Whitepaper: Educational Networking

Steve Hargadon, a consultant for Elluminate, has been in my PLN for a couple of years now.  He started the Classroom 2.0 Ning to get teachers networking and using a social network for their own learning.  Now, he has produced a whitepaper called, "Educational Networking:  The important role Web 2.0 will play in education."  In it, he argues that technology reall hasn't changed education up to this point, but with the advent of the interactive web and social networking, we are beginning to finally see the changes that people in education had been expecting to happen when computers first entered the classroom.  It's a quick, but informative read!

Educational Networking: The Important Role Web 2.0 Will Play in Education

Alice in Web 2.0 Land

I love the web!  I love the fantastic things that people create and share on the web!  I love the fact that my PLN isn't limited any longer to the people I have face to face contact with. 

So, why the love letter to the Intertubes, you might ask?  This brilliant take off on Lewis Carroll's poem, "Jabberwocky," that's why.  This comes from Steve Wheeler's blog, "Learning with 'e's"  and is a list of a bunch of Web 2 tools woven into poetry.  Amazing!

Who said learning has to be dull?

Some of my favorite moments in the classroom are the ones when students are excitedly engaged in a task and they don't even realize they're learning.  I recently collaborted on a project with one of the Middle School humanities teachers about the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Repbulic and the murder of the Mirabal sisters by his regime.  My favorite overheard conversation happened last week when one of the students was trying to see the issue from the standpoint of the Trujillo government, and she said, "I see why he would think the Mirabals were bad but I hate myself for saying it!" Magic!

So, today's post is a site that I think teachers and students will have fun with.  Using the customizable templates on ClassTools.net students or teachers can create online, interactive games for just about any lesson you can think of.  One of our Spanish teachers thought the drag and drop Dustbin Game would be a perfect way to practice vocabulary.  It would be even better on her SmartBoard!

For Robert

Yesterday, I sent out this link to our science department.  It's to a very nice online game from the Minnesota Museum of Science about human cellular biology.  This morning, Robert, one of the science teachers here emailed to say that they had just finished their cell unit last week.  A day or two late and apparently a dollar short!  I told him I would put the link up on the blog so that next year when he vaguely remembered that there was some sort of website that I sent out, I could say, "Yeah, I think I saved it somewhere."

Here it is! http://www.smm.org/tissues/index.php

Hittin' 'em Where They Live- Constitution Study Aids

Teaching is a funny business.  On one hand, you want to be a professional and be thought of as a trusted source.  On the other hand, you want to be able to convey information in a form that is meaningful for your students.  Some teachers are young enough to even be credible while talking to the kids in "their language."  Some, like me, would just look silly to the kids.

Having said that, I still think it's useful to sometimes let the kids create projects using the language and forms that are meaningful to them.  I'm not a giant rap fan, but the format does have its' uses, as in this "Bill of Rights Rap."  Our seniors just completed a unit where they had to memorize all of the articles of the Constitution and be able to apply them in certain situations.  Next, they move on to the Bill of Rights.  This video could serve as a useful study guide, in a format that they can easily memorize!


Other useful study tools would be the online games from the US Supreme Court.  These games, apparently, have been a pet project of  Sandra Day O'Connor, former Supreme Court Justice.  Our middle schoolers really love "Do I Have A Right?"

Thanks to Oswego98 for sharing the rapon Twitter and rmbyrne for sharing it on Free Technology For Teachers

The Art of the Inaugural Speeches

I've written about Wordle, a word cloud generator, before.  I think it's a great tool, and one that students can be very engaged in using.  Thanks to TechnologyInEd for tweeting this!

This word cloud gallery, from Governing Dynamo is a collection if Presidential images and word clouds made from each President's inaugural speeches.  One activity that came to mind as I played with this would be to have students look at the word clouds of the speeches of a particular president or era and have them generate a list of issues they think were important at that time.  Once they've come up with a list of issues to research, they could create presentations (using Prezi, Animoto, Glogster or any of about a thousand other tools!) to give to their classmates about what they have discovered.  A much more engaging way to learn about, say, the presidency of William Henry Harrison, or the events immediately preceeding the Civfil War than to simply listen to a lecture. 


A caution about Wordle:  There is some inappropriate content on the site which students may come across.  I would give the kids a link to a specific word cloud you want them to look at or to the cloud generator.  I would not have them search it on their own.

Animated Bayeaux Tapestry

Ok, I admit it, I love history and always have.  That's probably why I was a history teacher until I got this job.  I'll admit it, I love educational technology, too, and when you can find the two together, it's bliss.  Today's offering is the Bayeaux Tapestry, animated, from Open Culture's YouTube Channel.  The story picks up about half way through the tapestry at the appearance of Halley's Comet and just before the Norman Invasion.  My family went to Hastings several years ago, which gives the whole thing a totally different perspective. Enjoy!