Mixbook Changes Their User Agreement

Mixbook has graciously updated their end user agreement!! They have now made it possible for kids under the age of 13 to be able to use their tool. I can't even begin to tell you how excited this makes me and so many other educators that were limited in integrating such an incredible tool into classroom writing projects. If you haven't seen this tool yet you must check it out!! www.mixbook.com , it is one of absolute favorites, oh and did I mention, their CEO, Andrew is a great guy too. He actually responded to my email and concern about limiting this tool to kids over 13. He was able to change this agreement within a weeks time. Hows that for working with educators and the desire to be recognized as a valuable educational online tool! Thanks Andrew for working with me and allowing us to utilize this tool with younger kids! It will add to the writing projects that they need to create while doing research and more. I will continue to support and recommend Mixbook where ever I go and present!

Mixbook!!

So I just got off the phone with Mixbook's CEO, Andrew Lafoon and realized what a great little company it is. First of all let me just tell you that Mixbook.com is one of the best sites around for building online ebooks. They also offer a printed version of the books that you create. Well the reason for the call was in regards to an email that I sent concerning their user agreement. It clearly states that you have to be 13 years old to use the site, but that just didn't seem fair so I took it upon myself to write to them. I got an email back that very next day asking to share more information about what we "teachers" would need to make is so that kids younger than 13 could use the site. I recommended that they put a clause in their user agreement if under 13 must be under the supervision of an adult. Then teachers teachers using the tool with younger students would be protected and in compliance with the license agreement. Andrew and his associate were very open to the suggestion and said that it would soon be updated and would let me know when. They also asked how to make the tool better for teachers.... they didn't know what they had just done.... opening that can of worms. I asked if they could add audio and video capabilities to the site, recommended that they allow for pdf print outs and even suggested a coloring book mode to print. Other than that, I told them that Mixbook is an awesome tool for getting kids interested in writing and producing some incredible interactive written ebooks. You have to check this site out. Kids and you will love it! As for the guys at Mixbook, I thank you for your time and consideration in making your site and tool better for teachers and students. It was a pleasure working with you! Hope to see you at NECC and PETE&C.

Post to your Blog from iGoogle

Wow!!! How easy this just became...I can now post directly to my blog from my iGoogle page. No log in needed. Just type and post. You have to add this to your igoogle page if you enjoy blogger and posting easily!

WebNotes - Annotate the Web

Visit any website and annotate and share it.  This si so easy and worth using especially if you have students working together to discuss topics and research.  Place a sticky note or tack where you want to make the note and you are on your way.  Great for sharing and collaborating on the web.  http://www.webnotes.net/  give it a shot and be creative when annotating. 

Google - Finally you can export your blog...

Well they have finally gone and done it... we can now merge, export, and import from other blog hosts. Makes it much easier to manage your blogs if you have more than one. Reada more here.

"Google’s Blogger team introduced probably the most long awaited upgrade to the system ever, the ability to import and export in and out of Blogger powered blogs. "

Oh and how about this one... put your favorite songs on your site... listen while you post. i love it!!! AAAAAAAAHHHH! I love Nickelback!!!! Check out my side bar widget.

Plagarism Tool From U of Md.

You have to check this out!! A simple plagarism tool to help teachers identify plagarized papers.
http://www.dustball.com/cs/plagiarism.checker/ How can it get any easier than this!! Check the validity or something you know is copyrighted and see what you get in return.

Clarkson's Museum Box Creator

Wow this site http://museumbox.e2bn.org/creator/ is a must see and try!! Create a free teacher account and have your students build a box or interactive cube to demonstrated their mastery of specific content and skills. You can add video, audio, images, text, files and links to the cubes and click on the side that you would like to see. What a fun tool to have students build throughout the course of the year. This is a great site to actually build a portfolio!! Check out some of the samples here!!

Microsoft's Sticky Sorter

A great free download that creates sticky notes for projects and other collaborative events needing some organization.  Sticky Sorter can be dowloaded in seconds and up and running without much instruction at all. 
A great simplistic way to organize and collaborate during project plans.  It's a must see. 

LIFE Photo Archive on Google

Wow you have to see this.  http://images.google.com/hosted/life  LIFE Magazine's fully archived photographs will now be hosted at Google.  Amazing!!

A Sad Day for the CAIU

I usually only post links to favorite sites and tools for integration, but today is like non other. I will post about one of my favorite teachers, technolgy enthusiasts, colleagues, mentors and dearest of friends.  Today I share with you a true gem of the Web 2.0 world.  Over the past several years I have had the pleasure of working with and learning from one of the best!  One of the most well respected educators and educational technology specialists around the world has retired from his "official" job today, however, for those of us who know him, know that he is not "done today". This retirement will just free him up to do more of what he loves to do; share, inspire, teach, travel, collaborate, post, and oh let's not forget - visit his cabin to hunt.  It's so hard to believe that he will no longer be walking the halls of the IU and sharing a great Web 2.0 tool/tip during an in person TAC meeting or simply sharing a laugh over one of his funny and enlightening stories. Jim, your positive influence and  profound impact on Pennsylvania's classrooms, teachers, students, administrators, and even state officials will resonate in PA forever. Your legacy "it's about the kids" will live on through all of us who have had the opportunity to experience your dedication, passion, expertise and yes especially those "tips" on best practice and educational reform.  Jim Gates, I want to thank you for your enthusiasm, kindness, charm, inspiration, mentoring, guidance and friendship. You will always be an inspiration to me. I look forward to working with you, yes working... you are not getting off the hook that fast, in the future.  Have a drink on me big guy!  Enjoy your rest and relaxation at least for a few days.  For the rest of us who follow Jim's blog, it will surely be more than we could hope for since he will have more time now to post and share more often. http://tipline.blogspot.com/ 
Thanks for everthing Gatesy!  You're the best.

Sitting with Julia. Just...

Sitting with Julia. Just got done eating and we're discussing how educational institutions could actually change to better accomodate the 21st century learner. We'll be posting more about this in the next hour so check back in with us.
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Just hanging out and...

Just hanging out and taking a look at dial2do.com and posting a message from my cell phone to my blogger account. Um just seeing if this really does work and I will check my blog in about five seconds and then make a recommendation if this is a good tool or not.
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Big Huge Labs

Do something really creative with your photos and images. Give students the chance to create and learn with some of these fun imaging tools. Create online customized embedable maps, personalized badges and trading cards, magazine covers and wallpapers. It is so easy and fun to use. You have to check it out. This is one that students will love and it is now at the top of Bloom's thinking skills. Create and share!! http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/

OpenCongress - OpenCongress Tools

OpenCongress - OpenCongress Tools
Learn everything you ever wanted to know about congress. This site offers a ton of information and is easy to navigate. A great resource for studying congress and the debates of 2008.

Splicd

Don't want the entire Youtube video?  Capture the frames you need with http://www.splicd.com/ .  It is so simple grab the url, choose the time duration and click continue.  The movie clip will open for embedding and linking.  A great way to capture the clips that you want.

Show Document

Instant Collaboration on any file!!  This is a must see!! http://www.showdocument.com/  It is one of the easiest collaboration tools that I have ever seen.  Simply upload a file and share it. As soon as the invitees join they can annotate, comment, highlight and chat about the document.  Save as a pdf.  What a wonderful tool for editing papers and reports together.  Students could do this in pairs, small or large groups and learn from eachother in an instant.  The origianl file stays in tact.  I love this tool.  Give it a try in your classrooms!

Cullen's ABC's

This site is full of resources for the early learner. Primary and even Preschool children can benefit from this site. Cullen sings and shares so many activities that will engage young children forever. She is really doing a great job with this site. If you teach K-3 you will love this site. http://cullensabcs.com/

Edmodo - Safe Social Networking For School

Edmodo is a great way to allow your students to create an educational social networks.  Imagine a social network for kids that is absolutely safe.  How about creating a group for students and for their parents as well.  Opening up the communication with students and parents will prove to be invaluable!!  Give it a try.  It may just be worthwhile.

Jigsaw Planet

Cool site!  Upload your photos, choose the type of jigsaw and level of dificulty and create your personalized puzzle.  When finished, you receive timed results.  Great for uploading pics and giving kids a chance to solve puzzles and touch visual concepts.  Jigsaw Planet, a must see and play.

My Mini City

Wow this is the neatest site for building and growing a city.  No downloads, or registration.  Create a city, grab the link and send invitations out to your friends to get inhabitants and grow your city.  Chat features are included.  Manage the entire city from your web browser.  http://myminicity.com/  Check it out now, you will have a blast watching your city grow.  Kids would love this activity.  Imagine the graphing and math calculations that could happen with this type of site.  They could also manage population, industry, transportation, environment and more.  What a great way to see just how a productive they could be in growing their own city or paradise.  Visit my city here to help me grow my population  http://land-oftech.myminicity.com/  Have fun building your own as you click the build my city button. 

Ustream.tv

I know that I have shared ustream before, but I just stumbled upon some of the latest new ustream features. It's becoming increasingly easier to share your streams. You can now embed your favorite ustreams right into your igoogle page, your blog sidebars, netvibes and more. Ustream is one of the best tools on the net. If you don't have your free private or public channel yet, you must get one now. It is really revolutionizing how media comes to us. You can watch some of the best streams there or create one of the best when you get started. All you need to have is a webcam and some creativity. Make sure not to record anyone without permission though. It's a must see and do. Ustream.tv

Dabbleboard

Create an instant collaboration board online. No registration necessary. Share instantly!! A great tool for school and collaborative activities. Check it out. Dabbleboard is really a fun tool integrate. Copy image galleries to help with diagrams and drawings. It's a must have.

Scribblar - Online Webinar Tool

Another online webinar meeing tool.  This is completely free for up to http://www.scribblar.com/.  Grab a room for free and send out your invitations.  Give it a try. A great tool for creating online meeting solutions. 

Science Stage

A great Science website that allows you to create, share, and download Science related videos, audio, and documents.  Talk about a WOW website http://sciencestage.com/ currently in its beta stage. Create a free account, upload audio, video, documents that you want to share. Create groups to share content with.
Share this with your Science teachers!

Talk to Abraham Lincoln

Visit Virsona.com to meet and chat with Abe Lincoln. A site devoted to bringing personas back to life through investigation and personal interest in the past. A fun and new way to offer learning. Visit back often since the site is in its infancy and has only just begun. Create a free account and start your very own Versona. Be who ever you would like to be.

Kwiry - Mobile Learning

The cell phone is no longer just for calling and texting friends and family. It is truly revolutionizing daily interactions. Instead of having to sit down on the internet to retrieve information about any given topic, you can now simply send a text message to Kwiry. You will then receive an email with related resources to your text or desired topic. Conduct your research with a cell phone. Who would have ever thought of such a thing? Create an account and give it a try. Pretty darn amazing! Text rates do apply.

2008 Election Resources

So who isn't posting and writing or following the convention? I just wanted to share some great resources from colleagues and searches for useful links. Check some of these out!!


Templates and scoring rubrics for debates and more http://www.educationworld.com/tools_templates/index.shtml#election

Cool, Interactive and Fun!! http://www.ciconline.org/elections A great interactive online game that allows students to choose and rate topics then compare them to other states. An interactive board game that allows players to act as candidates while running a campaign. You have to see this one!

The Online News Hourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/vote2008/primaries/states/

NPR - http://www.npr.org/templates/topics/topic.php?topicId=1102

ECO Research - http://www.ecoresearch.net/election2008/ and http://www.ecoresearch.net/election2008/technology discover and track media attention and sentiment about candidates.

YUUGUU - Free Webinars - 30 free seats

This is another great tool to begin using when trying to share and train online. It is free for up to 30 participants. Just download, install, create an account and share you link. It's truly as simple as simple can be. You can share your desktop, chat, speak together for free. Check it out. It's worth trying if you can't afford high costs. Yuuguu try it out for yourself.

Power Up The Game!!

Wow, this is a must see. Play a virtual game to help save the earth. If this doesn't catch your students' interests, I don't know what will. "Motivate your students to apply science and math concepts to real world problems, spark student interest in pursuing a career in Science or Engineering, students work together in teams to investigate the rich, 3D game environment Players take on the role of Engineers, working together designing and building energy solutions to save the worldand learn about the environmental disasters that threaten the game world and its inhabitants." There is a teacher guide to assist with the integration of this game simulation in class. http://www.powerupthegame.org/home.html Check it out here. Demo it first with a few pilot students. Get their feedback and procede with a solid plan. Learn while playing and collaborating with eachother. What a great way to reach kids and teach important concepts in Science.

Redzee

A great visual search engine that gets rid of the inappropriate hits. I love the rotating pages. Simply click the thumbnail page that you would like to visit to find what you are looking for. Check it out Redzee find out what your students think about it.

A New Tool For School

This one is really fun and can actually be used to get kids interested in writing, creating plays and more. You have to see it. Goanimate allows you to choose various settings, characters, and actions to create and active story with animated characters. Now I have to warn you, that some of the settings and characters are a bit questionable, but for the most part they are harmless. There are many themes for scenes and the only one that I saw to be questionable was the latrine. The only character was a shapely woman in a bikini. Just direct your students to steer clear of those. They will have a blast creating live animated cartoons depicting many topics and story lines. Very fun. A must see!!

NECC 2008

I wanted to share my experiences about NECC 2008 in San Antonio Texas. While there were many sessions worth attending many were full even before the start time. I was turned away at 3 consecutive sessions. A bit frustrating, but once I became adjusted to the situation and session locations it got better. Sessions attended were informative. I learned about lit2go , Florida Educational Clearing house fulll of audio books mp3 files for download and use with classroom multimedia projects. Very nice presentation and examples offered. I participated in and attended other Blogger Cafe presentations which I found quite informative. However, even after sharing and meeting others from around the globe, I learned that I am still way ahead of the instructional technology curve. It was comforting to know that I am still on top of things.

Another interesting thing that I found out was ISTE's ICOT or Classroom Observation Tool that provides online data collection about teacher, or district instructional technology practices. An excellent tool to identify instructional strengths and weaknesses base upon the New 2008 NETS for Teachers and Students.
I will be using this for sure in the very near future.

Lastly, I enjoy finally meeting some of my favorite online networking friends. Steve Hargadon of Classroom 2.0 is truly a diamond in the rough with great knowledge and expertise in a variety of Web 2.0 and Open Source resources for education. What an inspiration to me. Jeff Uttecth now from Wetpaint, was fun to listen and speak to. All of the PA folks that I have been collaborating with over the past year, what a great bunch of people. PA has got some fabulous teachers, technology specialists and coordinators, and state level directors. It is an honor to be a part of such a wonderful group of educational leaders. I am looking forward to D.C. next year and already have plans on bringing my own children to present what they already do in virtual worlds and online.

Oh and how could I forget Cyote Ugly, what a fun place to hang out and dance. Sorry no photos were allowed. :) My husband enjoyed it all, but had to get a break from us tech geeks.

Tutpup

A great interactive game website for learning and competing. Create a free account and play games to reinforce Math and Spelling skills. You get to compete against the clock and other children from around the world. How much fun is that. You have to give this a try, I will be sharing this with my own kis over the summer!! Tutpup is a great resource for SMART Boards or other interactive devices.

TotSpot

Finally a site for parents to safely post and share information about their children. How fun for a young child to see their photos and read about their lives as they grow up. I will be using this for my kids this summer. They will be able to build their own pages. Check it out. TotSpot

ClassTools

Classtools is a great way to get interactives into the learning hands of students. Create fun flash based games that support you curriculum content standards. There are great games for reinforcing learning. Try some of the games and see what you think.

Doodle 4 Google Winners - Today's Google is the Grand Prize Winner

Check out some of the great artwork that was submitted by kids. http://www.google.com/doodle4google/index.html The winners are very impressive.

Penzu - Free Online Notebook

Create a free simple to use online notebook at Penzu. It is so easy to use. Just type, add pics and save or share. If you have a classroom with computers, have you students take notes here and share them with you. Get the paperless classroom environment with 24/7 accessibility. How wonderful for students who miss school, can’t write well, or just need note and info. updates. Very easy to use. Give it a shot.

Atomic Learing - Lesson Accelerators and Workshops

Atomic Learning Lesson Accelerators – this is one of the most comprehensive sites for lesson ideas and quick video tutorials!!! I know about Atomic Learning’s training videos, but this module is very nicely done. Need a lesson idea for a specific tech. tool and subject matter? Check it out!!
http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/atomiccurriculum The lesson accelerators provide step by step video tutorials for integration of specific software applications, system preferences, and specific standards. It can’t get any easier than this to help spark an idea for quality integration! You can even become a lesson accelerator contributor. http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/la_dev_info . There are many of you who have built some incredible lessons and tutorials, why not get some recognition for it! Oh, and coaches, check these out. http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/workshops these might help with the training of applications that you are not completely familiar with. Hope you can use these.

Tweet Cube

If you use Twitter, then you will love this one. Tweet Cube, allows you to post files directly to your Twitter account. I will use it as an alternative to posting since Twitter is blocked where I work. Upload files of 10mb or less, but you have unlimited uploads. Check it out!

GWAP- By Carnegie Mellon

Another great one by Carnegie Mellon!! It's called GWAP or Games With A Purpose, an interactive live game that lets you and an unknown partner compete against a clock. Ok this is what they say "By playing our games, you're training computers to solve problems for humans all over the world." I am not really sure how this works, but it's fun!! I am getting addicted. They record the guess tags related to the answers that each partner takes and helps the search engines get smarter. There are 5 Games, ESP, Verbosity, Tag a Tune, Squigl, and Matchin. They are all pretty fun. You have to give this a try. See what you think. Register free!!

Tikatok-Build a Free E-Book

I just had to share this one. Tikatok, create an online ebook and get it published. Very much like Mixbook. You can choose from story templates and topics or create your ebook from scratch. If you choose a to use a template students can complete a simple form to customize their story characters, settings, and events. I know it’s elementary, but HS kids actually like writing to younger audiences. They are great at making more complex ideas very simple. However, the content doesn’t have to be elementary at all. Give it a shot. I bet they will enjoy it.

Have fun.

NOTA - Web tool for posting your notes and more

This is a new one. I have been testing out many note-taking Web 2.0 tools and love this one. Create a free Nota page and allow others to edit and/or comment. It reminds me a little of voicethread, but allows for much more. Check out the how to page. It is so easy post photos, clipart, google maps, movies and more…. Jpeg, png, bmp, gif, mp3, swf, doc, xls, ppt, pdf, and any other formats are allowed. Big image files will be automatically compressed. I’m thinking (virtual fieldtrips, digital stories…J, collaborative projects etc… ) Embed the page or share the link. Get students to build content and collaborate. They will love this one! It’s a wiki, but without the boundaries. Leave me a comment or join and edit my page. Have fun with this one.

CCDT - Collaborative Curriculum Design Template

I was just reading and catching up on my blogs and I stumbled across this interactive curriculum design tool. It is part of Harvard Graduate School of Ed. It's called the Collaborative Curriculum Design Template! WOW … if it comes out of Harvard, it’s got to be pretty good. The tool models the principles of the The Teaching for Understanding Framework. This is the link they provide for TFU design principles. This curriculum building tool is not like most, but sure looks very effective. Our district is currently using the LFS framework and online toolbox to build curriculum and it is working for us. However, I do know that not everyone is using the LFS structure or tools, yet still need something for interactive and collaborative curriculum design. If you are looking for an effective online curriculum design tool, the CCDT might be worth investigating.
Oh did I mention it’s FREE, imagine that one, me send a free resource. J Register, and watch the tutorial. It will guide you through steps for building curriculum content.