Apture and the Library

The New Trier Library has added Apture code to the
Tell It Like It Is blog. Click the icons next to the text to enjoy viewing a media rich blog post.

See other examples of blogs or wikis enhanced with Apture:
Uber Abe
Web Tools 4 U 2 Use

Personal Learning Communities (Network)

While reading a discussion on Professional Learning Communities in Classroom 2.0, I found this post by Lisa Nielsen, The Innovative Educator: 5 Things You Can Do to Begin Developing Your Personal Learning Network.

1. Join a professional social network
2. Pick 5 blogs to read
3. Set up an iGoogle and Google Reader accounts
4. Comment on blogs
5. Microblog (twitter)

My Personal Learning Network continues to evolve:

1. iGoogle and Google Reader account
   
2. Subsribe/read educational blogs
   
3. Member of Professional Social Networks (Nings)
   
   
   
   • Classroom 2.0
     
   • NECC 2008
     
   • Ning in Education
     
   
   
4. My summer goals
   
   • Comment on blogs
     
   • Start a discussion on Classroom 2.0
     
   • Create a ning for school - technology professional development
     

Will Richardson explaining PLN



Summer Project
Create your own Personal Learning Network!

Do You Glog?

Express yourself with Glogster.
Create a poster using images, text, sounds and video!

Embed the glog code into your blog or wiki!
Share with friends!


Click the link to view the full poster: Chicago_glog

Using Technology to Promote Change

Technology such as blogs and social networks are being used to promote increased awareness of social or environmental causes.

Here are some examples:

The Chicago Tribune recently ran an article on how non-profits are using the social networks, Facebook and MySpace, to reach young people and raise money. Click here to read the article.

Sustainablog provides information on environmental and economic sustainability, green and sustainable business, and environmental politics.
Read the post by Max Gladwell on Ten Ways to Change the World Through Social Media.

Green Options is a community and network of blogs dedicated to helping you make green choices.

Today's Interesting Sites

Politics
FiveThirtyEight - This is a great site for following the presidential electoral projections. Weights the results from multiple polling agencies.

Using Technology for Social Justice
El Cilantro - Young people in the Little Village community in Chicago use technology to bring about environmental and social change. Click on Our Map of Environmental Justice. This multimedia map includes video interviews of residents, pictures of the community, and locations of assets and toxins.

Boolean Logic
Boolify Project - Makes it easier to for students to understand their web search by illustrating the logic of their search. Students drag "puzzle" pieces onto a whiteboard and add keywords. Search the web, news or images!

Interesting Sites

I attended the online May 17th Classroom2.0 "Live Conversations - Web 2.0 Week in Review." (Visit the Classroom 20 wiki to see the schedule and view archived programs.)

The program featured an interview of Jeffrey Yan,
Founder and CEO of Digication, a popular e-portfolio site. He demonstrated the features of the program and showed examples of how it is being used in schools.

The following list is from the discussion on interesting web 2 sites:

Diigo. Goes beyond simple bookmarking of pages: highlight web pages, add sticky notes, share with others, join a group
Omnisio Share videos, create presentations
Empressr Visual storytelling and presentation rich Internet application
Primary Access Provides teachers and students primary source documents to create digital movies
iLessonPlan Create, manage, reuse and share your lesson plans
NECC2008 Join this community and share your NECC 2008 experiences

Media Rich Blogs

I registered for Apture after reading about it in Will Richardson's Weblogg-ed. This program allows you to create media rich blogs and web sites by adding some code which enables you to link to images, maps, video, pictures, powerpoint, and even documents.

Visit my other blog where I am experimenting with Apture. Think of the possibilities for using interactive blogs; professional development, student projects .....

Below is a quicktime movie made with Camtasia to demonstrate how Apture enhances my blog.

Interesting Site - Speaking Avatar

Create your own speaking avatar and add it to your blog or website!
You have several options for adding sound.

1. Record directly into the program
   
2. Record and edit using Audacity
   
3. Type the text and choose a computer voice
   

Imagine the possibilities in an educational setting!

Helen Otway summarizes a discussion about Voki avatars in the classroom.


Get a Voki now!

Podcasting Explained

Another video from Common Craft! Their videos provide short and understandable explanations of technology subjects.

Podcasting in Plain English


Do you subscribe to podcasts? Visit the iTunes store to find education podcasts.

Web 2 Tools - Wikis

Blogs are a great communication tool for individuals to share information with others. But what can you use for collaborative student projects?

Wikis are a great tool for collaborative projects in the classroom. Students can edit pages, add links and upload files. Two wiki programs that I have used are PBwiki and Wikispaces.

PBwikis are easy to setup and the education version is ad free. Click here to learn more about the features available in PBwiki.

Wikispaces has developed materials for teachers that explain how to create wikis and provides examples of real projects. Wikispaces is ad free. Click here to go to their help page for K-12 teachers.