Get It Together!

I found a great article online, "100 Powerful Web Tools to Organize Your Ideas and Thoughts." One of the pages in your reading this week talks about browsers and bookmarks.

I use Del.icio.us and Diigo (which isn't mentioned in the bookmarking section but farther down in another section of the list. It has a teacher console that would allow us all to share our bookmarks for this class--and in a future class, I'm definitely going to use that. Also, as you read on the web, instead of just bookmarking, you can highlight portions of web pages that are of particular interest to you. You can also attach sticky notes to specific parts of web pages.)

Whether you are doing online research or like to keep your Internet hobbies organized, these bookmarking tools will help you keep everything in order and easy to find.

15. Del.icio.us. This popular bookmarking site allows you to save favorite sites, add notes to yourself that you can also share with others, and browse other peoples’ bookmarks to find similar content.
16. Reddit. Not only can you bookmark your favorite sites here, but users can vote on sites and watch whether they are going up or down in popularity.
17. Digg. Users can vote and comment on their favorite (or not so favorite) sites here, or you can just easily bookmark your favorites.
18. StumbleUpon. Part bookmarking site and part highly-customizable search engine, StumbleUpon offers sites that meet your selected criteria that you can choose to bookmark or not.
19. PurpleBunny. Bookmark, comment on sites, share with others, read what other users have to say, and even discuss web sites.
20. Fleck. Keep all your bookmarks in one place and share with friends. Choose between Original or Lite–which provides shortened urls for sharing on Twitter.
21. Snip!t. Snip sections of webpages you want to remember and add them to your bookmarks. You can even make notes on them.
22. Digital Notes. Download this open source software to access social bookmarking where you and your friends can discuss websites on a shared note.
23. Clipmarks. With this bookmarking tool you can select a portion of a webpage–including text, video, or image–and save it.
24. iFaves. Get your bookmarks organized by the ones you most visited or tags you assign so that you never lose track of those important bookmarks again.
25. Tip’d Financial News. Like Digg, but for personal finance and investing topics.

Looking over the complete list, I use at LEAST one of the tools listed in every section every single day! These tools have definitely made me more organized and more productive. Check out a few of these newer webtools. They will help while you're in college--and down your professional road as well!

Two others not mentioned at all that I like because they are so visual are:

• Only2Cicks (I recommend for elementary) Creates thumbnails of frequently-used, bookmarked sites; sort by category, drag and drop; share.
• MiddleSpot (for upper elementary and secondary) Search, zoom and pan on screenshots of your results, collect and store your results on a personal "workpad," share your workpad.
• Tizmos (for secondary and teachers) A personalized homepage that allows you to see thumbnails of your favorite sites (tizmos) all in one place. You can add, edit, and delete Tizmos on your page

Password Generator

From the Free Technology for Teachers blog:

"I recently came across a simple, but effective password creation tool. Password Bird is a simple website that asks you three questions then generates a password for you based on your responses. Every password it generated for me included numbers and letters. If you don't like the password it generates for you, simply click the link for a new password.

"Password Bird is a great tool to have students try when they can't think of their own computer passwords. This is a particularly handy tool when students have to create passwords that include numbers."

Works for me, too!

What do you think?

Here's a chance to try VoiceThread and earn some extra credit. I think VoiceThread is a good alternative to Powerpoint and allows for collaboration. From the website:

VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to leave comments in 5 ways - using voice (with a mic or phone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too.

Users can doodle while commenting, use multiple identities and pick which comments are shown through moderation. VoiceThreads can even be embedded on web sites and exported to MP3 players or DVDs as archival movies.

With VoiceThread, group conversations are collected and shared in one place from anywhere in the world. All with no software to install. See: What's a VoiceThread?

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So comment on one (or more) of the three slides. Comments are moderated, so you won't see (or hear) them until I approve them. Be sure to leave your WHOLE NAME so I can give you credit! A text comment is worth 5 points. Recorded or phoned in comments are worth 10 points. Video comments are worth 15 points. You can leave up to three comments, but only one on each slide. You should be able to click on the VoiceThread below to begin (although it is reduced in size to fit and may be difficult to see), or go to the "What Do You Think?" VoiceThread. (Click on the title in the previous sentence!)



Browse more VoiceThreads here.

How Not to Use Powerpoint

According to Don McMillan, here is a humorous yet insightful viewpoint on how people (teachers included) should not be using PowerPoint.



There's a simlar one "Stop Killing Your Students with Powerpoint" at Teacher Tube. Teacher Tube was created in response to the popular You Tube. You Tube's content is user generated and subjects are varied, while Teacher Tube is generated mostly by educators to teach students and fellow teachers. Unfortunately, You Tube is blocked in most schools and districts, but many of the instructional videos posted on You Tube can be found on Teacher Tube. You can also post your own instructional videos there!

Headline News!

Created with Image Chef

Award Winning Children's Book Authors Interviewed

If you're in elementary ed or exceptional ed, have children or love good books, you'll be interested in the latest award winning books. Winning authors were interviewed on the Today Show this week:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

U Can change the Future? (UCF!) Digital MeStories

meStories is a digital film competition and showcase in which undergraduate UCF students are given the opportunity to express their views and ideas on contemporary topics. This competition is open to currently enrolled undergraduate students. Students can enter individually or in groups (limit 4 students per team). The general theme for this competition is defined by UCF's Unifying Theme. This year's theme is:

"Our Planet.Our Education.Our Future".

In keeping with this theme, the title of this year's MeStories contest is "U-Can-change-the-Future"

For this competition you are to assemble a two to three minute personal story that is recorded on video about change.... and how you, as an individual, could be the catalyst to change the world. The topic should relate to you and the environment.

The Essential Question is:

"How could you change the World (i.e., environment)?"

See the rules and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and then check out this example by a College of Education student:

WebQuests

Several of you have asked about WebQuests. In short, a WebQuest is a classroom-based lesson in which most or all of the information that students explore and evaluate comes from the World Wide Web. It was developed by Dr. Bernie Dodge of San Diego State University. The WebQuest has six parts and is designed to help students learn, think, problem solve, become more cooperative and collaborative through the activity.

You can find a short tutorial here.

There are thousands of already developed WebQuests available on the web for you to use. Or you can create your own once you've learned how to do it! You might find this valuable for another course!

Digital Don'ts!

Be careful where you get your images for your presentations, scavenger hunts, and other assignments! Copyright! Copyright! Copyright!

There are so many great photos of almost anything you are looking for on Flickr. Many can be used in your presentations under a Creative Commons license. (We'll be talking about Creative Commons in an upcoming lesson.)

Flickr Photo: PDA mosaic

Need a Topic for Your Scavenger Hunt?

February has several holidays, you know...there's President's Day, Groundhog Day and Valentine's Day and of course you know it is Black History Month. One of the online groups I follow faithfully has a member who publishes a list of "special events" for each month. One of them might make a good topic for your group project, the scavenger hunt. Others are just interesting. Some are just silly, but it just goes to show that there is something to celebrate every day!

February 2009 is...

AMD/Low Vision Awareness Month
American Heart Month
Bake for Family Fun
Festival of Camellias
International Boost Your Self Esteem Month
International Expect Success Month
Library Lovers' Month
Marfan Syndrome Awareness Month
National African American History Month (also Black History Month)
National Bird Feeding Month
National Cherry Month
National Children's Dental Health Month
National Laugh-Friendly Month
National Parent Leadership Month
National Pet Dental Health Month
National Senior Independence Month
National Time Mangagement Month
Prevent-a-Litter Month
Relationship Wellness Month
Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month
Sweet Potato Month
Unchain a Dog Month
Wise Health Consumer Month
Worldwide Renaissance of the Hearth Month
Youth Leadership Month

Children's Authors & Illustrators Week (2/1-2/7)
International Coaching Week (2/1-2/7)
National Patient Recognition Week (2/1-2/7)
Publicity For Profit Week (2/1-2/7)
Solo Diners Out Week (2/1-2/7)
Women's Heart Week (2/1-2/7)
International Networking Week (2/1-2/7)
Candlemas (2/2)
Bonza Bottler Day (2/2)
Ground Hog Day (2/2)
Imbolc (Imbolg, Lupercalia, Feast of Pan, Feast of Torches, Feast of
Waxing Light, Bright's Day, and Oimelc) (2/2)
Halfway Point of Winter (2/3)
Japan: Setsubin (Bean-Throwing Festival) (2/3)
National Girls and Women in Sports Day (2/4)
Paczki Day (2/5)

Solar Eclipse (2/9)
Japan: Founding Day--660 B.C. (2/11)
Lincoln's Birthday (2/12)
Valentine's Day (2/14)

National Engineers Week (2/15-2/21)
President's Day (2/16)
Brazil: Carnival (2/17)
National PTA Founder's Day (2/17)

National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (2/22-2/28)
National Pancake Week (2/22-2/28)
Read Me Week (2/23-2/27)
Washington's Birthday (2/22)
Bun Day in Iceland (2/23)
International Pancake Day (2/24)
Mardi Gras Parade in New Orleans (2/24)
Spay Day USA (2/24)
Ash Wednesday (Lent Begins) (2/25)
National Polar Bear Day (2/27)