This is a great blog from Making Teachers Nerdy in time to inspire teachers as they return from the summer vacation. Lots of useful links and explanations recommending how they can be used in the classroom. This site is definitely a new favorite for me.
A great write up of Alan November’s workshop on effectively using the internet from Bright Ideas.
http://www.youtube.com/searchstories
Quick and easy to use, this is a fun tool to introduce, or review a concept being taught. Students enjoy using it to quickly present a reflection, or understanding of their learning. Google search stories uses the google search engine to create a movie which is downloadable to you tube. Additions allow you to add a variety of music and best of all its free!!
Image taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthamm/3383916444/
Many people struggle to come to grips with twitter and its use for educators. For me it all boils down to collaboration, sharing useful practices, websites, technology and asking advise from the global staff room. What better audience for teachers?
The best applications for using Twitter in schools;
Twitter How To Guide - Start at the beginning with a how to guide for teacher twitters.
Why? – Why do we need twitter as a teacher ?
Who? Top 100 Educator Tweeters Educators twitter Google Docs Teacher Twitter Wiki
Tiny URL - What will your first tweet be about ? Perhaps a useful website? If so reduce the URL address to keep within your 140 character limit.
Tweetree - Tweetree puts your twitter stream in a tree so you can see the posts people are replying to in context. Manage – A variety of apps for managing multiple twitter accounts.
100 different apps for Twitter – Want more? Here are 100 more apps, resources and tips for teachers on Twitter.
Alan November’s Blog site
I have had the pleasure of attending three of Alan’s keynotes or lectures from which I gained the following useful websites for use in the classroom;
Polleverywhere - Live audience polling via text message
60 second recap - Makes the great works of literature accessible, relevant, and irresistible to today’s teens.
Wolframalpha – Search engine for math. Type in any equation and get an answer with step by step solution steps!
Screenr - Ready to tweet screen casts
Jing - Record video of your computer screen with commentary
TinyURL – Minimise URL’s
