Monday, February 23, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Check Out These Links -- Diigo 2/22/09
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Weblogg-ed » Those Who Publish Set the Agenda
Interesting post by Will Richardson about correlation between family structure, access to technology, and contributions to online community.
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David Merrill demos Siftables, the smart blocks | Video on TED.com
So cool! I WANT THESE!
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Awesome interactive site about ancient Greece -- learn about geography, architecture, government, etc.
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This directory of SMARTBoard files has a TON of resources for primary grades.
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ABCya! The Leader in Kids Educational Computer Games & Activities
ABCya! is a new and exciting way for elementary students to learn on the web. All educational games and activities were created by teachers for kids! Activites are modeled from primary grade lessons and enhanced to provide an interactive way to learn. Below you will find links to interactive games separated by grade level. The lessons incorporate content areas such as math and reading while introducing basic computer skills.
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AWESOME new web presentation tool -- "Create interactive guided presentations by combining web pages, photos, PowerPoint and more with your voice, notes, and highlights. Viewers can control the pages, scroll, click on links, view videos and more."
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
New York Times Article
Check out this article about the role of library media specialists in the 21st century. For those people who ask "Do you just stamp books all day and shush people?" or "So you know the Dewey Decimal System, right?" this is a pretty accurate description of what my job really is!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Why Glogster.edu Irritates Me
When I found out that Glogster had come out with a kid-friendly edu version, I jumped all over it, and so did our entire school district! We were VERY excited about the privacy and restrictions put in place, and students really got into creating glogs to showcase their learning. However, we ran into a few snags when we found out that their privacy claims are not all they're cracked up to be. So as a forewarning to others, I'm sharing what we've learned.
I'm still not sure why it is so easy for students to get to that page full of glogs in the first place -- I thought all glog content on the edu version was private, but I never got that lame warning telling me I was leaving the edu site, so where am I?
Not only that, but I was unimpressed with the response I got from Glogster when I expressed my worries:
That doesn't sound like much of a warning to me! In addition, it is not possible to block glogster.com without also blocking glogster.com/edu. We tried. I'm of the opinion that the people at Glogster should know that, too, and not send me a bunch of garbage answers! So those are my issues. Awaiting Glogster reply. If nothing else, they DO get back to you...
- It IS possible to friend people outside of your classroom network. There are a number of ways to do this, but it's easier to show than tell, so here's a screen capture. Note that I am logging in to the edu site as a student. The one friend this student currently has is the teacher who created the account (me).
I'm still not sure why it is so easy for students to get to that page full of glogs in the first place -- I thought all glog content on the edu version was private, but I never got that lame warning telling me I was leaving the edu site, so where am I?
Not only that, but I was unimpressed with the response I got from Glogster when I expressed my worries:
"Dear teacher,Typos aside, it bothers me that the people at Glogster believe that their alert when leaving Glogster actually informs students that they might encounter "possible non school-safe elements." When I click on that big pink Beta button that sends me back to the main site, yes, the green warning pops up, but it doesn't say anything about "non school-safe elements"! The image quality stinks, but the warning below says
students cannot add any friends, not on EDU nor on Glogster.
When they try to go to Glogster main site they are alerted about possible non school-safe elements. If they still decide to go to Glogster main page, for example to chat room, and regular Glogster user adds them as a friend they can accept it.
You can advice your students not to go to Glogster main site or you can arrange Glosgter main site to be blocked."
"Hey, do you know that you are leaving the EDU zone and returning to Glogster.com? If you return to Glogster.com then you will be automatically signed out of the EDU zone. If you want to use the full version of Glogster then you will have to register a new account. Do you really want to return to Glogster.com?"
That doesn't sound like much of a warning to me! In addition, it is not possible to block glogster.com without also blocking glogster.com/edu. We tried. I'm of the opinion that the people at Glogster should know that, too, and not send me a bunch of garbage answers! So those are my issues. Awaiting Glogster reply. If nothing else, they DO get back to you...
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Check Out These Links -- Diigo 2/14/09
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Literature-Map - The tourist map of literature
Type in an author's name and get a visualization of other authors you might like.
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"Many Eyes is a bet on the power of human visual intelligence to find patterns." Organize data in graphs, charts, maps, or even wordles.
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Exploratree - Exploratree by FutureLab
Awesome site for mindmapping tools/graphic organizers.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Check Out These Links -- Diigo 2/8/09
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Harcourt science activities arranged by grade level. Great for interactive SMARTBoard use.
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Go2Web20.net - The complete Web 2.0 sites directory
A directory of a billion web2.0 tools.
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Educational Google Earth tours that you can download and use with your students.
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Sadlier-Oxford :: Phonics Student Online Components
Great elementary phonics and language arts games that will work with the SMARTBoard.
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Dropbox - Home - Secure backup, sync and sharing made easy.
Store, sync and share files and photos online.
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Remember Everything. | Evernote Corporation
Create, clip and share notes from everywhere. Sync from your desktop, phone, or the web. Save and search snapshots, to-do lists, audio, notes, etc.
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Visualize websites in an awesome 3D format.
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Gmail Labs: Ten Gmail Labs Features You Should Enable
Make gmail work for you. This list details 10 of the best gmail labs features -- like offline gmail, multiple inboxes, and even a feature to remind you when you forgot to attach your attachment!
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Glogster EDU
I have started using Glogster's edu site to create library websites. It is SO easy and fun to use! I am using my library glog as a gateway to student projects, links, and research tools for students and teachers.
Our students can't get enough of Glogster, either. However, we recently learned that the edu version is not everything we imagined it was! I somehow got it in my head that within the edu sphere, a teacher created a classroom, gave her students usernames, and they could not communicate with anyone outside of that classroom. We learned the hard way this week that this is not the case! Students can accept friend requests from users on the general glogster site and can view glogs from that site as well. I'm not sure what the point of having the edu site is if there is no separation from the two! At any rate, we now have a great opportunity to start dialoging with students about how to use the Internet responsibly...
Our students can't get enough of Glogster, either. However, we recently learned that the edu version is not everything we imagined it was! I somehow got it in my head that within the edu sphere, a teacher created a classroom, gave her students usernames, and they could not communicate with anyone outside of that classroom. We learned the hard way this week that this is not the case! Students can accept friend requests from users on the general glogster site and can view glogs from that site as well. I'm not sure what the point of having the edu site is if there is no separation from the two! At any rate, we now have a great opportunity to start dialoging with students about how to use the Internet responsibly...
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