Friday, December 24, 2010
Backing Up Your Blog
Here's how and why to back up your blog, just in case...according to an item in Free Technology for Teachers. The article provides a "how-to" for Blogger, edublogs, and Wordpress. For example, with Blogger, go to "settings" and "export blog" by downloading to your computer.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
QR Symbols - How to Create Them and Why
Keep hearing about or seeing QR symbols? Here is a RocketBoomTech video that gives background and how to create your own. At the end, it shows how to create one using Google (Goo.gl). Another way to create one is Bit.ly
The Daring Librarian uses QR. Middle School Teacher Librarian asks students to dring their cell phones to the library, form small teams, and hunt for QR codes posted around the library -- along the lines of a treasure hunt. Some QRs lead to wiki or web pages that have students do certain tasks. Prizes include iTune gift cards.
Try the QR to the right and see where it takes you!
Five Web-based Alternatives to PowerPoint
Five years ago, I learned of Zoho as an alternative for an office suite. Now there is a wider selection of options.
ReadWrite BIZ writer John Paul Titlow says: “For years, Microsoft PowerPoint has been the standard bearer of slide presentation applications, but several web-based alternatives have emerged. For the most part, the alternatives offer similar functionality to PowerPoint, sometimes more, sometimes less. One obvious advantage to web-based presentations is that they’re stored in the cloud, eliminating the potential for nightmare scenarios involving lost or corrupted thumb drives.”...ReadWriteBiz, Nov. 27
- Prezi - See the demo and great examples of Prezi for presentations.
- SlideRocket - It is a collaborative presentation tool. It allows for users to comment and answer polls in real time, interact with Flickr and GoogleDocs.
- 280 Slides - Easy to create, easy to share. Take a tour!
- GoogleDocs - Essentially a web-based version of MS PowerPoint. Nice.
- Zoho Show - The presentation application of Zoho offers the standard functionality, but also includes live audio chat with the audience.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Bit.ly Bundles - a short URL for a bunch of long URLs
Mashable/Social Media reporter Jolie O’Dell writes: “Link-sharing service bit.ly has just launched a new tool for people who really, really love sharing links. Bit.ly Bundles allow you to package multiple long links in a single shortened URL. This is a highly useful feature with an almost endless string of use cases. You can tweet a string of YouTube videos or post a collection of study materials to Facebook—all with just one short URL.”...
Here is an example of a Bit.ly Bundle for a number of online technology tutorials for teachers and teens, http://bit.ly/bundles/4libraries/1
Try it! URLS: Shorten and share.
Google eBooks
Google eBooks are here! On December 6, 2010, Google eBooks opened. The online book store idea is good, and at some point most of us will have a variety of mobile devices. I still prefer real books for great stories. But I could see reading fast reads like mysteries and thrillers as eBooks so they won't go in the bags of books that eventually go to library and YMCA book sales.
Momento - Diary Ap for iPhone
Going on a journey or just want to keep a diary? Momento might be a good solution: Capture, import, browse, read, protect (lock your diary). In moments, it can add all the facebook, Flickr and tweets you ever posted. See the YALSA blog for more ways teens and teen librarians can use the application.
Web 2.0 Tools -- Top Tools Recommended by CSLA Members
Placentia (CA) Teacher Librarian Joy Millam asked California school library colleagues for their top web 2.0 tools. Below is the "hit" list from Joy. Now to look and play with any of the new tools.
Here’s is the compilation of current Web 2.0 Favorites: (I will post the document on my wiki later http://booktalksandmore.pbworks.com) By far the most popular of those mentioned were Glogster, Animoto, wikis, Voicethread, and xtranormal.
Thanks everyone for sending me your 5 Fave Web 2.0 tools/toys! J
The following sites show how word clouds are used in teaching/learning.
Bookmarking- tracking it all:
· Delicious (social bookmarking)
· evernote (save webpages)
Digital flashcards
Discussion board sites:
ProBoards or other discussion board sites (class discussions)
File Storage and Sharing:
Dropbox – use anywhere in the world to access your files.
4Shared: for hosting videos that I’ve captured using Firefox Downloader
Images:
Flickr, Flickr Creative Commons and Flickr Toys like Pim Pam Pum: http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/?id=25880
Picture Trail: image tool that brings interest and engagement
Examples of schools/teachers using Web 2.0 tools to learn
This article shows kindergartner’s using web 2.0 tools
Lesson Plan storage and sharing:
LiveBinder
Suggestions for using various tools:
Use Voki to record students describing something they’ve learned, using just 60 seconds of recording time. These can be presented to class fulfilling technology standards and presentations.
Use a blog or wiki to post a student avatar or picture creation and have students post comments about the avatar or picture. (Voki)
Some of the teachers at my school used voicethread with K classes. Really cute although the teacher could be heard prompting them. I think younger kids could use it for info on famous people. In small groups they could find the important info and then record it one at a time on voicethread: one tells where and where born, another tells about education, another tells about family and another tells about what they did and why we remember them.
Go to readability.com- to remove all visual distractions/ads from websites
Teachers at my school really like ReadThinkWrite.org. We’ve used their comic creator and acrostic poem maker
xtranormal.com (students create cartoons to tell a story, teach a skill, discuss a topic, and more!)
Big Huge Labs- great for a variety of uses. Motivational posters, trading cards, magazine covers, etc.
This has a great list of applications-
Recommended for staff-- Jog the Web, Jing, and Youblisher
Making Video or audio projects/digital storytelling:
· Glogster.com- multi-dimensional learning! So fun and and easy tool to use. (interactive posters)
· Animoto- Good for all ages.
o Here’s one example for younger children- take pictures of kids in the library and create an animoto video for them to see. Can they find their picture?
o I have used Animoto with first and second graders and they loved it. I have also used Bookr.
· Voicethread, GarageBand, or Audacity – use for story re-tellings, podcasts, book reports,
· Xtranormal
Using Wikis or Blogs:
Wikispaces- The students use wikis mainly to publish their work and peer review.
wordpress.com-for blogging (good for monitored peer review)
Blogger.com- good blog site.
Gaggle.net – safe (filtered), online learning tools.
Examples of blogs and wikis in practice-
http://ktoponce.wikispaces.com/ - this one is a great example of a class wiki/blog.
http://fuhsag.wikispaces.com/ - another great example of a wiki in use.
From these sites, the right menu has the blogs I create for each collaborative unit.
Example of using a wiki to communicate and engage students
Powerpoint Alternatives:
· Google Docs
Social networks for teachers using 2.0 tools
Another article:
Web 2.0 and Related Bloom’s Taxonomy sites:
http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/#Bloom's http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom%27s+Digital+Taxonomy http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/file/view/bloom%27s+Digital+taxonomy+v3.01.p
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Credibility: Truth & Trust on the Web
Google Education Evangelist and Search Researcher Daniel Russell invited California educators to an evening class on "Credibility: Truth & Trust on the Web". Daniel walked a mix of teachers and librarians through the presentation below. Curriculum Fellows Natasha Bergson-Michelson and Trent Maverick acted as TAs - teaching assistants for the evening. [Loved seeing the TAs because in high school and middle school they can play an important role in engaging students in online learning exercises while classroom teachers and teacher librarians manage other pressing activities. CSLA encourages use of TAs with the Teen Learning 2.0 tutorial.]
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Public Domain Mark
San Francisco, California, USA; The Hague, Netherlands — 11 October 2010
Today, Creative Commons announces the release of the Public Domain Mark, a tool that enables works free of known copyright restrictions to be labeled in a way that clearly communicates that status to the public, and allows the works to be easily discovered over the Internet. The Public Domain Mark effectively increases the value of the public domain by making works that are already free of copyright readily accessible to the public. The Mark makes it clear to teachers and students, artists and scientists, that they are free to re-use material. Its release benefits everyone who wishes to build upon the rich and vast resources that are part of the shared public domain.
Europeana – Europe’s digital library, museum and archive – is the first major adopter of the Public Domain Mark. The tool will become the standard mark for works free of known copyright that are shared via the Europeana portal, playing an important infrastructural role in the EU’s efforts to ensure that all works shared online are marked with rights information. Europeana, whose partners include the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Bibliothèque nationale de France and Germany’s Bundesarchiv (Federal archives), estimates that the millions of out-of-copyright works made accessible via its searchable database will be labelled with the Public Domain Mark by mid-2011. Europeana will announce the adoption of the Public Domain Mark at the upcoming Europeana Open Culture 2010 Conference, to be held 14-15 October in Amsterdam.
“The Public Domain Mark is a further step on the path towards making the promise of a digital public domain a reality,” said Michael Carroll, a founding board member of Creative Commons and a law professor at American University. “Marking and tagging works with information about their copyright status is essential. Computers must be able to parse the public domain status of works to communicate its usefulness to the public. The metadata standard underpinning the Public Domain Mark and all of CC’s licensing and legal tools are what makes this possible.”
“An important part of our mandate is to ensure that digitized works made available through Europeana are properly labelled with rights information, including when a work is free of known copyright restrictions so that teachers, students and others can freely use it in their work, changing it and remixing it as they wish,” noted Jill Cousins, Executive Director of Europeana. “The legal and technical rigour applied by Creative Commons throughout the development process makes the Public Domain Mark the natural choice for Europeana’s infrastructure. We have also worked with Creative Commons and our content providers to develop a Usage Guide for public domain works to help users of cultural content use it responsibly – by crediting the provider, among other things.”
The Public Domain Mark in its current form is intended for use with works that are free of known copyright around the world, primarily old works that are beyond the reach of copyright in all jurisdictions. Creative Commons is mapping the next phases of its public domain work, which will look at ways to identify and mark works that are in the public domain in a limited number of countries.
Creative Commons worked closely with Europeana and several of its members throughout the development of the Public Domain Mark. That process also included a public consultation period and review by CC’s worldwide affiliate network comprised of legal experts from more than 70 jurisdictions. The Public Domain Mark, to be used for marking works already free of copyright, complements Creative Commons’ CC0 public domain dedication, which provides an easy and reliable way for adding new works to the public domain prior to the expiry of copyright.
More information about the Public Domain Mark can be found on the Creative Commons website.
Today, Creative Commons announces the release of the Public Domain Mark, a tool that enables works free of known copyright restrictions to be labeled in a way that clearly communicates that status to the public, and allows the works to be easily discovered over the Internet. The Public Domain Mark effectively increases the value of the public domain by making works that are already free of copyright readily accessible to the public. The Mark makes it clear to teachers and students, artists and scientists, that they are free to re-use material. Its release benefits everyone who wishes to build upon the rich and vast resources that are part of the shared public domain.
Europeana – Europe’s digital library, museum and archive – is the first major adopter of the Public Domain Mark. The tool will become the standard mark for works free of known copyright that are shared via the Europeana portal, playing an important infrastructural role in the EU’s efforts to ensure that all works shared online are marked with rights information. Europeana, whose partners include the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Bibliothèque nationale de France and Germany’s Bundesarchiv (Federal archives), estimates that the millions of out-of-copyright works made accessible via its searchable database will be labelled with the Public Domain Mark by mid-2011. Europeana will announce the adoption of the Public Domain Mark at the upcoming Europeana Open Culture 2010 Conference, to be held 14-15 October in Amsterdam.
“The Public Domain Mark is a further step on the path towards making the promise of a digital public domain a reality,” said Michael Carroll, a founding board member of Creative Commons and a law professor at American University. “Marking and tagging works with information about their copyright status is essential. Computers must be able to parse the public domain status of works to communicate its usefulness to the public. The metadata standard underpinning the Public Domain Mark and all of CC’s licensing and legal tools are what makes this possible.”
“An important part of our mandate is to ensure that digitized works made available through Europeana are properly labelled with rights information, including when a work is free of known copyright restrictions so that teachers, students and others can freely use it in their work, changing it and remixing it as they wish,” noted Jill Cousins, Executive Director of Europeana. “The legal and technical rigour applied by Creative Commons throughout the development process makes the Public Domain Mark the natural choice for Europeana’s infrastructure. We have also worked with Creative Commons and our content providers to develop a Usage Guide for public domain works to help users of cultural content use it responsibly – by crediting the provider, among other things.”
The Public Domain Mark in its current form is intended for use with works that are free of known copyright around the world, primarily old works that are beyond the reach of copyright in all jurisdictions. Creative Commons is mapping the next phases of its public domain work, which will look at ways to identify and mark works that are in the public domain in a limited number of countries.
Creative Commons worked closely with Europeana and several of its members throughout the development of the Public Domain Mark. That process also included a public consultation period and review by CC’s worldwide affiliate network comprised of legal experts from more than 70 jurisdictions. The Public Domain Mark, to be used for marking works already free of copyright, complements Creative Commons’ CC0 public domain dedication, which provides an easy and reliable way for adding new works to the public domain prior to the expiry of copyright.
More information about the Public Domain Mark can be found on the Creative Commons website.
Web 2.0 for Student Achievement
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
Web 2.0 for Student Achievement
View more presentations from dachterman.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
ZigZag Mullti-Dimensional Web Browser
A demo of how to use ZigZag with the Internet Archives' Open Library is shown about 12 minutes into the 28 minute video.
Below is a 2008, more polished video with Ted Nelson on introducing ZigZag data structure. Ted has worked on the project for 20 years.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Bart Weetjens: How I taught rats to sniff out land mines
Bart Weetjens: How I taught rats to sniff out land mines | Video on TED.com
Here's a story to share with young people before they are introduced to the annual science fair or inventors' fair. Or, for that matter, it could be an excellent introduction to science in general.
This is an amazing story about how rats can be trained to save lives by sniffing out land mines, detecting people who have TB, and more. It is also about empowerment of native people to make their country a better, safer, healthier place to live. What a wonderful example of how one person can make a difference! Bart Weetjens is making a huge contribution, thanks to his early fascination with rats and where he has taken his passion.
Here's a story to share with young people before they are introduced to the annual science fair or inventors' fair. Or, for that matter, it could be an excellent introduction to science in general.
 |
| Bart Weetjens |
This is an amazing story about how rats can be trained to save lives by sniffing out land mines, detecting people who have TB, and more. It is also about empowerment of native people to make their country a better, safer, healthier place to live. What a wonderful example of how one person can make a difference! Bart Weetjens is making a huge contribution, thanks to his early fascination with rats and where he has taken his passion.
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