Spotlight

This website allows you to create and save a nice looking newsletter. You can distribute it by email, webpage, .pdf download, or send it to yourself to print in color. It is fun and easy to create a professional newsletter with your own graphics or photos. Here is a sample we created for our teachers web2.0 workshop. This would be easy enough for kids to do.

Here is a great lesson plan you can adapt to be a video or podcast, or speech to the class! Visit the Tech4Learning website and you will find many free resources for lessons, photographs to use in your classroom and other tips. They have a number of software packages which are simple to use for teachers as well as students. There is also a video library you can subscribe to for many of the mainstream programs, Word, PowerPoint, iMovie, etc for a small fee. They produce a monthly magazine, which I received yesterday, that is filled with great tutorials and stories about using technology in your classroom. The above biography lesson was highlighted this month. Get on their mailing list for this magazine of tips. You can download the back issues too. In addition, you can use 15 graphic organizers, 18 rubrics, or the simple citation maker for a quick bibliography.

Are you looking for a different idea for storytelling time in your classroom? Well this free online web2.0 tool may be the answer. You should be able to find something to use in this list. Click here for the link. Look around here, he has many good links for you to share and tag to come back to later.

I can't tell you enough to join any professional organization that relates to what you teach. I have learned to much by reading blogs of people in the field of educational technology the past year. Every time I feel caught up with the latest edtech concept or project idea, BOOM, someone on the web suggests "try this program with your class". I am running out of time to do this kitchen dishes! This past week I jumped in to Twitter. For a long time I didn't get it, but as I follow some of the "tweets" from some of the "gurus" in edtech, I am starting to find a new way to collaborate with peers. I have found many exciting projects that can be done at our school, and am lucky enough to have some teachers willing to go to the edge an try them with their students.

Today's student has a different view of learning. Many are taking charge of learning in their own modalities and lecture doesn't work on a daily basis any more. Just watch kids when they get together to update their myspace accounts. They try all the new tools, upload music they create on GarageBand or FruityLoops, while they are talking or texting on the phone! Their capability to multitask is amazing. They can play the same game on any platform, Mac, PC, XBox, PSP, PS3, PS2, GameCube and know the different commands for each one! I, on the other hand, am just trying to learn Twitter for 3 days!

Some of the blogs I would recommend for anyone are on this list at the SupportBlogging wiki. Once you get hooked on a few, you will realize that there is a place for YOUR voice in the blogosphere! Just jump in and begin to learn more about your subject, elementary ed, writing, geometry, or geography. It doesn't matter what subject you teach, there is a new world of information for you to engage in and incorporate into making your teaching more interesting.

This is a simple way to create a 30 second spot! "The main reason we charge for long movies, has to do with the intensity of our video production process. In order to be able to offer something different from what's out there on the web, namely the type of "high-end" motion design and effects used in TV & film, we actually have to produce from scratch EACH new frame of your Animoto video... and there are 24 frames in each second of video! As you can imagine, this takes massive amounts of processor power, so we unfortunately can't afford to give everything away for free, particularly full-length videos, which really have intense demands on our render system. Fun fact: did you know it takes Pixar Studios 408 hours to render each second of their films using 3000 computers? Makes what we're doing here at Animoto seem pretty whimpy."(from the web site)

"A federal jury on Oct. 4 ordered a 30-year-old Minnesota woman to pay $222,000 for sharing copyrighted music online, marking the first time one of the industry's lawsuits against an individual downloader had gone to trial. The defendant, Jammie Tomas, a single mother of two sons, says she is still deciding whether to file an appeal.

October 8, 2007—Students and other internet users who download or share songs and movies without paying for them have a new reason to reconsider their actions: In the first such case to go to trial, a federal jury on Oct. 4 ordered a Minnesota woman to pay $222,000 for sharing copyrighted music online. " quoted from eSchool News Online

Be careful where you get your music from and always do it legally and pay for it. It is important that we teach this to our students as well.

"Historical footage. The latest events. Primary sources. NBC News brings you all this and more, now available for your school!

And right now, the NBC News Archive is available FREE until January 31, 2008 through the HotChalk Learning Community.
Click here to sign up for your FREE trial now!*

The NBC News Archive provides:
• More than 5,000 searchable resources, including historical footage, current events, mini-documentaries, primary sources, images, and other materials for use across all curriculum areas

• Specific digital content aligned to Advanced Placement courses and general classroom instruction in U.S. History, U.S. Government and Politics, and English Language and Composition

• Nearly 100 Writing Prompts supported by a selection of related NBC News stories and commentaries


In addition, the HotChalk Learning Community will allow you to create customized assignments and lesson plans, collaborate with peers and experts, post class messages, manage grade books, and search for quality resources in an easy-to-use, secure environment built with teachers in mind.

Sign up now to start using the NBC News Archive in your school. And be sure to forward this to your teachers so they can register to experience this unique offering in their classrooms. Hurry - the free trial ends January 31, 2008!

* If the link does not work, please copy and paste this url into the address bar in your browser to sign up for your free trial: [ http://www.hotchalk.com/nbc.html ]http://www.hotchalk.com/nbc.html "

This is just another sample by Vuvox.com. Add some photos of your own and select the format. Just click on the photos and they will zoom in.

"When it comes to philanthropy, everyone’s got something different to give – some people have money, others have time, and bloggers have devoted readers. The creative folks at DonorsChoose have a few ideas about how bloggers can help students and teachers.

In case you’re not familiar with DonorsChoose, it’s a site where teachers post needs they have for their classrooms, and donors fund those projects directly. If you’ve got a blog, a website, or even an email account, you can help by creating what’s called a challenge. Just pick some of your favorite projects and challenge your family, friends, and readers to fund them. If you’ve got a Blogger account, it’s easy to add your challenge to your blog in just a few clicks."

Carnegie Mellon University researchers in Pittsburgh, have developed an online game to help people learn about phishing schemes. It features a fish named Anti-Phishing Phil. "The game was developed to help raise awareness about phishing attacks, in which spam e-mails that appear to come from a legitimate bank or retail organization try to lure the recipient into entering personal or financial information into a fraudulent Web site, where it can be stolen and used in identity theft." There are prizes such as $100 gift cards to Amazon.com.

From eschool.news.com - "September 27, 2007—The Smithsonian Institution's new museum dedicated to black history and culture launched Sept. 26 with an interactive web site--long before its building opens for visitors on the National Mall.

Social-networking technology donated by IBM Corp. will allow visitors to help produce content for future exhibits at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Almost anything is fair game--long essays, short vignettes of memories, or recorded oral histories. The museum plans to add video capabilities in the future.

"The culture of the African American experience ... is too important to wait five or 10 years until the building is open," said Lonnie Bunch, the museum's founding director. "I wanted people to know that from the day I was hired, this museum exists."