All Blog Posts (9,927)

Avatars ... Oh My

Ever feel like someone is trying to tell you something? I recently learned about avatars. I don't even know enough about them as virtual personalities to write much of them, but I'm hearing avatar everywhere... even my mother, a retired dental hygeniest brought it up in conversation this week. She actually told me a rather amusing (if scandolous) story about a friend and her avatar. So... I'm thinking, how could I use avatars and Second Life in a high school? Safely and cleanly of…

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Added by Lee Ann Spillane on June 22, 2007 at 7:23pm — No Comments

first day

okay here we go and I do mean we as I hope to speak to teachers everywhere. I am from thepre computer age but I am loving the new technology. It is so much easier than the chisel and a stone tablet. Moses would have loved this---- no need to climb Arat.

If you teach and want to to exchange ideas. contact me. If you just wish to talk about daily life that is okay also.

Added by mary devries on June 22, 2007 at 11:46am — No Comments

Life-Practice Model?

I'm trying on some new ideas and if you feel like responding with constructive criticisms, I'd sure appreciate your feedback. This is raw thinking and kind of a sketch of where I'm going with my charter school. I know I need to further develop and explain some of these pieces because while it all fits the empty puzzle pieces in my brain, I know that not everyone has seen me put some of the pieces into place. I need to know from objective minds where the gaps in my logic lie. Thanks, in advance,… Continue

Added by Ginger Lewman on June 22, 2007 at 6:24am — 2 Comments

Second Life or Real Life

I've been to SL a few times this week. Meg influenced me, I must admit. I met her there and she gave some "landmarks", which if you don't kow SL, (which I really don't), landmarks are like places to visit. After my visit with Meg and a couple of other teachers, one of which oddly enough is one I know really well, I went back to SL a couple of times. I went to the place that was set up by ISTE for virtual NECC. I never really met anyone though. The NECC conference center and other places that… Continue

Added by Nadine Norris on June 22, 2007 at 12:01am — 2 Comments

Do we know our environment?

I feel so far behind in my reading! Working on technical stuff....

One of the best read journals for my own thinking and learning is the journal of online education called Innovate.

A quoted snippet:

The Net Generation (N-Gen) is defined as the population of about 90 million young people who have grown up or are growing up in constant

contact with digital media (Tapscott 1998). Tapscott has, through

extensive interviews, identified a number of changes in… Continue

Added by Karla Murray on June 21, 2007 at 10:35pm — No Comments

That’s hot - Web 2.0 and the empty vessel

Cross-posted at the Generation YES blog

“____ 2.0″ is turning into a catch phrase for educational technology bloggers and conference presenters, who know that anything with 2.0 in the title

gets attention. Taking a dip into the marketing world, it’s easy to see

why. Although Web 2.0 has a…

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Added by Sylvia Martinez on June 21, 2007 at 10:30pm — No Comments

Technology and Writing

I have been leading a course through the Northern California Writing Project on ways to use technology to enhance writing experiences for students. It has been going very well and it has been fun for me to combine two of my greatest interests: technology and teaching.

We have a course Moodle going where we have done a lot of writing together about real ways to use technology in the classroom.

We have focused on using technology purposefully and in meaningful ways.

I… Continue

Added by Lou Buran on June 21, 2007 at 10:13pm — No Comments

Inservice training for Internet 2.0 training

Well, I am working on a plan to introduce Internet 2.0 training to my new staff I will be going to this next fall and there are a lot of transitions that I need to make, moving from high school to elementary students. However, the skill set of some of the students in the Urban High School had skills of many of the elementary students I have worked with before.

My goal is to create an inservice center around what teacher's in the school are already doing. Especially in the area of…

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Added by Peggy Soong Yaplee on June 21, 2007 at 5:52pm — 2 Comments

The Poor Man's NECC 2007

Ok guys, it's finally sunk in. I won't be at NECC this year. I really wanted to get there to meet in person some of those great people I have been working with, learning from and just chatting with. I made some efforts to get there but it just didn't pan out. So I guess the 18,000? of you who will be there will…

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Added by Reuven Werber on June 21, 2007 at 3:14pm — 2 Comments

Greetings

My name is Mark Treadwell and I have been…

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Added by Mark Treadwell on June 21, 2007 at 1:20pm — No Comments

Open Source Software in Education

Jay Pfaffman, an instructional technology professor from the University of Tenessee recently wrote an excellent piece which appeared on the LinuxInsider site entitled, It's Time to Consider Open Source Software. As can be expected, this generated a fair…

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Added by Jim Klein on June 21, 2007 at 10:51am — No Comments

Problem-based learning.. with digital solutions.

In last month's issue of…

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Added by karen17 on June 21, 2007 at 3:25am — No Comments

I don't need no stinkin' tv!

My name is Kelly. I've been free of commercial television for 13 years now. Well, that's not true. Every Christmas while staying at the hotel with my wife's family, I can't help but watch a few Star Trek and CSI.

There is a great discussion going on at…

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Added by Kelly Christopherson on June 21, 2007 at 12:24am — 2 Comments

Why Hasn't Social Networking Taken Off in K-12 Education?

There has been much discussion of late about the potential of social

networking in the K-12 environment. These tools, which include

blogging, podcasting, file sharing, and RSS, as well as the "social"

structure of friendships, communities, and peers, have been said to

have the potential to transform both teaching and learning, and rightly

so. They enable creativity through easy to use tools, and encourage

collaboration and sharing.

Our district has… Continue

Added by Jim Klein on June 20, 2007 at 11:44pm — No Comments

Wireless Grant APPROVED

Ah, Summer!

I just found out via phone that our wireless grant has been approved and fully funded. This is excellent news for our schools who have been unable/unwilling to put dollars into infrastructure that doesn't appear to have any immediate return in test scores.

I am hoping that it will foster some mobile learning and mobile teaching, and I'm going to make sure that all visitors to the schools know that there is a network connection for them if they need it.

Now… Continue

Added by wallowamichael on June 20, 2007 at 3:58pm — 1 Comment

Discovery learning.....

Where has discovery learning taken you? What does discovery learning look like for our students?

I'm thinking about diversity....are we building in diversity within our curriculum's?

Thinking about community....

I believe it may be a different solution for each community based on race, ethnicity, first language, socio-economic status, geographic, bio-technical, green living...the list is limitless. We have no choice. Our communities are already diverse!

In… Continue

Added by Karla Murray on June 20, 2007 at 3:06pm — 1 Comment

Trailfire Vs. PowerPoint

It's not the way I thought things would turn out, but it happened that way.

Trailfire is a relatively new entry to the Web2.0 realm and came out towards the end of the spring semester, but its potential was to great to ignore. My students were assigned a large and lengthy web based research project at the beginning of May in my Globalization class. Generally speaking, my students can be classified as "at risk" or as… Continue

Added by Ken Stein on June 20, 2007 at 12:53pm — No Comments

WorldWide Wiki

This summer I've been emailing a teacher from Australia about the prospect of starting a worldwide wiki that students from other countries can collaborate online. Here's the link: http://worldwidewiki.pbwiki.com/

It's only in the planning/development phase right now, but I'm hoping to generate enough interest from classrooms around the world that it takes off and motivates students to write and create content online.

If you know… Continue

Added by Joel Solomon on June 20, 2007 at 11:26am — 1 Comment

IM in School

Faster than an e-mail, more productive than a phone call, able to leap many desktops in a single send…In May, Technology and Learning Magazine published my article about IM in schools: “Right Here, Right Now.”

Find out why Darrell Walery, a technology director for Consolidated

High School District 230 outside of Chicago… Continue

Added by Karen Henke on June 20, 2007 at 10:55am — No Comments

See you at NECC!

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at NECC. I'm presenting a session on "Using Mobile Technology to Differentiate and Enrich Instruction" on Monday from 11am-noon. This presentation will include how to find, create, and use great materials for the classroom. Most of what will be shown is FREE.

If you're at NECC, stop by… Continue

Added by Karen Fasimpaur on June 20, 2007 at 10:17am — 1 Comment