drives like we use in my district. Some of the other cloud file storage and sync systems can't work with network drives. I was very happy to see this was able to be done with Dropbox.
Students can use this to access and back up their files anywhere. They can also share files with each other which is useful when working on projects.
E-Learners:This web site has some great resources for students and teachers, including test prep, study skills, organization, grammar and writing, and career planning. Everything broken down by topic and is listed on one page, so it is easy to find things.
I created a Google Presentation about Google and other free applications and resources for students that I will be sharing with my students next week. I feel that these are the tools and resources that will be the most useful to them, with the shortest amount of training time required.
I thought I would also share it with you. You can view it HERE.
What's in the Super Book of Web Tools for Educators?
In my excitement over releasing The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators I left out posting a table of contents separate from the document.
Creating a Personal Learning Network with Web 2.0 Tools
Creating a Personal Learning Network with Web 2.0 Tools is a site that helps teachers set up and create a PLN. It has information and resources from multiple teachers and includes a variety of resources for teachers to use to connect with other educators. The site was created as part of a presentation for FETC 2009.
I'm a huge proponent of PLNs and this is definitely a great site to use to create or expand your own PLN.
Related Articles:
http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/p/create-personal-learning-network.html
What's in the Super Book of Web Tools for Educators?
In my excitement over releasing The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators I left out posting a table of contents separate from the document.
Creating a Personal Learning Network with Web 2.0 Tools is a site that helps teachers set up and create a PLN. It has information and resources from multiple teachers and includes a variety of resources for teachers to use to connect with other educators. The site was created as part of a presentation for FETC 2009.
I'm a huge proponent of PLNs and this is definitely a great site to use to create or expand your own PLN.
Related Articles:
http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/p/create-personal-learning-network.html
Using VoiceThread in Moodle - Documentation
For users of Moodle, VoiceThread recently announced some useful new information. VoiceThread has published documentation for integrating VoiceThread modules into Moodle 1.9. In this documentation you will find all you need to know to embed VoiceThreads into Moodle, creating VoiceThread assignments with Moodle, and authenticating with single sign-on.
Applications for Education
Here's an idea that I've previously shared about using VoiceThread in a history classroom:VoiceThread could be used as a great tool for students, parents, and teachers to collaborate on a local history project. Local historical societies are always looking for people willing to share information and knowledge. Creating a VoiceThread to share with a local historical society would be a great way for students to learn about their local history and perform a community service at the same time. Students and teachers could invite their parents and grandparents to share their knowledge of local history in the VoiceThread conversation. Shoshiku is another free class organizer, similar to Trackclass. It has a calendar, notes, task list, and reminder system like Trackclass. It is not as full featured, in my opinion, as Trackclass, but it is easy to use and some students may like it better than Trackclass.
Dweeber is a homework collaboration site that also has tools to help students learn better. It is described as a homework social network. Students sign up, for free, and can add their friends, known as "dweebs" to their network. Students can work on homework together and help each other out. It even as a virtual whiteboard so that they can work together just as if they were in the same room. There is a message center, study sessions, and even a place to post links to web sites that you find helpful in doing your work.
This is a great resource for students who can't get together physically to work on homework or projects.
Google Student Blog:
I am a huge user and fan of Google's many applications and their use in education. I use Blogger for this blog and my classroom blogs, Google Sites for my classroom site, Google Docs, Google Earth, iGoogle and much more with my students and for my own use. I show my students Google's applications because they are easy to use, useful, and free.
Google recently launched the Google Student Blog. This blog site is a great resource for students who use Google's products. It includes information, updates, how-to's, tips, and much more on how to use Google's applications as a student. If your students use Google's products, they should be reading theGoogle Student Blog.
Scribblar:
Scribblar is an online meeting room / white board. Students can use it to collaborate on projects, teachers can tutor via the computer, and teachers can use it for collaborative meetings and projects.
Scribblar gives the users a virtual white board on the screen and writing tools to create text, lines and shapes. They can even add images.
There is also a chat window on the side bar so that users can talk to each other while working. There is even a live chat system if you have a microphone and speakers.
I see students using this to work on homework problems together. Teachers could use this to help students with homework after school or on the weekends.
Scribblar can now support PDF files. Free users can upload PDFs with up to 5 pages. Your uploaded PDF will be turned into an editable image in Scribblar.
Evernote
Evernote is a great, free resource that allows you to easily capture information using whatever device or operating system you use. It then makes this information accessible and searchable from anywhere. Their tagline: Remember Everything.
You can capture task lists, notes, web pages, white boards, business cards, pictures, and even clip web pages toEvernote.
You can download a desktop version of the software, for free, which will sync to the Evernote web server, or you can just access it through the internet on their web page. You can also access it through a mobile device. They have downloadable applications for the iPhone, Blackberry, Android, and Windows Mobile devices. You can also access their mobile website on any web-enabled phone.
You can create new notes via desktop, web, or mobile version. You can also use your camera phone or web cam to take a snapshot and Evernote can even recognize the text in the image. You can also email notes, clip web pages, record audio notes, and scan papers, receipts and more into Evernote.
Their website has easy to follow instructions and help sections. Students can use Evernote to take notes in class, share notes with other students, capture notes off of a whiteboard or poster using their smartphone camera, and much more.
Dropbox
Dropbox is a service that allows you to sync your files on your computer with their system as a backup. This also allows you to access the files anywhere. You can also sync the files across multiple computers. This means that you have automatic backup of your files and 24/7 access to your files. I have it set up to sync a folder on my home computer and school computer so I don't have to worry about having multiple versions or forgetting a flash drive.
There are also Dropbox apps for iPhone, Android, iPad and there is one coming for Blackberry. There is an independent app for Palm webOS, but you can also access the mobile site from any web-enabled phone. Imagine being able to access all of your files on your smartphone!
One feature that is very nice is the fact that it works with network drives like we use in my district. Some of the other cloud file storage and sync systems can't work with network drives. I was very happy to see this was able to be done with Dropbox.
Students can use this to access and back up their files anywhere. They can also share files with each other which is useful when working on projects.
E-Learners:
This web site has some great resources for students and teachers, including test prep, study skills, organization, grammar and writing, and career planning. Everything broken down by topic and is listed on one page, so it is easy to find things.
I created a Google Presentation about Google and other free applications and resources for students that I will be sharing with my students next week. I feel that these are the tools and resources that will be the most useful to them, with the shortest amount of training time required.
I thought I would also share it with you. You can view it HERE.
Audio of Best of the EdTech Web 2010
| Last Friday at ACTEM's annual conference and again on Monday at CECA's annual conference I gave my Best of the EdTech Web 2010 presentation. Bob Sprankle recorded the audio of Friday's presentation and it is now available on his blog Bit by Bit. Listen to the recording here. |
The slides from my talk are embedded below.
Print What You Likeis a simple web tool that lets users select just a portion of a website. This is particularly useful for printing articles from websites or blogs that do not have a "printer friendly" option. Print What You Like is not simply a cropping tool, users can also remove images from the background or foreground of a website before printing.If you have ever wanted to print an article from a blog or a website, but wish you could do it without printing all of the ads and widgets in the side columns, you should take a look at PrintFriendly.PrintFriendly strips away all of the ads and side bar content allowing you to print only the article on the page. There are two ways to use PrintFriendly. You can copy and paste an article's url into the PrintFriendly homepage or use thePrintFriendly bookmarklet. I tried it both ways and much prefer using the bookmarklet as it doesn't require any toggling between browser tabs or windows. Below is a video overview of PrintFriendly.Popout
Printliminator is a handy little bookmarklet for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. Printliminator allows you to highlight a webpage and select only the elements which you wish to print. You can installPrintliminator in seconds by just clicking and dragging it into your browser's toolbar. Watch the video below to learn more about Printliminator.Popout
Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010
Jane Hart, a social business consultant, and founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, has been compiling a list of the top 100 tools for learning since 2007.
The 2010 list is currently being compiled and you can view the full list here – Emerging Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010.
Interestingly, you can compare the ranking of the tools over the last four years. So far, it is fascinating to see how popular Twitter and YouTube have become since 2007. It is also interesting to see how many top 100 tools there are this year that were not rated in previous years. Most of the tools on the list so far are free which is great to see.
Voting will close on 17th October 2010. I encourage all educators to take the time to share their Top Tools, to help make a comprehensive and useful list for all.
It was a very tough choice but my top 10 tools are
Annotation is asummary made ofinformation in a book,document, online record, video, software code or other information, "in the margin", or perhaps just underlined or highlighted passages (wikipedia). This is a very useful skill or tool to have that goes along w/ bookmarking, when it comes to managing information the web.
Top 10 sites for Bookmarking & Annotating
Top 10 sites for Bookmarking & Annotating
- Diigo - Excellent site for bookmarking and annotating w/ the ability to create student accounts, simply the best!!
- Delicioius - Probably the most popular bookmarking site on the web w/ lots of educators to be found!!
- iCyte - Similar to Diigo w/ the ability to annotate and then share or embed into a site.
- Rooh.It - A great way to highlight content on the web and then share w/ others and add comments!
- Digg - A popular way to bookmark w/ the ability to share w/ others, comment, and even generate a widget for a website.
- Trailmeme - An innovative site w/ a beautiful user interface for annotating web content and generating a unique user interface/path to follow.
- Jog the Web - Similar to Trailmeme and very user friendly (nice Web 2.0 jogs to follow!!).
- Pinboard - A very simple site to bookmark w/out all of the clutter that some of the more popular sites have. Also, works well w/ mobile devices!!
- School Noodle - A great way for teachers to bookmarks sites and then share these resources w/ other educators!!
- Krunchd - A nice way to take a collection of sites and create one unique URL for all of them.
Perk Up your Projects
Perk Up your Projects is a great wiki that I just found out about from Naomi Harm. This is a website filled w/ a ton of resources for educators that focuses on Web 2.0 and different applications that can be used in the classroom. Also, a number of different projects can be found w/ examples such as: timelines, slideshows, comic creators, etc etc.I highly recommend giving Perk Up your Projects by clickinghere!!!
Today, on their blog Wikispaces introduced a new resource for professional development facilitators. Wikispaces's PD Presenter Toolkitis a wiki that is designed to help you introduce other educators to wikis. The PD Presenter Toolkit includes a presenter's guide, slides, and a series of six graduated activities that you can use to help other educators learn how to use Wikispaces and how wikis in general can be used in education. The PD Presenter Toolkit also includes a list of wikis used in a variety of grade levels and content areas.Applications for EducationIf you find yourself introducing educators to the concepts of and educational uses for wikis, the PD Presenter Toolkit is a wiki that you should check out. The PD Presenter Toolkit, based on a workshop developed by Dr. Mark Wagner, could be used as is or you could use some of the resources and blend them with your own ideas to make a PD workshop as relevant as possible for your school.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
11 Techy Things for Teachers to Try This Year
A Great Alternative To Traditional Book Reports
Zoho Wiki
Zoho Wiki is an online portal for creating a collaborative website. This can be an excellent tool for schools as it allows educators to create interactive online content for students. It's almost like a full fledged content management system.Straight from their site a list of their features:
- Wikis help Teachers to create virtual classrooms for their students to stay connected beyond classroom and harness the power of an extended classroom.
- Maintain online schedules and calendars for students to track project / assignment deadlines.
- Host pictures, slide shows, photo galleries, video clips of school or classroom events.
- Encourage parent's participation in classroom activities and keep them updated on their children's performance.
- Showcase the positive happenings in a classroom or school in your website.
Edublogs is a blogging platform that is quite popular with educators.Edublogs provides services for individuals, for classrooms, and for entire school systems. Edublogs Campus is the service for classrooms and school systems that allows teachers to manage the blogs their students create. Edublogs Campusis normally a fee-based service, but right now they are making a nice free offer. Right now you can sign up for Edublogs Campus and use it for free for a semester with no strings attached. Learn more here.For those people who are interested in individual Edublogs accounts, the free version of Edublogs inserts ads into your blog. For $40/year edublogs removes those advertisements.
Fotobabble is a free service that allows you to quickly turn a picture into an audio picture story. Using Fotoabble is easy, just upload an image toFotobabble, allow Fotobabble to access your computer's microphone, and start recording your voice. You can comment on your photo, explain what's happening your photo, or tell a story related to your photo. When you've completed your recording you can save it in your Fotobabble account, contribute to a public gallery and or embed it into your blog.
100 Ways to Use VoiceThread in Education
100 Ways to Use VoiceThread in EDU is the title of a collaborative effort to gather educators' ideas for usingVoiceThread in the classroom. Watch, read, and listen below. I learned about this project from Sarah Sutter, thanks Sarah.
100 Ways to Use VoiceThread in EDU is the title of a collaborative effort to gather educators' ideas for usingVoiceThread in the classroom. Watch, read, and listen below. I learned about this project from Sarah Sutter, thanks Sarah.
“Connect, Collaborate, Create”
Thanks to Shelly Terrell and to The Bits and Pieces Place, I have just learned about an exceptional place to learn how to use Web 2.0 tools.
It’s called Connect, Collaborate, Create was created by Pip Cleaves, and has step-by-step instructions on how to use some of the best Web 2.0 tools out there for educational use. You really need to visit it.
If at some point you are prompted to log-in, all you have to do is click “Login as Guest.”
Blogging 4 Everyone
Blogging 4 Everyone is a simple little course I designed to help introduce the concept of blogging to students & teachers. Not only does this course offer tips w/ a tutorial video, but it lists my top 5 blogging solutions for education:
Click here to access the course wiki and please feel free to use as you see fit!!!
“Connect, Collaborate, Create”
Thanks to Shelly Terrell and to The Bits and Pieces Place, I have just learned about an exceptional place to learn how to use Web 2.0 tools.
It’s called Connect, Collaborate, Create was created by Pip Cleaves, and has step-by-step instructions on how to use some of the best Web 2.0 tools out there for educational use. You really need to visit it.
If at some point you are prompted to log-in, all you have to do is click “Login as Guest.”
It’s called Connect, Collaborate, Create was created by Pip Cleaves, and has step-by-step instructions on how to use some of the best Web 2.0 tools out there for educational use. You really need to visit it.
If at some point you are prompted to log-in, all you have to do is click “Login as Guest.”
Blogging 4 Everyone is a simple little course I designed to help introduce the concept of blogging to students & teachers. Not only does this course offer tips w/ a tutorial video, but it lists my top 5 blogging solutions for education:Click here to access the course wiki and please feel free to use as you see fit!!!
Every Teacher Should Have a Blog & How to Create One
A few days ago I was reminded of a cartoon slideshow that I created a couple of years ago. The purpose of the slideshow was to demonstrate one of the reasons why teachers should blog. The slideshow is embedded below.
How Students Can Blog Without An Email Address
Disclosure: Edublogs is an advertiser on this blog.
Earlier today Edublogs announced that students can now blog on Edublogseven if they don't have email addresses. Students can create a blog or become authors on other blogs without having to submit an email address to Edublogs. To get started students will simply need to choose a user name and password before writing their first blog posts. If they desire, students can submit email addresses later (which is useful for password recovery).
Applications for EducationRemoving the requirement of submitting an email address should simplify the process of getting a classroom full of students blogging. By not making students go through the process of submitting and confirming an email address, Edublogs is giving students and teachers more time to focus on the work of creating blog posts. The removal of the email requirement also makes it possible for students who don't have email addresses to write their own blog posts.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:How to do 11 Techy Things in the New School Year
Posterous - A Simple Way for Students to Blog
Free 33 Page Guide - Google for Teachers
Every Teacher Should Have a Blog & How to Create One
A few days ago I was reminded of a cartoon slideshow that I created a couple of years ago. The purpose of the slideshow was to demonstrate one of the reasons why teachers should blog. The slideshow is embedded below.
Disclosure: Edublogs is an advertiser on this blog.Earlier today Edublogs announced that students can now blog on Edublogseven if they don't have email addresses. Students can create a blog or become authors on other blogs without having to submit an email address to Edublogs. To get started students will simply need to choose a user name and password before writing their first blog posts. If they desire, students can submit email addresses later (which is useful for password recovery).
Applications for EducationRemoving the requirement of submitting an email address should simplify the process of getting a classroom full of students blogging. By not making students go through the process of submitting and confirming an email address, Edublogs is giving students and teachers more time to focus on the work of creating blog posts. The removal of the email requirement also makes it possible for students who don't have email addresses to write their own blog posts.
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:How to do 11 Techy Things in the New School Year
Posterous - A Simple Way for Students to Blog
Free 33 Page Guide - Google for Teachers
Track your comments with coComment
As a reader of many blogs, I like to be able to track my comments and find out when others have added to a comment conversation. A year or two ago, the Edublogs guru, Sue Waters, introduced me to coComment and I haven’t look back!“coComment is a service for managing, powering and researching conversations online. When using coComment, you can keep track of your comments across any site, share them with friends, and get notified when you get a response.”
Create Debate
Create Debate is a site for creating a debate and then having people vote (a la poll) on any number of topics. The results are then displayed in a graph type form as well as reading the comments left by other people.
Track your comments with coComment
As a reader of many blogs, I like to be able to track my comments and find out when others have added to a comment conversation. A year or two ago, the Edublogs guru, Sue Waters, introduced me to coComment and I haven’t look back!
“coComment is a service for managing, powering and researching conversations online. When using coComment, you can keep track of your comments across any site, share them with friends, and get notified when you get a response.”
Create Debate is a site for creating a debate and then having people vote (a la poll) on any number of topics. The results are then displayed in a graph type form as well as reading the comments left by other people.
Buzz Dash - Create Polls, Get Instant Feedback
Buzz Dash is a free polling service that allows anyone to create a poll to use on any blog or website. There are a lot of survey and polling widgets that you can use on your blog (in fact, Blogger has one built-in), but what I like about Buzz Dash is that your poll results instantly update whenever someone votes. The update happens without the need to refresh your page in order to see the new poll results.http://www.scribd.com/doc/30284415/Web-2-0-Tools-Handout
http://edte.ch/blog/interesting-ways/
Print This, Share This: Moodle Tool Guide for Teachers
from Free Technology for Teachers by noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne)
http://www.cats-pyjamas.net/2010/05/moodle-tool-guide-for-teachers/
Joyce Seitzinger, author of the Cat's Pyjamas blog, has published a great one sheet guide for Moodle using teachers. The guide is essentially a chart of things that you can do with Moodle and how those things can help you reach your pedagogical objectives.
Here's how the guide is read, pick a task such as "create a news forum" on the side of the chart then find an objective on the top of the chart. Follow the two columns to where they meet to find a color coded explanation of why a forum might be good for dissemintating information, but not so good for assessing learning.
http://www.educationeye.org.uk/
May 20, 2010
Education Eye
from Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero by dkapuler
Education Eye is an interesting new (beta) site that I had the pleasure of exploring due to a tip from one of my readers (Rei). This is a very unique site that is a cross between a brainstorming app and search engine.
The interface is in a interactive "cloud" that is surrounded by a wheel. In the cloud are the search results that can be clicked on to read an article. The wheel can be clicked on to adjust the number of search results. Also, a person can use EE as a search engine by typing in a term and finding results on that. I recommend typing in your name to see what happens.
Finally, there is a color coded key which shows what type of result is what. I would love to find out if these articles can have multimedia content displayed such as audio/video.
Fotobabble Gets Even Better!
from Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... by Larry Ferlazzo
http://www.fotobabble.com/
Fotobabble, the a neat application where people can post photos along with an audio description, has gotten even better.
Now, users can grab images off the web by just using the photo’s url address. Before, uploading images was the only option
Google Wave is best for collaborative projects with a small amount of people. I find that larger Waves of 50 or more educators is overwhelming and difficult to follow. Personally, I prefer to be a part of a Wave of 3 to 15 active participants. I have mostly used Google Wave for organizing various virtual events, but have been part of Waves where educators have their students collaborate on projects. I urge you to try waving as part of a project. You can start with a simple meeting or project with your Personal/Passionate Learning Network to get the feel of how useful Wave is for collaboration. I would advise trying to Wave with someone who knows the ropes. I realize you may not know anyone who has used Wave, therefore, I am listing some resources for you to get started!
http://wave.google.com/intro2.html
http://googlewave.blogspot.com/2010/05/google-wave-available-for-everyone.html
FreeTechnology for Teachers
Make Video News Available on Your Blog 24/7-
http://www.google.com/webelements/youtube/news/
Google Web Elements is a gallery of useful widgets that can be easily embedded into most blogs and websites. One of the widgets that could be useful for teachers of current events is the YouTube News Widget. The YouTube News Widget provides your viewers with the newest video stories from your preferred news source. You can choose from a list of thirteen news providers including CBS, The New York Times, and the Associated Press.
Primary Pad - An EtherPad Alternative
from Free Technology for Teachers by noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne)
http://primarypad.com/
Primary Pad offers all of the free options that EtherPad offered. Using Primary Pad you can create a new document in one click. Your document can be shared with the world via email or by posting your document's unique url online. Each person that collaborates on your document can have their own text highlighting color. These colors help you keep track of changes to your document. Primary Pad also offers some additional services for educators, but those services do require a licensing agreement after a three month free trial.
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/03/02/the-best-online-tools-for-real-time-collaboration/
http://www.web20searchengine.com/web20/web-2.0-list.htm
Must See Monday - 1000 Web 2.0 Applications
from The Pursuit of Technology Integration Happiness by noreply@blogger.com (Zimmer557)
http://www.slideshare.net/pingable/easy-web-20-tools-for-teachers
20 Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers
from Free Technology for Teachers by noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne)
20 Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers is the title of a nice slide presentation created by Simon Ward. Ward's presentation contains some very familiar sites like Delicious and also includes some lesser-known sites.
http://www.web20searchengine.com/web20/web-2.0-list.htm
from Educational Technology Guy by Dave
Web 2.0 List of Web 2.0 Application Links is great collection of Web 2.0 applications, listed by topic/type. Types include audio, blogging, bookmarking, calendar, collaboration, knowledge, multimedia, news and many more.
http://blog.go2web20.net/2008/03/39-web-based-tools-that-dont-require.html
from SimpleK12 Blogs by Shawnette
you can expect to find on this upcoming list, services that don't require registration, nor download from any kind in order to use them. Tools that are really easy-to-use (most of them are single-page sites), and basically web-applications that can help on your daily internet visit/work.
To be honest, it is not so hard to create lists of web 2.0 services, especially if you own a blog or a directory that contains relevant content. BUT it is definitely not easy to isolate the most useful ones from hundreds of sites.
http://voicethread.com/
Voicethread: Create, Collaborate, Moderate and Share!
from SimpleK12 Blogs by Elizabeth
Voicethread is a grouped conversation that is collected and shared in one place from anywhere in the world. Say you upload a picture, document, or video – anyone you share it with will be able to communicate with you and comment on the media you’ve shared. There are five different ways someone can comment/communicate with you on Voicethread – Record (mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (webcam).
Fab Find: Stixy For Flexible Online Creation Collaboration and Sharing
http://digitallylearning.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/stixy-for-flexible-online-creation-collaboration-and-sharing/
Posted by: Rebecca Petersen on: April 5, 2010
http://www.slideshare.net/dkapuler/50-sites
50 Sites in 60 minutes
http://primarytech.globalteacher.org.au/web-2-0-tools-to-embed-on-your-blog/
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/03/17/the-best-collections-of-web-20-tools-for-education/
http://crocodoc.com/
It lets you upload any document –Word, PowerPoint or PDF — from your computer or the Web, and then it can be “marked-up” with a virtual highlighter or sticky notes. No registration is necessary. You’re given a unique url for the document, and then the people you share it with can annotate it.
from Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... by Larry Ferlazzo
http://web2010.discoveryeducation.com/web20tools.cfm
Embedding Web 2.0 tools (from Integrating Technology in the Primary Classroom by Kathleen McGeady)
http://primarytech.globalteacher.org.au/web-2-0-tools-to-embed-on-your-blog/
http://www.terry-freedman.org.uk/web2_2010/Amazing%20Web%202%20Projects.pdf
The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book was introduced to me by the incomparable, Naomi Harm. This is one of the best collaborative resources I've seen on Web 2.0. It covers everything from wikis, blogs, to digital storytelling and podcasting. (from Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero by dkapuler)
http://typewith.me/
TypeWith.me is a simple new site for doing real-time word processing collaboration. In a way this is very similar to how Etherpad was but there is no registration required. What I like about this site is how easy it is to use. Also, being real-time a person can chat w/ another while working on the same document.
From Today's Catholic Teacher:
http://webtoolsforeducators.pbworks.com/Web+2-0+Storytelling
http://webtoolsforeducators.pbworks.com/Social-Media
More!
Guides: http://sjbrooks-young.com/id13.html
No comments:
Post a Comment