Animoto!

Okay, so what have I done without Animoto? What a GREAT application! I put together a video of Ellery in minutes and posted it here, to Ning, AND to my facebook page so friends and family can check it out. Take a look and enjoy!

wiki....wiki....wiki!

I actually have used a wiki in my classes, and it was very effective. Alicia and I used a wiki in a Big 6 Research project so that students could share information that they found with students in their class and with students in the other sections of my class. This helped the students on their actual work (they could share information and help those with the same topic), and it also allowed students to find information on topics that they were not assigned. The topics were current and ones that the students were interested in outside of class in some cases, so some were motivated to look into other topics. This wiki was also used to share the information that the students posted with parents. Students presented their wiki to parents during a "premier" that we had for a movie that they had presented. They used this wiki as a platform to make parents aware of current humanitarian crises that were present in the world (which was their research topic). We did run into problems with the wiki if students were trying to simultaneously edit the same portion of the wiki, so we did have to dance around a bit to avoid this. All in all, it was effective! - Allison C.

Creative Commons

Over the summer I was part of a presentation on Creative Commons for my masters, and I was totally confused at first! Learning about CC and all its licenses was confusing to me because it is SO DIFFERENT from your typical copyright laws. I think that CC could be useful in the classroom. Students would have access to a ton of information that could enhance their work (especially in presentations) much like Alicia has been using videos to help teach us about the 17 things! (Shout out to Mrs. Duell!)

NING!

I had never heard of Ning before this (another kudos to Alicia!), and I was surprised at how easy it seems to set up and manipulate. The one that Patty set up is perfect for her class, and a ton of students are members. I was thinking that these pages could also be set up for athletic teams and clubs within the building to further involve students. And of course, these could be used in class to support chats and study groups possibly.

That Thing!

I already have a library account which I had to set up for my masters...and I read a ton! But I really need to take more advantage of it, and add more of the books that I have read. This would be GREAT for my classroom because some of my students are voracious readers and could check out my recommendations. It is also just good to role model constant reading...

My account is cabaja

I find LibraryThing really easy to use and useful for my personal use and classroom use...I have to play around on it a bit more and find some good books to read!

Customizing Blogs

So I just tried to add my first Gadget, the slideshow, and the right pics won't show up! I don't see the place to directly link to my Flickr account, so I'm still under construction on this one!

Flickr

I just created my Flickr account which was much like setting up photo sharing sites that I am already a part of (shutterfly, snapfish, etc.). It was easy, but the "publicness" of it doesn't sit well with me, especially since I have family photos up there...still thinking about that. I will post a slideshow when I complete my next "thing!"