Instructify

If you read Instructify every day, it’s safe to say you like finding nifty tools for your classroom. Believe it or not, there are more places than this one to find out about these resources (wait, don’t leave! Come back!).

Vicki Davis, owner of the Cool Cat Teacher Blog, is one such teacher who enjoys spreading the word about useful ed-technology. This Thursday, August 28 at 8 p.m., you can talk to her live and sort-of-in-person via Second Life in her presentation, “New School Year: Cool Tools Here.” Davis will share some of the tools and tips she (and hopefully you too) will use this coming year.

Davis’ session is part of “The Future Is Already Here,” a series of interactive professional development sessions from USDLC (you might remember their session, “BANNED in the Bookhenge” from earlier this year). The series is designed to give teachers a chance to hear from and talk with outstanding teachers who integrate technology such as Web 2.0, 1:1 computing, robotics, or serious gaming / 3D Web into their everyday teaching.

If you’re not sure about this whole social networking through Second Life thing, you can still take part through Internet radio and chat at  www.Literacy2Learn.org. USDLC plans more of these events throughout the year, so keep checking back. Isn’t it nice to know there are so many places to find out about great tech resources for teachers? All I ask is that you don’t forget about Instructify. -BILL FERRIS

Cool Cat Teacher Blog

The Future Is Already Here

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Photo credit: zen on flickr.

“I hope our profiles all go dead, entombed in distant servers
A monument of your youth, although lacking its observers
Your page will be an empty shell, when no one is behind it
I hope your MySpace stays forever - and I hope that your kids find it“

The Internet is kind of like a modern day time capsule. The things that kids (and adults!) put out there get indexed and stored away forever, and will be Google-able well after they all grow up and abandon their MySpace and Facebook pages.

This isn’t something previous generations have had to deal with, though. I know that the most awkward things I ever found of my parents were some semi-incriminating, and semi-faded, photos from a camping trip back in 1975, but nothing to be embarrassed about really. But what about when the “MySpace generation” grows up and has kids of their own — kids who will be able to just simply Google their parents and find archaic (and yet still sparkly) MySpace pages filled with animated gifs, possibly obscene comments and photos of their melancholic reflection in the bathroom mirror?

And, while it’s hilarious to think about now, maybe those are all things that they might not want popping back into their lives at a later point, like, say, when they are running for the US Senate or have curious kids of their own. And maybe that’s something they should go ahead and consider now.

So someone decided to write a hilarious song (featuring the above quote) that considers what it’ll be like when abandoned MySpace pages are found by the next generation — what I will now designate as the “time capsule effect” of social networking sites — and here it is for your enjoyment.

Don’t worry, it’s safe to share with your kids or students, and I’m sure they’ll find it hilarious, too. Seriously, I was totally rotfl-ing!

Wait a minute, now that I think about it, did I ever delete my old Friendster page from 2002? Uh oh… — LAUREN FROHNE

My Hope

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Obviously, our civilization has now evolved well beyond the days of fruitlessly attempting to summarize our reactions to the many moments of a video with only a single comment and tagging our multifaceted videos with general terms that don’t capture the specific content that lies within.

Viddler is the new frontier of video sharing. For one, you don’t just tag your video, you tag specific moments in your video. This kind of tagging allows viewers to search for specific content within videos, not just for the overall topic. Also, you and your viewers can post comments on the video in the same way. The tags and comments appear right in the time line of your video - describing people, places, and things - and let viewers discuss specific moments, not just the video as a whole

Add super-fast upload and download times, and you can share your videos with your students, friends, family, and the world quickly and easily - all while having full control over your privacy settings. Also, if you don’t have a video camera, Viddler also has a neat little tool that let’s you record right from your webcam.

So go, watch the Internet’s evolution right before your eyes - check out the next generation of video sharing at Viddler! -LAUREN FROHNE

Viddler

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You’ve finally gotten a laptop to work with, and maybe you’ve started to use it in the classroom. Now you’re going to conferences, and you’ve heard about people “blogging” and using laptops at conferencing, but you’re wondering how to do this, and why?

First, think of blogging as a more efficient and effective way to take and share notes from your conference experience. Next, you don’t have to have or keep a blog to more effectively share what you learn. Now that we have that out of the way let’s think about this some more. You are probably being sent to that conference so that you can learn lots of new stuff, and then come back and share what you learn with others. Traditionally, you’d take handwritten notes, but unless you take shorthand, even minimal touch typing skills (I’m only a 35-50 wpm gal myself) are much more efficient than hand-writing notes. Give up the note pad, and use your laptop. In electronic form your notes can go to the whole district, and save you the awkwardness of reading your chicken scratch notes at your department meeting.

Now for the how part. I recommend this great article on blogging conferences from the TED site. As they point out, “Even if you don’t blog, it’s worth reading before your next conference, for tips on getting the most out of your time in the audience.” Here are some highlights:

1. Set up your documents in advance, and type in background links (their website, blog, who they work for, etc.) and the name of the presenter before the session.
2. Arrive early and have your physical setup (the back or somewhere near an outlet. My tip is to bring a good surge protector with a long cord - mine is eight feet long). Keep your laptop fully charged and plugged in whenever possible, so that it is ready to go should you not have power access.
3. Check in with others who are blogging or using laptops, to share notes and fill in any gaps.

But what should you use to take notes? Start with your word processing software of choice. If you are not publishing on the Web but will be emailing the notes, what I often do at district meetings is take notes in Power Point. This forces you to summarize, because if it won’t fit on one slide without reducing the font below 24 point, you are probably writing too much. Whatever you use, save often (most blogging editors have a way to save without publishing).

How do you share the information if you don’t have a blog of your own? Use your school/district LMS, email it, put a wiki page up, or put it on a Pageflake.

Now, if you are working on a blog, and expecting wifi at your conference, you may be disappointed. Some convention centers like to charge for access, some conferences (especially education technology ones) have been having their wifi overwhelmed by all of us coming in with our spiffy new wifi laptops. Do not count on having online access all the time, be prepared to type in Word now, and post and share later. -ALICE MERCER

How to blog a confeence via TED

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I’m terrible at Risk, which probably has something to do with the fact that I’m terrible at geography. My main problem, though, is that I end up with terrible territories:

Opponent: “I’m sending an army into Irkutsk.”

Me: “Meh. You can have it, Nanook.”

Perhaps I’d do better if I got to defend a place I actually cared about, or could at least locate on a map. The New York Times reports a few Ivy Leaguers apparently felt the same way when they created GoCrossCampus.

Like Risk, the goal in GCC is to recruit and position your armies to take over your opponents’ territory. Unlike Risk, the territory consists of college campuses, or U.S. cities and states, and your armies consist of you and your friends. Working as a team with people within your social network, dormitory, whatever, you coordinate your movements to defeat your rival, as well as develop teamwork, collaboration and leadership skills. You can also nominate commanders, and remove nefarious spies from your ranks.

The game’s creators - a small group of Yale students - designed the game to be compatible with existing social networks, both online and face-to-face. They also play up the game’s small time-commitment - only a few minutes every day.

GoCrossCampus isn’t available to the general public just yet, but the founders plan to expand into high schools, as well as corporate team-building exercises. If you can’t wait that long and you’d like to participate at your school ASAP, you can contact them via the GoCrossCampus website. It’s a good way to bolster school spirit, as well as inject a little energy into your next geography lesson. -BILL FERRIS

Storming the Campuses via the New York Times
GoCrossCampus

If you watch Lost, you’ll be familiar with some of the references I’m about to throw your way. Who wouldn’t want to explore an island, all the while hanging out with Kate (or Jack, ladies) and solving mysteries? First thing I’d do would be to [Spoiler Alert] and then [Spoiler Alert], because, really, what was up with [Spoiler Alert]? We might never know!

One thing I do know for sure is that its not really a place for kids, as most of them end up getting kidnapped once or twice per season. There has got to be a kid-friendly island out there that they can explore… someplace like, oh I don’t know, BBC’s Adventure Rock. Adventure Rock is an online 3D island that includes games and creative studios where children can get immersed.

According to this article from BBC News, virtual worlds are a stimulating way for kids practice what they might do in real life. For as much escapism as a virtual world like Second Life provides for people who already lead real lives, something like Adventure Rock would exist on the opposite side of things. Kids can practice social skills and figure out their identities in a consequence-free environment all before leading their own lives in the real world. –NICK YINGLING

Adventure Rock

You’ve heard a lot about this “social networking” stuff kids are talking about. Whether you’re a complete networking newbie or you’ve got a MySpace, Facebook and Twitter account, make sure to check out iCue, a site from NBC News that combines peer connection with learning and multimedia.

iCue is an online learning environment that will let your students collaborate online while learning. While it does have fun stuff like games, iCue’s coolest features are the Cue Cards, which play video clips, as well as view images, documents, and video transcripts, related to the subject you’re looking up. Like an online baseball card, “flip” the Cue Card over to read useful info about the person speaking, his or her political views, the source of the video clip, earned run average, and lots more. Each card is tagged with notes and keywords, and if NBC’s notes don’t cut it, you can write in your own. Also like baseball cards, you can save and share them, so you can finally get hold of the Barack Obama rookie card.

Once they’re in iCue, students can build their friends network, interact with peers through discussion forums, and comment on others’ Cue Cards or ideas. iCue forums also have a “Thought Starter” which you can use to spark student discussion about an event in the news.

For its debut, iCue features content focused on politics, since there’s apparently a presidential election coming up. Over the summer they’ll add resources for courses including US History and English language and composition. Who knows? Once your students get started on iCue, discussing political candidates and collaborating on history research may just take precedence over updating their MySpace pages. -BILL FERRIS

iCue

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Within five years, every freaking site on the Interweb will have a social networking component to it. Flashcard Friends, a site where you can share flashcards with online friends, is proof that you can add a social component to darn near anything.

Flashcard Friends works a lot like Flashcard Exchange and cueFlash in that you or your students can upload and share cards for review. However, Flashcard Friends does those sites one better by letting you interact with other educators and students looking for/offering cards for review. It’s actually not a bad idea when you think about it - if you know one of your friends always makes the best flashcards, you’ll be more likely to go to that person in the future. Who knows? Your shared interest in Revolutionary War battles may kindle a lasting friendship. -BILL FERRIS

Flashcard Friends

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Do you struggle to explain Web 2.0 to interested but clueless administrators? Social networking, blogging and podcasting can be tough to describe to the uninitiated. If you need succinct explanations of social media to convince your principal to open the school’s firewall for you, show him or her a video by Common Craft.

Common Craft videos are free mini-tutorials on everything from wikis to RSS, and even what to do in case of a Zombie attack (that was a Halloween video, but zombies probably don’t know what day it is, so it’s good advice to heed year-round). Each video discusses a topic in plain English using a white board and simple paper drawings for visual aids. The simplicity of the production is Common Craft’s greatest asset - nebulous concepts like social bookmarking don’t look so daunting in a paper doll context.

Watching Common Craft videos may give you a few ideas for some class projects. Your class can make this type of video without much more than a white board and a Web cam. Making your videos as engaging and pithy as Common Craft, however, may take some practice. -BILL FERRIS

Common Craft

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The web is a wonderful place, full of exciting activities, and interesting information, but like many a Golden City, it has it’s potholes, and those become really noticeable when you teach primary age students (five to eight year olds here in the States). There are lots of sites that are safe, and many that are interactive, but there are few safe, non-commercial sites for kids to meet other children in a social network. The folks at Children’s Television Workshop are neatly filling this void by providing Panwapa. You may be wondering, what do I mean by social network? Social Networks are places like Beebo, and MySpace. Now, you’re wondering how could this be useful for education and safe enough to use in the classroom? Don’t worry about it, it’s all been designed with education in mind.

According to the press packet,

Panwapa, which means “here on this earth” in the Tshiluba language, aims to foster the foundation for global citizenship and community activism in young children, ages 4 to 7. Featuring an entirely new group of Muppet characters, Panwapa consists of an interactive website, www.panwapa.com…

Wow, they get to share their interests and culture, learn about other kids’ interests and culture, and get some geography on top of it! The site is set up for a high degree of safety. Children are assigned a word number combination based on their country (like USA15431). This does mean that you need to remember to print out the confirmation page for each student, so they can re-access their account. This may be a pain, but it means it will help you make the case for safety when you discuss using this site with parents and administrators. -ALICE MERCER

Panwapa

Do you think your students are signed up for a social network? Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and—ugh, yes—Friendster have all cashed in on social networking, while several more have sprung up to try and grab the kids and young teen demographics. One of the better networks in terms of member safety and helping kids develop social networking skills is Imbee. Imbee’s Teacher Feature helps you take advantage of your students’ Internet use outside of the classroom with content designed to enhance classroom activities. -NICK YINGLING

Imbee

I found this article too important not to share. If you are unfamiliar with social media, this is a great place to start. If you are familiar with the concept of social media, but you’re not sure how it can work for you, then this is also a great place to start. Social Media: How to ‘Sell It’ to Your Team, by social media guru Adam Metz, is an article pointed right at you, teacher. Metz does a fine job of explaining the different types of social media, and the overall value it has for education and communication purposes. If you’ve ever been curious about this whole social networking phenomenon, then head over to T.H.E. Journal and get cracking. –JEREMY S. GRIFFIN

Social Media: How to ‘Sell It’ to Your Team

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Photo credit: jurek d. on flickr

If you’re the type who reads the articles but rarely the comments, you may have missed a recommendation a few months ago for a really nifty site called edutagger. In both name and intent, this service is a close cousin to edtags, which we told you about back in October. It’s social bookmarking with a K-12 spin.

Edutagger makes it easy to help and be helped by your colleagues, and what could be better? Don’t keep great online content to yourself – the Internet’s a big place, so if you think other educators could benefit from something you’ve found, put it where they’ll see it! As with other social bookmarkers, edutagger’s content is organized by tags, popularity, and how recently the link was posted. It’s not surprising to see tags like Education and Web 2.0 as some of the front-runners, but Drama and Theatre also seem to be major players, so give the site a look-see if that’s your specialty.

While edutagger is still a young‘un compared to some of the others in the social bookmarking clan, with an attractive interface, a simple concept, and a large and curious target audience, I think it’s about time for this upstart to hit a growth spurt. -MARIELLE PRINCE

edutagger

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