Technology Innovations - Recently Updated Pages

Blogging

cooperj2 — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:35:53 CST

Definition of "Blogging"

Traditionally in the form of a diary or journal, blogs, or web-logs, contain entries that are chronologically ordered. Similar to our class wiki, other users can comment on entries, or entries can be private.

Brief History
In 1992, Tim Berners Lee ("The Father of the Internet") started a log of all the new websites that were springing up. This page contained links to the sites he mentioned. These link-driven sites became very popular and the authors formed a community of "webloggers". In 1998 Jorn Barger coined the term "weblog" for "logging the web". It was shortened to "blog" in 1999 by Peter Merholz. Modern blogs evolved from online journals. Later in 1999 the website blogger.com was created. It was the first site to allow users to create a free blog. Over the next two years the popularity of blogs exploded, becoming a national sensation. In 2004, Merriam-Webster Dictionary declared "blog" as the word of the year. A study done in 2005 showed that 32 million Americans either have a blog of their own or read other's blogs routinely.

Key Features
> Easy to use
> Accessible
> Multi-functional

~ Means of communication
~ Question/answer
~ Advertisement
~ Personal diary
~ News/Media

> Search feature
> Interaction

~ Post comments

> FREE

Educational Value
Blogs can be used in the classroom in many ways. Teachers can connect with students, posting the material taught each day in class. This could help students who are absent to feel like they're still connected with the rest of the class. Also, students can keep blogs, or comment on the teacher's blog, to ask questions, get further explanations, or share opinions on lessons.
Another benefit is communication between the students, teachers, and parents. Instead of wasting paper by sending out numerous newsletters, why not just post a paper-free one on your blogs?

Future Learning
Step-by-Step directions on how to start your own blog: http://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-Blog
Video to help you create your blog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnploFsS_tY
A Brief Introduction to types of Blogs: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/730
Tips to remember when creating a blog: http://bloggism.net/blogging/blog-essentials-seo-tips-part-one/
Look here to chose a blog site: http://topsites.blogflux.com/

Future Teaching
*Edublogs: http://edublogs.org/
*Creating Student Journals on the Web: http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/techtorial/techtorial037print.shtml
Blog Basics: http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogbasics.cfm
Blogs in Education: http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/weblogs/
A 'Between Teachers' blog (shares lessons, etc.): http://weblogg-ed.com/

Follow this link to start your blog at blogger.com!

Topics you can write about:
~Tell us about yourself.
~Why do you want to become a teacher?
~Why did you choose to teach the grade/subject area you are studying?
~What did you do over fall break?
~Or anything else you find interesting!

References
"The Early Years". http://nymag.com/news/media/15971/
"Blogs-A Short History". http://www.unc.edu/~zuiker/blogging101/
"History of Blogging". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog#History
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blog

Digital Citizenship

bullardl2 — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:54:50 CST

I will teach my class digital citizenship by having students work in groups to come up with two different ways to be safe online. Because I will teach Kindergarten I will stress the importance of getting to things online through our classroom website. (Lauren Bullard)

One way to help teach my classroom digital citizenship is to have each child read the conduct code for internet use and have them sign it. We would discuss the the conduct code rules in class so that everyone understands. (Heidi Phillips)

One way to teach my students about digital citizenship is to break the class up into 9 groups and have each group research 1 of the 9 elements. Then, have each group teach the appropriate behaviors of each element and also tell what some of the inappropriate behaviors are. They could choose how they wanted to present it, such as doing a PowerPoint, making a video, using the SmartBoard, etc. (Amber Overstreet)

Before allowing students to go online they will have to work together to make a presentation about digital citizenship. Our first online experience in the classroom will be to post the material to our class wiki. It will stay as a reminder for any future online assignments that they find on our class wiki. (Melissa Reeves)

Handheld Devices

overstreeta2 — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:07:26 CST

Definition:

Handhelds are portable pocket-sized computing devices. Handhelds can come in numerous different forms. The most common handhelds are Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), phones, Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs), pocket computers, game consoles, graphing calculators, and handheld PCs.

Brief History:

Handheld devices have been around since the early 80s. The most primitive handheld is the pocket computer. Pocket computers are calculator-sized computing devices that operate very basically. Examples of pocket computers are digital language translators, digital dictionaries/thesauruses, digital address books, etc. Pocket computers led to the invention of highly-developed graphing calculators, which are able to do advanced calculations, sort data, make charts/tables, and plot graphs.

Expanding on the capabilities of pocket computers, Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dubinsky, and Ed Colligan founded Palm Computing, which developed the world's first Personal Digital Assistant in 1996. At the time, the trio was looking to create a handwriting recognition software - called Graffiti - but they decided they could create a portable hardware device in the midst of their experimentation. The first PDA was called a Palm Pilot (a name that is usually associated with other PDA devices not even manufactured by Palm Computing). The original Palm Pilot had no backlight, no infrared port, and no flash memory, but it did have a serial communication port, a 128 kB RAM size, and a touchscreen.

Eventually PDAs were merged with other devices, most commonly phones. The first widely-manufactured phone with PDA capabilities was the BlackBerry. Invented in 2002, the BlackBerry not only acted as a portable phone, but it also performed the functions of a PDA, had a touchscreen, and was able to remotely connect with an internet browser.

Recently, PDA devices have developed enormously. Now, almost every PDA has a color screen, can store and play MP3 files, can store pictures and other data, are merged with smartphones, have Bluetooth capability, have cameras, have GPS abilities, and many act as hard drives for computers via USB cables.

Educational Value:

Handheld devices have many uses and purposes. There are programs, such as Quizzler, MathAce, and Plucker, that can be downloaded to handhelds for classroom and educational purposes. Quizzler is an application where the teacher can make true/false or multiple choice quizzes for formal assessment or use flashcards for practice and studying tools. MathAce is a program with basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems. Plucker is an application where the teacher can Webclip without being on the Internet and it allows students to do research, practice reading, or find literature. For educational purposes, handheld devices can be used for administrative purposes, for communication and collaboration, and for teaching and learning purposes. Here are a few examples of how handhelds can be used and be beneficial within a classroom setting:

Administrative Purposes

Keep schedule.
Keep emergency procedures and checklists.
Take attendance.
Record and tabulate grades.
Store and access lesson plans.
Organize reading lists.
Use calculators.
Conduct authentic assessment.

Communication and Collaborative Purposes

Send an email.
Make a presentation.
Distribute school activities information to students and parents.
Record voice notes.
Take online courses.
Send/receive fax
Conduct group writing activities.
Access online educational events and news.

Teaching and Learning Purposes

Make a spreadsheet.
Read an ebook.
Form, visualize, and solve equations.
Study and compose music.
Record observations on a field trip.
View and use maps.
Keep a journal.
Create a timeline.

Key features of the handheld:

Make appointments
Add reminders with your appointment
Make daily plans
Make monthly plans (pay bills)
Organize your monthly expenses
Make notes to yourself
Know what time it is around the world
Personalize handheld
Make contact list that include
1. Phone Numbers
2. Email Addresses
3. Street Addresses
Listen to Music while working out
Use Calculator to figure out tips
Use as a cell phone
Store photo albums
Synchronize Handheld to computer
Transfer information back and forth from computer to handheld

How to use the Handhelds infront of you:
Step 1; Power on:
Press the button with green line in bottom left corner

Step 2; Basic Buttons:

Next to power button on right is Shortcut button for Calendar
Next to Calendar button is navigator buttons;
- left button is left arrow
- right button is right arrow
- top button is up arrow
- bottom button is down arrow
- center button is select button
Next to navigator button on right is Contact button
Above the lower buttons is a black box known as Input Area
- The Top right house figure is Home
- Below Home is Menu option
- On the far right is Find
- Above Find is Sychronize
- The small clock picture right beside Home is Clock (Which can be set to where you want)
- Below clock and beside menu is text keyboard
- To the left of Find is Number keyboard
- Above number keyboard and left of sychronize is Brightness adjust display
- In the middle of input is where you can shorthand text, letters and scroller
Top of display screen going right to left is clock, battery and shortcut

Step 3; Create Contact

push the contact button (bottom right)
On display screen bottom right click new
Where is says last name hit the text keyboard (input screen, left of menu)
Type last name and than hit done (bottom right on display screen)
Click on first name and hit the text keyboard and type name
Repeat for title
Click on work and hit the number keyboard and type number (if you accidently click on text keyboard just click done)
Repeat for each catagory.
Once you have finish click done and know that contact is stored

Step 4; Create an appointment

To return to home page click on Home (top right in input)
Click on Calendar in display screen (top right)
Click on "No appointments today" (top of desplay under time and date)
Click on 11 o'clock (new screen will appear)
Click just below "Start Time:"
Just to the right is the hours colum and on the far right of the display screen is the mins time
Click on the minutes time nearest to the current time it is right now (has to be ahead of current time and allow a couple mins to finish putting in appointment)
Than click OK (bottom left of display screen)
Click on Text keyboard in input area and type the name of the appointment (ex. class)
Click "Done" (bottom left of display screen)
Click on Details bottom (bottom of display screen)
A new screen will come up
Click in the box just right of the "Alarm" button and than hit "OK" button (bottom right of display screen)
Finish by Click on Home in the top right of input screen

Future Learning URLs:

Getting to Know Your Handheld: http://www.palm.com/us/support/handbooks/tx/en/basics.pdf
Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) Tutorial: http://gsm.utmck.edu/library/pda/tutorial/trends.htm
User Guide for the Zire 31 Handheld: http://www.palm.com/us/support/userguides/zire31/us/TOC.html
Manuals for Palm Handhelds and Smartphones: http://kb.palmone.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE?New,Kb=PalmSupportKB,ts=Palm_External2001,Case=obj(20198)#zire31

Future Teaching URLs:

Here's a video of teachers in Omaha who use handheld devices in their classrooms Teaching Now!
Here's a website that gives teachers 101 uses (administrative and instructional) for handhelds 101 Uses
Here's a list of articles and tips for teachers using handhelds Articles and Tips
Here's an article about a school in Illinois that incorporates the use of handhelds in every subject area Helping Handheld
Here's a page full of links about handhelds and their relation to teaching on Kathy Schrock's Home Page Power in Your Hands

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Digital_Assistant#Educational_uses
http://www.k12handhelds.com/101list.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handheld_device
http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic78.htm
http://www.slideshare.net/kfasimpaur/integrating-handhelds-into-the-classroom-presentation

Digital Piano Keyboard

uscguyjd — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:45:39 CST

DEFINITION:

A digital piano is a modern electronic musical instrument designed to serve primarily as an alternative to a traditional piano, both in the way it feels to play and in the sound produced.
Some digital pianos are also designed to look like an acoustic piano.

HISTORY:
The history of digital piano dated back in the 1980s. The majority of digital pianos are manufactured by the Japanese and the Americans. The digital piano is different from the electronic keyboard in many ways; its action is much like the piano action, and the keys are weighted. The price of a digital piano can range from a few hundred to fifteen thousands dollars. One can also find digital pianos in the upright or grand shaped just like a regular acoustic piano. A few of the famous brands are Yamaha, Clavinova, Suzuki, and Roland.

KEY FEATURES:
1. Less costly than acoustic piano (there are some that are quite costly).
2. Maintenance free (you save money by not having to tune it)
3. Light and handy (this feature is especially beneficial to those that live in apartments.
4. Comes with headphone plug-in (reduce the noise interference).
5. Provides many accompaniments and different features which can enhance learning abilities for younger generations.
(because it comes with built in metronome as well as many attractive features such as recording abilities).
6. There is no handcrafting that goes into a digital piano - only computerised simulations and computerised exterior designs.
7. Depending on the digital piano, they may include many more instrument sounds including strings, guitars, organs, and more.

DIGITAL PIANO IN THE CLASSROOM
Music teachers all over the world can benefit from having this digitally altered instrument in their classrooms. They can use this device as a creative learning tool or they can use it in order to utilize time spent in classrooms. This device permits music teachers to spend more time interacting with students and less time sitting at the bench of the piano. This instrument allows a person to play and record a piece of music. Teachers are able to previously record a piece of music that they want to go over, this technique would seem especially helpful in Chorus and Vocal classes, and instead of being stuck at the bench throughout the entire class period they can walk around and assist their students. Chorus teachers can also use the digital piano during performances when there isn't a band available. However, more imporantly digital pianos can be used to assist students in fully attaining the National Standards for Arts Education music requirements and effectively and efficiently teach the elements of music performance and technology.

Music Ideas For Classroom

RESOURCES FOR FUTURE LEARNING

Digital Piano Tutorial

Roland Digital Piano

How To Play The Piano

The Basics of Piano

Music Styles of Roland Digital Piano

USEFUL LINKS FOR FUTURE TEACHING

http://www.musiceducationworld.com/index.html
This site has a downloadable .pdf file that offers 30 lessons integrating theory, aural,
listening and musical analysis through a practical framework of
keyboard lessons that encourage collaboration between students.
Lessons include developing aural skills, improvisation, musical
problem solving, research assignments and contextual theoretical
knowledge. There is also a teacher manual that allows for additional creativity
to be added to the lessons.

The Arts go to School
This site features an online edition of The Arts Go to School by David Booth and Masayuki Hachiya.
It offers great insight pertaining to how digital keyboards can enhance normal classroom lessons concerning math, science, and even foreign languages.

Virtual Keyboard
If you have only one keyboard in your class but several computers, this site will be great for the inclusion of more students in your lessons.
This online version of a keyboard offers features such as chord creation, alternate timbres, and drum/percussion beats.

How to Use MIDI
This site will give you step-by-step instructions on how to connect a digital piano to a computer using MIDI

How to Use Garageband
Once you have correctly set up the MIDI interface, this site will explain how to record songs and write music through your connected digital piano on Garageband.

REFERENCES
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_piano
http://www.giles.com/educatorforum/pianos_midi.htm

Technology Innovations Home

uscguyjd — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:26:17 CST

PhotoStory

gregoryh2 — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 18:12:54 CST

What is Photo Story?
Microsoft Photo Story is a free application that allows users to create a show and tell presentation from their digital photos.

History Photo Story was first based with a Microsoft Research project in photo sharing. When researching how people liked to share their pictures they found out that people like to move their hands and make gestures. The first prototype of Photo Story would encourage people to use the mouse to point. They also learned that people did not like to use their voice and would redo the recording many times. This made the stories less interesting and people had trouble expressing themselves. The early prototypes only had one button, the “Oops” button. This was made so that if someone did mess up they could fix it but that people would not change it as often.

Key Features
You can create a slide show by using your digital photos. With photo sharing you can crop picture, rotate pictures and touch them all at the same time. You may also add special effects, music and your own voice to the photo story. To make them more personalized you can add captions and titles. The files may be small enough so that you can send them by e-mail, watch them on your computer on TV.

Photo Story in the Classroom
Photo Story is particularly helpful when used in the classroom as it can "hook" the learner and make learning more fun. A good time to use photo story is at the beginning of the year as a "get to know you". Another beneficial time would be if the students went on a field trip and made a photo story of their trip.

Resources for Future Learning

Help yourself Learn

Download Photo Story Now!

URL's for Future Teaching

Photo Story Lesson Plan

Photo Story in the Classroom

Photo Story Classroom Edition

Educational Uses

Photo Storytelling by Students

Reference:
Wikipedia.com

Social Bookmarking

mccoym2 — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:36:41 CDT

What is Social Bookmarking?

Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata.
In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public, and can be saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups, shared only inside certain networks, or another combination of public and private domains. The allowed people can usually view these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, or via a search engine.

What is the History Behind Social Bookmarking?

The concept of shared online bookmarks dates back to April 1996 with the launch of itList, the features of which included public and private bookmarks. Within the next three years, online bookmark services became competitive, with venture-backed companies such as Backflip, Blink, Clip2, ClickMarks, HotLinks, and others entering the market. They provided folders for organizing bookmarks, and some services automatically sorted bookmarks into folders (with varying degrees of accuracy). Blink included browser buttons for saving bookmarks; Backflip enabled users to email their bookmarks to others and displayed "Backflip this page" buttons on partner websites. Lacking viable models for making money, this early generation of social bookmarking companies failed as the dot-com bubble burst — Backflip closed citing "economic woes at the start of the 21st century". In 2005, the founder of Blink said, "I don't think it was that we were 'too early' or that we got killed when the bubble burst. I believe it all came down to product design, and to some very slight differences in approach."
Founded in 2003, del.ici.ous pioneered tagging and coined the term social bookmarking. In 2004, as del.icio.us began to take off, Furl and Simpy were released, along with Citeulike (sometimes called social citation services), and the related recommendation system Stumbleupon. In 2006, Mag.nolia, Blue, Dot, and Diigo entered the bookmarking field, and Connectbeam included a social bookmarking and tagging service aimed at businesses and enterprises. In 2007, IBM released its Lotus Connections product.

Why Should I use Social Bookmarking?
All tag-based classification of Internet resources (such as web sites) is done by human beings, who understand the content of the resource, as opposed to software, which algorithmically attempts to determine the meaning of a resource. Also, people tend to find and bookmark web pages that have not yet been noticed or indexed by web spiders. Additionally, a social bookmarking system can rank a resource based on how many times it has been bookmarked by users, which may be a more useful metric for end users than systems that rank resources based on the number of external links pointing to it.

Basically?
-More Accesible to the Users
-Is human controlled instead of software controlled
-Humans can use their own research skills to find more specific things and provide those skills to others

Why Shouldn't I use Social Bookmarking?
From the point of view of search data, there are drawbacks to such tag-based systems: no standard set of keywords (a lack of a controlled vocabulary), no standard for the structure of such tags (e.g., singular vs. plural, capitalization, etc.), mistagging due to spelling errors, tags that can have more than one meaning, unclear tags due to synonym/antonym confusion, unorthodox and personalized tag schemata from some users, and no mechanism for users to indicate hierarchal relationships between tags (e.g., a site might be labeled as both cheese and cheddar, with no mechanism that might indicate that cheddar is a refinement or sub-class of cheese).

Basically?
-No Standard Use of Vocabulary
-Misspelled Tags can cause entry into the wrong web page
-No direct way to tell if a topic is specific unless the viewer logs on and searches through the website

So How Should I Use This In My Classroom?
*At the Elementary Level
While Elementary Students are not necessarily ready to start writing research papers, Social Bookmarking allows the teacher to type in a topic and view the website provided prior to a group project in the computer lab. It allows the teacher to be a filter and fully view the websites before the students view them and compile a list of appropriate web pages for the assigned topic. (Example: in the search bar on a social bookmarking website, type in "Math Games" in order to find the most popular math learning games for your targeted age group in the classroom).

*At the Middle and High School Level
Much like at the Elementary Level, this resource can allow the teacher to view and filter out webpages for projects or research papers that have invalid information, questionable material, or if they are doing a group project using only a few online resources. Also provides the teacher an outlet to see what the most popular education websites are being bookmarked and used by other teachers around the country.

*Project and Use Ideas

In a computer lab, Social Bookmarking is a great way to find tutorials on many software programs and developing technologies used in the classroom
Assigning specific websites to be used during a project
A resource for students who are writing a research paper and need relevant, valid webpages for citations and information
Finding age appropriate learning games and activities
A place to share your own personal bookmarks with teachers across the country and world

How Can I Learn More About This in the Future?

Here Is A Really Great Instructional Video

Want To Try It Out?

Didn't Like The First Social Bookmarking Website?

A Rated List Of The Most User Friendly Bookmarking Sites

How Can I Use This To Teach My Students?

Using Social Bookmarking In The Classroom

7 Things You Should Know About Social Bookmarking

How To? In The Classroom

Intergrating Social Bookmarking In The Classroom

50 Easy To Use Social Bookmarking Sites

Resources We Used

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x66lV7GOcNU

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_bookmarking

http://www.wtvi.com/teks/07_08_articles/socialbookmarking101.html

Video Editing

dwyerh2 — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 23:29:20 CDT

Definition -One True Media is a website designed for easily creating and sharing your own videos. Brief History -One True Media was created by Mark Moore and John Love in January 2005. They created the website to help people easily edit and share their videos.
Key Features
-Create cases
-Watch videos others created
-Share videos
-Edit options
-Share options
-Purchase Advance Version 39.99
Stated by One True Media:
-Makes the creative process fast, fun and rewarding.
-Is powerful but easy to use
-Enables you with one click to transform your creations into shareable online videos and DVDs
-Works equally well with most media types and formats.

Educational Value
How can it be used in the classroom? Possible Uses:
- create learning resource video clips (for use by students or the professional development of staff)
- prepare educational segments on safety issues (e.g. on roads, in playground, at home)
- assist in a variety of ways with the learning of other languages
- preparation of mini documentaries, interviews or news reports
- record students role playing difficult social situations
- record school performances, excursions, special events, field trips, visits by specialists, etc.
- collect video of authentic workplace situations that can be analyzed in maths or statistics classes
- use frame by frame analysis techniques to accurately record rapid change in experiments or sport
- compile still images over a long period to produce time lapse movies
- use frame grabbing software to record and analyze critical events
- increase student awareness of manipulative techniques used in advertising
- develop greater critical literacy skills by comparing television or movie segments with own creations
- view difficult, dangerous or expensive experiments or activities (recorded with specialists)
- assist in the introduction of disabled students into mainstream classes
- show skills that are quicker to learn by observation (e.g. sewing a French seam)
- record and analyse student or teacher presentations
(http://www.zardec.net.au/keith/digvideo.htm)

Resources for Future Learning - There are many software programs available on the Internet. While some cost money, others are free!

LoiLo provides free downloads of video editing software software. An instructional video is included below. There are also written instructions along with pictures to help explain how to use the software on the website
http://www.loilo.tv/product/1/desc/1

Other website have programs available that do not require downloading software. Before allowing students to use the website be sure to review the site, paying attention to videos posted on main pages. Unapproved videos may be posted on some sites!!! These programs are for public use and videos are not censored.

Jumpcut allows students to create their own videos or remix a video. Remixing can help students become familiar with the software without having to upload any pictures or videos.
http://www.jumpcut.com/
There is a link to the "Quick Guide" on the home page that gives written instruction on how to use Jumpcut.

One True Media is user friendly and offers some features for free. A premium upgrade is available for purchase, but is not required. Videos can be posted to YouTube, myspace and facebook. A link for videos can also be sent via e-mail and viewers can post comments. DVD are available for purchase, but there is no cost for students, parents or teachers to create, view or share on the Internet!
http://www.onetruemedia.com/

Future Teaching
* Lesson plan for making a music video http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/01-1/lp226_05.shtml
* Making a Science Video (article)http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/teacher_feature/teacher_feature139.shtml
* Digital Storytelling (Information) http://www.edutopia.org/use-digital-storytelling-classroom

* Handout for Digital Storytelling Lessons (Rubric Included) http://www.willard.k12.mo.us/co/tech/Document/Storytelling.pdf

*
Intergrated Studies in High School, combining Social Studies, English and Media classes (video) http://www.edutopia.org/integrated-studies-honolulu

* Bringing Culture into the Classroom - making Global Connections http://www.edutopia.org/bridges-to-understanding-digital-storytelling

First Grade Reading project (includes video) http://powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/projects/edtechcentral/DigitalStorytelling/default.htm

Meaning Digital Video for Every Classroom - Great Article! http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.php?articleID=18700330

iMovies in Education http://edweb.sdsu.edu/sciencetg/ie/

http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/pages/listdigitalpa.html

Digital Camera Activities

wolfea2 — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:59:00 CDT

1. When talking about nutirtion and the food pyramid children can take pictures of what they eat and place the pictures of food on a food pyramid in the room to see if they are eating right. 2. If going on a field trip children can take pictures and use them to design a brochure telling about where they went 2. Children can take pictures of activites in the classroom and upload them to a web site so parents can stay informed about what is happening in class. (melissa Reeves)

1. Students could have pen-pals from other countries and write them a letter. With the letter, the students could include a picture of themselves and their families. The students could also include a picture of some kind of activity they like to do, either by themselves or with their family. 2. When learning about folktales, students could dress up and act out their own folktale while other students take pictures of them performing. The pictures could be uploaded to the web so parents and other teachers could see the progress and creativity of the students. The students could also make a class scrapbook with their pictures. 3. Could take the students on a field trip to a museum and the students could take pictures of themselves with the artifacts in the museum. Then, the students could create a brochure or the pictures could be uploaded to the Internet, so parents could see what their kids are learning about. (Amber Overstreet, 2nd grade).

1. Have the children take pictures of each other, and print them out. The children can then place the pictures onto a bulletin board of birthdays! 2. Have the children watch a class pet such as a caterpillar reach the chraylis stage and emerge as a butterfly. Take pictures as the kids release the butterflies and post the pictures on a bulletin board. These pictures would also look great in a yearbook or newsletter. 3. While studying seasons in a Kindergarten classroom allow the children to take pictures of leaves outside. Study the colors and shapes. The teacher can draw a large tree and tape it to the wall. The kids can tape their picture of their leaf onto the tree, and they can admire the leaves all fall. (Lauren Bullard)

1.Have children take pictures of themselves during the first week of school. Laminate pictures individually on cardboard and also have their name typed out and laminated. Playing a "lets get to know our classmates" game, have the children match the name with the picture of their classmate. Be sure to include the teacher, specials teachers, and principal. 2. For parent day, have child bring in things that remind them of their parent. Have child explain why they brought the items in writing workshop then take a picture of the child with all of the items. Frame in art station and place at desk for parent visit. 3. Teaching positional words like over, under, and above, have children take pictures of items in the classroom that describe these positions. They may use other classmates and creativity for this project.(Heidi Phillips)

1. The students in pre-k -3rd grade can create a book a themselves using pictures. They can share information about their family, pets, likes and dislikes, and friends. 2. They can take picture and record the life cycle of a plant for a science project using that information to make a chart. Students can used pictures to tell about their community. They pick a subject like community helpers, favorite places, or things they like to do in the community. All these projects can be transformed into a storytelling or PhotoStory. ( Angela Wolfe)

Smartboards

commanderc2 — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:59:55 CDT

SmartBoard Activity Click here to see a science teacher using 3D on a Smartboard.

Smartboard Video smartboard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etBpUcNGVlU

Online Photosharing and Editing

DorothyT — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 01:24:24 CDT

What is Photo sharing?
According to Wikipedia, Photo sharing is the publishing or transfer of a user's digital photos online. Other users are able to look at your pictures and they can also share their own. This process can be done publicly or privately.

What is the history of Photo sharing?
Photo sharing originated in the 1990s with a primary service of ordering prints online. Photo sharing was enhanced in early 2000, and includes many new goals or the program. They now offer centralized access to other user’s photos and video clips.
These photo sharing provide multiple views, such as thumbnails and slideshows, while also offering the ability to classify photos into albums, add tags, ad customize comments. Enhanced technology has made it easier than ever to use photo sharing in our everyday lives. By using portable devises such as camera phones, we can automatically transfer photos as we take them to photo sharing sites and photoblogs.

Photo Sharing Websites where you can share your photos:

Mac Web Gallery
AOL Pictures
Atpic
Flickr
Imageshack
Kodak Easyshare Gallery
Mijn Album
PhotoBucket
Phanfare
Picasa
Shutterfly
SmugMug
Snapfish
Webshots
Woophy
Zooomr

What are some key features:

Basic accounts for most sites are free.
Sharing pictures is easy!

Groups allow you to easily exchange pictures, videos, and feedback with friends, family or even strangers with interests like yours. These groups can be public, invite only, or private.

Privacy is important

The privacy level of each image can be adjusted, so you decide exactly who can see your images. Usage licenses are used to protect your copyrights. You can also filter content that you view when searching for images to prevent offensive material from coming out of nowhere.

Photo Editing

You can edit your pictures right on the site as you upload them. Red-eye removal, image cropping, and even more creative editing like adding frames, fonts, and effects.

With Flikr, photo editing is easy.-- From the home page click on your "photostream" and find the picture that you want to edit. Above the picture there is a row of buttons, click on the edit button. You will be taken to a site called Picnik where you can do all kinds of neat things with your picture.

- red eye removal
-cropping
-rotating
-resizing
-fixing the picture's exposure and other cool color tricks
-black and white
-sepia tone
-add text
-borders
-MORE!

Organize

Organize your pictures into sets based on themes, events, specific dates and more. Then you can put these sets into collections of broader themes such as year, family, friends, college, etc. Photo sharing also allows you to tag your pictures with key words to help yourself and other users search for pictures. You can tag the names of people in the photo, where it was taken, what the occasion was and so much more.

CREATE!

For those of us that still like to have our tangible pictures, creating prints is easy! With the click of a few buttons you can have your pictures delivered to your house. Capital One lets users of Flickr create image credit cards. You can have photo books made as well as calendars, photo cubes, business cards, and much more.

Backing Up Your Pictures

So your computer crashed and all your digital pictures were lost forever... not if you have them on an online photo sharing site, they are accessable from any computer!

Have a Website?

Photo sharing websites usually provide you with an HTML code so you can easily embed your pictures on your personal website, and it's as easy as COPY/PASTE!

What is the Educational Value:
Photo sharing can support education in many ways. There are a variety of ways to incorporate photo sharing in the classroom. For example:

Teachers can customize a notepad or notebook with photos, borders, and messages. This would be a useful tool for documenting field trips. This way the parents who could not go on the trip can get online with their children and let them share what they did on their trip.
Fun class activities are also nice when shared with the families of children through photo sharing.
Teachers may also view pictures , found by category, on whatever topic is being studied. Students can see a lot of different pictures of real life rainbows, clouds, or famous landmarks such as Yellowstone National Park.
Every age group can use photo sharing! A positive part of photo sharing is all the different pictures available to students. There is something for everyone.
Children with special needs who may be having trouble categorizing animals can see actual pictures to help them understand.
Collages can become very fun, and the pictures are easier to locate for the students.
Researching topics through photo sharing makes the project much more fun! Students can see actual pictures and incorporate them into their projects.
Memory games can be created through photo sharing. For instance, kids can categorize different types of bugs by placing pictures of insects into a list.

Classroom Tip: NEVER SEND CHILDREN TO PHOTO SHARING WEBSITES WITHOUGH SUPERVISION. Curious eyes can lead them in the wrong direction... =O

Resources for Future Learning:
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/photo-sharing.htm
http://www.ehow.com/how_2199033_choose-photo-sharing-website.html
http://etc.usf.edu/te_mac/movies/flickr.html
http://www.tasi.ac.uk/advice/using/photo_sharing.html
Future Teaching:
http://www.stevehargadon.com/2008/03/web-20-is-future-of-education.html
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/e-learning_20.php
http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/OpenSourceSoftwareinEduca/46592?time=1221445125
http://www.citt.ufl.edu/toolbox/toolbox_photoSharing.php
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/technology/circuits/05pogue.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://www.districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=585
http://www.teachinghacks.com/wiki/index.php?title=Photo_Sharing_in_Education
http://www.universitybusiness.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=729&p=1#0

Resources:
http://www.flickr.com/tour/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flickr
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_sharing
http://www.tasi.ac.uk/advice/using/photo_sharing.html

Practice Page

frisbeej2 — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:05:18 CDT

Hola

Wikis

harrisl — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:20:38 CDT

The WIKI Wiki (content origination: https://wiki.asu.edu/innovationsf06tth1100)
Contributors: Teresa Foulger, Lisa Harris

History Behind the WIKI

Ward Cunningham started developing WikiWikiWeb in 1994 and later installed in on his company's website on March 25, 1995 as a way for programmars to share information. Wiki is the Hawaiian word for quick. Cunningham was referring to the quickness with which a wiki can be edited. Wiki is also interpreted as "what I know is" but this is a "backronym."

According to Cunningham, the of wiki can be traced back to a HyperCard stack he wrote in the late 1980s. In the late 1990s, wikis were increasingly recognized as a promising way to develop private- and public-knowledge bases. This potential inspired the founders of the Nupedia encyclopedia project, Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, to use wiki technology as a basis for an electronic encyclopedia: Wikipedia was launched in January 2001.

Main Characteristics and Features

Users can:

Read and navigate through pages like a regular web site.
Modify any page (that is open to edit) by clicking the "Edit" link on that page. Click "Save" and your changes are INSTANTLY published for others to see.
Watch Wikis in Plain English, or See How It Works for more information

Features:

A wiki allows documents to be written collaboratively. This is done by allowing multiple people to contribute to the wiki via the internet or via hyperlinks.
Wikis remain up to date due to their pages being updated with ease through the collaborative process. Updates are almost instantanious.
Most wikis are open to the general public, while others require a user name and password to view and alter its contents.
When page changes have been made, there is a email sent of notification for any members who have request as such.
Changes to wikis are documented, and an author can revert to an older version, thus eliminating the need for control!

Two Popular Wikis

Things to Remember About Wiki Content (and things to teach kids about!)

Not all wiki's have accurate information.
Only secure wiki's have more reliable information.
Other sources should be used to confirm information found on a wiki.

General Wiki Uses

This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for collaborative authoring.

To share documents with anyone on your server or over the net.
In business settings for file sharing and other helpful hints for coworkers.
In the classroom for students to work collaboratively on projects.
For teachers to share lesson plans, activities, ideas and much more.
More Uses

Wiki Ideas for Educators

Examples for emementary, middle and high school wikis
Wikis in the Classroom

An example of how a 'teacher' uses a wiki for the 'classroom' (it's like blackboard...just not).
In the Classroom

Examples from PBWiki

Wiki's used for 'parent-teacher sign-ups'.
http://613signup.wikispaces.com/home

Wiki used like an 'agenda', letting the class know what they are going to be studying, chapter reviews and review questions.
http://hwpsocialstudies.wikispaces.com/6th+Grade+Topics+and+Links

Wiki used for 'class discussions'.
Class Discussions

A Multi Purpose link to using wikis for:

video presentations.
share your wiki.
upload files/pictures.
and much more.

Wiki Resources

1. Where to Create A New Wiki: JotSpot, OddWiki, PeanutButterWiki, SeedWiki, Wiki.com, Socialtext, Wetpaint, Wikia, and Wikispaces are nine such services.

2. How to Edit a Wetpaint Wiki: http://www.wetpaintcentral.com/page/EasyEdit?t=anon

3. How to add a page to a Wetpaint Wiki: http://www.wetpaintcentral.com/page/Add+Page

References

(2000). What is a wiki. Retrieved January 31, 2007, from Wiki Web Web site: http://www.wikiweb.com/intro1.shtml/

Rose, S. (2006). Uses for wikis. Retrieved January 31, 2007, from Participatory Media Literacy Web site:
http://www.socialtext.net/medialiteracy/index.cgi?uses_for_wikis

(2007, January 28). Wiki. Retrieved January 31, 2007, from Wikipedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIKI

Wikipedia:Tutorial. Retrieved January 31, 2007, from Wikipedia Web site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tutorial

Garnet, (2004, June 2). Garnet 's 30 second wiki tutorial. Retrieved January 30, 2007, from 30 second wiki turorial Web
site: http://www.chat11.com/Related_To_30_Second_Quick_Wiki_Tutorial

(2002). Project forum. Retrieved January 31, 2007, from Course forum technologies Web site:
http://www.projectforum.com/pf/wiki.html?ref=googlewiksea11

How to edit a page. (2007). In Wikipedia Web. San Diego: Retrieved January 29, 2007, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page#Examples