Spotlight

I have been reading about Diigo for quite a while. After reading Jen Dorman's site and encouraging others to participate, I decided to jump in. I trust her judgement and so should you. So to read her invitation to join click HERE. There is a nice tutorial if you are as visual as I am about learning new material. See you there! You can even add a Diigo widget like this:

If you want to see how some of your daily habits may be affecting your longevity they try this "World Life Expectancy site". By entering you information you can see an estimated life expectancy. Of course the results will vary.

Very good diagrams and animation of the parts of the worm. I am no science teacher, but it kept my interest as the food went through the digestive system! Check it out.

If you have never listened to a podcast, this might be the way to begin! Can you imagine 24 hours of information about conservation, recycling, ecology and saving our Earth? This looks like it would be a great show to "drop in" on sometime during the 24 hour show. This channel, EdTechTalk provides insight to various areas of technology. Their interviews are about current topics.

Playing with GoogleEarth, I discovered a really nice Literature Tour, some great maps of different locations around the world, and some fun images of odd shaped buildings you can use to create a silly word. Try it on geoGreeting! Watch this blog in the end of May to see if our experiment with GEarth and Biomes project gets posted. There is an idea of creating a biomes of the world tour using GEarth and we should be finished by then. Also look at the GEarth for educators page.

If you want an easy way to calculate all of those walks in the park, use Google Pedometer! Once the page is opened, zoom in to the area in which you are walking. You can stay in map mode or switch to satellite or even topography. Choose the view which is best suited for the environment. Then simply double click on your starting point, and click the trail/streets that you walk/run/bike etc. until you return to your start. Now just look on the menu at the left to view total distance, last leg distance, or calories burned. You may also save this route.

During our class on Wednesday, Erin found a teacher's web page that had this widget from goodwidgets.com. For free, you can create a short slide show with some neat transitions.



The first image which is warped was created at befunky.com.

If you have not experienced EdTech talk Women of Web (WOW) your are missing an opportunity to learn from some great people. Not only are the hosts informative about technology in education, but they have guests that are very interesting and stretch your idea of what should be happening in today's classrooms.

Directly from the page: "Women of Web 2.0, Show 70, welcomes you to the gaming show. Join us as Sharon, Vicki and Cheryl interview Karl Kapp, Karl M. Kapp, Ed.D., CFPIM, CIRM / Assistant Director, Institute for Interactive Technologies / Professor of Instructional Technology / Bloomsburg University. The chat has many great gaming links and developments as the show proceeds." They are listed below:

• http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/
• http://www.gadgetsgamesandgizmos.com/
• http://karlkapp.com/game%20products.html
• Gazillionaire Game: http://www.lavamind.com/gaz.html
  
• Free meeting place: http://www.dimdim.com/
• Subject specific games: http://schooltimegames.com/
• Skill Builders: http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/
• Mystery game in Sydney: PC only: http://www.twilightsoftware.com/
• Create your own: http://www.realmcrafter.com/catalog/information.php?info_id=6
  
• Create your own game: http://www.clickteam.info/
• Semi-educational games: http://playkidsgames.com/
• Learning Algebra game: http://www.dimenxian.com/
• Gaming software: http://www.immersiveeducation.com/
• Alternate to SecondLife: http://edugrids.org/
• Serious games research: http://www.seriousgamesresearch.com/
  
• Inner Spaniard: http://3dlanguage.net/cms/
• Geocaching: http://www.geocaching.com/
• Geocaching in Education: http://www.evalamar.com/GPS/index.htm
  
• The Hexagon Challenge: http://www2.svsd.net/~lions/hexagon/

About the book: Gadgets, Games and Gizmos
A review of the book by Rupa
To purchased his book visit his web page.