Spotlight

If you have not seen these speed painting clips on YouTube.com, then here is a sample. This too the artist 4hours in real time. There are more from this artist, Martin Missfeldt online. Enjoy!!

Amazon.com launched it's music downloading center today. It is expected to directly compete with iTunes. The mp3 format is DRM free, so it can be played on PC, Macintosh, iPods, Zune, or any device that can play mp3 format music. More information at the Amazon link.

K12 Online Memo
EduBlog Insights by Anne Davis on 9/25/07

Help us spread the word about the upcoming K12Online07 conference. Here's the memo:

Please share either three (3) reasons to participate based on your experience from last year or (if you didn't attend last year) three (3) things you hope to gain from the experience this year.
Now this is an easy memo. I could go on and on but this time I'll follow the rules!

My three reasons(Anne Davis):

1. I can attend this conference and even wear my pajamas if I desire! Total comfort! Not only that but I can pick the time and the place and it's FREE!

2. I learn from colleagues who are top-notch and dedicated. The conveners are truly the best and the connections we get to make and continue to make are incredible!

3. I can enjoy it forever! I still go back to a lot of the ones from last year. I rank this conference as one of the best ever!

"And anyone else who would like to help us spread the word... tag you are it."

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Nicholas Negroponte, MIT Media Lab, has been in hot persuit of a $100 laptop for years. Today he announced that in the US and Canada, consumers can purchase the new discovery for $399. Pricey you say? Well you get one laptop and one laptop will be donated to a child in a developing country. They are solar powered and hand crank, to keep the costs down. This new initiative is called "Give 1 Get 1". For more information click on the title of this article or visit this link.

If you know NO Spanish, but need to help a student in your class, go to this page for some helpers. The page gives English phrases, the Spanish written form, and if you click on the phrase, you can hear the correct pronouncation.

If you want to put a personal touch on your website, try this! The video bubble will follow your cursor around the page as you move it. Quite creative addition!

Thanks to Kathy Schrock's site for suggesting this online tool for teachers who don't want to create a whole web page just for homework. Just assign different students to record the homework on this online calendar and you not only have up to date information, but an easy way to look back on past assignments if a day is missed!

If you need a very quick way to resize one or a batch of photos, then try this program. You can set the intended size easily. Try Resize 'Em All. It is a shareware program with donations through PayPal.

Vuvox - upload some photos and music and have an instant slideshow or movie! Great effects are available and you can easily change your mind in the middle of production. Make a small 10 photo movie first to learn how it works. Here is my sample:

If you have not created a Google account, then you should. Here are the top reasons why:

1. GDisk - free hard drive space
2. iGoogle - start page with a ton of widgets you can set up.
3. GoogleReader -a plact to collect and read blogs
4. Google Labs - get to see and test the new products
5. GoogleEarth - not only to see the world, but to explore
6. Blogger - free account for anyone
7. When you sign in to one of these, you don't have to sign in to another
8. Calendar -create a group calendar or a family calendar
9. Documents - create word processed documents, notes or other collections
10. Photos - Picasa is the application that collects and shares your personal photos
11. Groups -join a group that you are interested in such as googleeducators
12. Video - YouTube is not the only game in town.
13. All this and a few more - FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE

If you are a web2.0 user, you get it! If not then you must explore the web tool Jott. You can set your cell phone to send a voice message to your Jott account. In turn, it will turn it into text and email you what you said. Email also includes the voice Jott. Now, when Jott asks you who you want to Jott, you can say Twitter! It will turn your voice Jott into a Twitter message. Not sure what all this means? Go to each of the websites to get with the program!

This is a simple way to make a movie for web posting. Just upload your images, up to 15 for a 30 second movie, and let Animoto do the work!

Here is a wiki by Michael Horton, a science coordinator for California’s Riverside County Office of Education, filled with resources for science teachers. This includes everything from lesson plans, to links to free movies you can use in class.

As I posted earlier, the K-12Online Conference 2007 is next month. If you are even considering attending this wonderful experience, be sure to visit the site and watch the short videos prepared by the presenters. This is a very clever way to introduce the topics and the speakers to the general audience. There are several workshops I will attend now that I have been introduced to the presenter and their topic. If you don't use any of these tools for yourself or professionally, this is a good place to start learning!

This appears to be a new magazine created by the folks at Eduction Week. The first issue came out in the summer and this second issue has some very thought provoking concepts for using technology. How about kids using IM to discuss a book? Read more at this link. There is also some information about whiteboards, wikis and email.

This site from the ReadWriteThink provides a TON of lesson plan ideas, forms, charts, a calendar of professional events and much more. This is worth the visit especially if you teach a literacy class

This new high speed camera (2000 frames per second) is demonstrated here. Imagine what could be done with this type of capture for science, sports analysis, motion analysis etc. I think we will see more fun videos from this guy.

Sometimes you can find something that will be part of a great lesson and you adjust the lesson to use what you find. This may be one of those visuals. There are implications for using this in math, science(recycling), creative writing, or pop culture. You chose what fits your style and standards! Thanks to Chris Jordan for this series of images.

The Best Buy teacher grant is closing applicatons on September 30, 2007. There is a wide variety of grants which will be awarded in February 2008.

If you do some creative arts activities in your room, you will find some excellent resources at this site. Thanks to Donna S. in my graduate class for suggesting this site for our class.

If you have never attended an online event, then this is the one to try out. This k-12 Conference has all kinds of online workshops you can enjoy from the comfort of your pj's in a big sofa! This is where I actually leaned about how to use a wiki and was part of a collaborative group project/discussion. It was quite valuable and helped me to learn it well enough to show my colleagues how to get started. In any event, look around the website and if you decide to sign up, you should check out this link too at attendr.com. It is a "mashup" for those attending the k-12 Online Conference. If you wish to see what was done in 2006, you can view all the sessions and some of the notes and podcasts created.

We are trying a voicethread experiment. Please bare with me on this one. To comment on this voicethread, you need to create a user account(FREE) at the site. We are going to try this technology with a few teachers this year. We will keep you posted and publish them as they are completed.

"Remember to check out StudentEducationalExchange.org. It is ready for
students to use! Great articles from diverse news sources - higher
order discussion questions - categorized by social studies subject
area."

Isn't that a great combination? There is a coupon for Office Max free laminating for teachers on Thursdays until September 13. In addition, you can click on lesson plans for various topics, and find some links about global warming. Looks like a goldmine of information including Constitution Day suggestions.

TeacherTube is a direct link to some so-so to some excellent videos for your use in the classroom or assign as homework. Just type in your topic, such as Gettysburg and a list of videos with that tag will come up. See if there is something you can use for your curriculum.

If you do not subscribe to Jim Gates Tipline, you should, his blog is filled with great tips for educators and general Internet users. This latest tip is about PowerPoint and how to print notes along with the slides. Here is the embedded slide show:
If you want to see more of his slideshare shows, click here.