New Online Global Project

Jennifer Wagner of "projects by Jenn" has created another  great project called the Holiday Card Exchange Project. I copied the details of the project below. You can visit the site at http://www.jenuinetech.com/Projects/hce09/hce09information.htm

See below:

 

Welcome to the
Holiday Card Exchange Project

Registration will open on
November 6, 2009

Dates of Project:
December 1 - 18th, 2009

This project will be open to all PreK - 6th grade classes around the world.

Classrooms will be teamed with 24 other classrooms to exchange holiday cards.

Each class will be sent an excel document
with all names and addresses of
the classrooms in their group.

Each class needed to create (or purchase) enough cards to send 1 card to each class on your list.
(Teachers are responsible for all postage costs)
Find sample ideas here!

Lists will be sent to participating classrooms
by November 30th, 2009

All cards will need to be mailed to the other classrooms by the 7th of December.

Teachers are encouraged to create a map to show where the cards come from. Google Earth and Google Maps are both very easy programs to use to create maps. You also could make a bulletin board map as well.
Please send Jen a picture of your map
after this project. Thank you!!

Since this was a holiday card project, it will be possible to receive all kinds of holiday cards (of differing beliefs and customs). If a school has certain "restrictions"; the teacher needs to be the filter of these cards.


 

New Digital Storytelling Tool - Blabberize

www.blabberize.com is a free resource that allows you to make any picture talk. I have worked with this resource for a couple of years now. It can be really hilarious. You upload a picture, use the online tools to outline out the mouth, and record a narration. The picture then talks to you. You can upload more then one picture and have the talk to each other.

While this can be entertaining I believe this can be an excellent instructional tool.  Here are some ideas for using it with students:

1. Students upload a picture of an animal or insect. They then narrate an oral report as that animal or insect that provides information they have learned about it.

2. Students upload a picture of Abraham Lincoln and provide narration about him, interview questions, or dictate a speech in response to something.

3.  Students can introduce a story character or respond to a situation as a character in a story.

This can be an excellent tool to showcase a digital story. As with other digital storytelling projects the focus is on writing a script, editing the script and narration. The project can then be published online for students to share and view.

Enjoy

Online Document Management

I have been starting to plan a strategy for online document management for my staff and students. We are implementing a new Wifi network in my district. I plan on creating a guest SSID just as i did in my previous district. I wrote about that in a previous post.

My plan is to allow faculty and students to be able to bring in their own mobile devices. In order for this to be successful I want them to have access to their documents while on and off the network. Setting up the guest SSId for internet only is the easy part. I need to find a solution for accessing documents over the web. This will ensure they will not have to be added to our domain to get to their files.

There are of course a number of options these days. Google Apps for Education, Zoho and other open source document management platforms are available. In the case of Google Apps it is a major change.  My biggest obstacle is that Google Apps uses email as its primary communication and collaboration tool. There are many concerns with providing email accounts to our students. While the details of this are another post it is a noteworthy concern.

Microsoft has recently introduced Office Web Apps. You can access the beta called Microsoft Office Live currently. It provides the ability to access word, powerpoint and excel documents online. You can even share and collaborate on them. I have heard that office 2010 will offer the ability to host this online cloud on your own servers. I am hoping that if hosted authentication can be handled with LDAP.  This might be a solution for us. It is of course a very expensive solution in comparison to Google Apps. The good news is we are already paying for it with our MS volume license.

Here is a quick blurb about MS Office Live.

Office Web Apps, the online companion to Word, Excel®, PowerPoint® and OneNote® applications, allow you to access documents from anywhere. You can even simultaneously share and work on documents with others online. View documents across PCs, mobile phones, and the Web without compromising document fidelity. Create new documents and do basic editing using the familiar Office interface. By offering more ways to access files from almost anywhere, Office Web Apps enable you to get things done according to your schedule.

I will continue to look into an open source solution that we can load onto our servers. If anyone has a recommendation I would love to hear it!

New Project Open for Grades Prek - 6

There is a new project available for grades Prek to 6 students.  It was created by Jennifer Wagner. Here is a blurb from her site:

Jennifer Wagner, creator of JenuineTech.com, has been successfully encouraging teachers since 1999 to use technology seamlessly in their PreK-6 classrooms. Using the tools of the Internet (Web 2.0), Jennifer will help you understand how technology will help you make the most of your time in a variety of ways. Winning numerous awards for her creative ways in encouraging teachers to collaborate, her teaching style is very user friendly, creative, and personable.

THE PROJECT

Join in the fun as we learn about
extending a story, endangered animals, and verbs!

The project has three ideas that teachers could take part in with their students. The topics involve extending a story, endangered animals and verbs. As with  most of Jenn's projects there is a focus on creativity and innovation as well as collaboration. These are key skills for the 21st century.  If you are interested in learning more about this project please follow the link below.

http://www.jenuinetech.com/Projects/wtwta/index.htm

Enjoy!

100 Best Youtube Videos for Educators

I came across this listing of the 100 best youtube videos for eductators and wanted to share it with everyone. As we all know, youtube.com is blocked in our schools for many reasons. Did you know that you can download youtube videos from your computer at home for free! My favorite resource to do this is www.keepvid.com . All you have to do is

1. Find the video you like on youtube.


2. Copy the URL address of the vidoe.


3. Go to www.keepvid.com


4. Past the URL of the video into the URL bar at the top of the page and click download.


5. You will be prompted to download the video.


6. You can then bring the video to school on a flash drive.


7. You can play the video from your computer, insert it into a powerpoint or smart  notebook project.

Here is the link to the 100 best youtube videos for educators. Enjoy!

http://www.classroom20.com/profiles/blogs/649749:BlogPost:177332

Space Program Project Resources

>I was recently asked by a faculty member to assist in finding resources for a project related to the current space exploration initiatives. Specifically we are looking at what is going on with the international space station and the current space shuttle discovery launch. The outcome of this project is for students to present a pro or con argument for the current space program.

We are in the beginning stages of organizing the project. However, I decided to start posting the resources I collect on my wiki. Currently there is a Hubble Telescope page on my wiki. I have decided to add my links for this project to the bottom of that page. I will provide the link below.

If anyone else is interested in a project like this please let me know. I will be happy to share resources and assist in creating the lessons.

Curriculumbits.com Online Interactive ELearning Teaching Resources

>Curriculumbits.com Online Interactive ELearning Teaching Resources

Shared via AddThis

I came across this great site today for use with an interactive whiteboard. Rather then explain it in my own words I copied their narrative directly from their about page below. Enjoy!

Established in 2006, Curriculumbits.com offer free online access to a growing range of interactive multimedia elearning resources. The online resource library contains games, quizzes, animations and videos in a variety of subjects. Resources have been produced according to key stage 3 and 4 of the UK National Curriculum for students aged 11 to 16. All resources are produced by elearning multimedia specialists in collaboration with every day teaching staff as a direct solution to their classroom requirements.

HOW TO USE OUR RESOURCES
All of our resources are available to access online, completely free of charge in the library. Simply click the PLAY button.

You do not need to register your details to use our resources, although you can enjoy additional benefits if you decide to join us for free.

You are welcome to link to our resources from your school website, intranet, extranet, online curriculum or virtual learning environment (VLE) according to the terms of our license.

Use the bookmark button to save resources to your browser favourites or your preferred online service such as Del.icio.us, Facebook or mySpace. You can also use this button to email resources to your friends, colleagues or students.

From September 2008 Curriculumbits.com no longer offers the facility to download resources due to increased connectivity in classrooms which has reduced demand for offline services.