Educational Technology Weblog

A great way to help students understand character analysis is to have them create a family tree. This can be done with historical characters (King Henry VIII) or fictional characters (Harry Potter). Family-Mingle is an app for creating family trees. It’s a great (free, of course) app, and the educational value is when you bring it into the classroom and have students contribute and build the same tree. In this segment from PalmBreezeCAFE, I show you how I would use it to teach Romeo and Juliet where each student would contribute to the family tree as a different character.

What do you think?

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If you’re looking for some great ideas for celebrating Lincoln’s 200th, look no further! Check out the great ideas here:

To access Jennifer Wagner’s site (referred to in this video), go to www.lincoln200.notlong.com

As many of you may remember, Lee Kolbert wrote an entry on September 2nd about a very rousing and motivational speech given by Dalto Sheman, an amazing student in Texas.   At the time the post provided a link to the video that was not viewable within our district’s network.  Someone recently reminded me of this young man so I thought I would re-post with a version than can be viewed from school!  Well worth sharing with your students!

ENJOY
 

The SDPBC Web site is very often the first impression to prospective employees, parents and students and represents the priorities of the organization to stakeholders.  Through the leadership of Deepak Agarwal (CIO), a presentation to the Superintendent’s Technology Committee demonstrated the need to provide consistent navigation and design, logical organization of content and use modern and efficient publishing methods to enrich the District brand through it’s Web presence and better serve all stakeholders.

Here is the PowerPoint presentation to STC with working links:

The SDPBC Web Redesign Project has been initiated through the Project Management Office (PMO) with the support of the Superintendent’s Technology Committee to:
Reorganize current District Web content by implementing a Web Publishing System that will provide standards, governance and support for departments to publish content in a consistent, organized and efficient manner in order to better serve all stakeholders and represent the District as an efficient and cohesive organization.

What does this mean for departments?
•    Ability to focus on content
•    Standardized templates and tools
•    Efficient utilization of staff resources
•    Reduced cost
•    Technical support
•    Part of a cohesive organization

Want to participate and learn more – attend a Stakeholder Workshop!!

I will be the first to admit that I can use plenty of help when it comes to my ability to remember lists of facts, or organizing my thoughts.  I will bet that many teachers are familiar with ways to become better thinkers and I’d love to here them.  Here’s a link to a really immpressive list of things you might consider useful in improving your own thought processes.

 This interactive list of ideas and information surrounding ways to improve your cognitive skills comes courtesy of Jessica Merritt and can be found at http://www.find-schools-online.com/blog/  This list has something for everyone. 

Please feel free to comment on your favorite or on any that you think are not worth the time.

It seems only appropriate to wish the fabulous Lee Kolbert a Happy Birthday using a Web 2.0 tool such as VoiceThread, so here we go. You can scroll down a bit and join Dean Shareski and others from around the world in wishing Lee the best of days.

Many teachers here in our own school district know Lee from our TV show and all the great training she’s done over the years in how to use technology to enliven their lessons. What people might not know locally is that Lee has a reputation that reaches all over the world. That’s right, Lee is one of those pioneers in the field of educational technology that sees the really big picture, and has collaborated with folks all over the world. Teach Locally, Share Globally pretty well sums up Lee’s attitude.

So, without further ado, here’s our little tribute to Lee. You can join right in by adding your own voice here and wish Lee a happy birthday. By the way, if you add a comment to this Voice Thread please be sure to tell us where you’re from.

If you are looking for an EASY and very cool way to promote community amongst your interest groups, I have found TabUp to be an outstanding resource. If your school district or community group does not provide you with your own web presence FREE TO YOU, and you would like to create a private, semiprivate, or open destination for communication, TabUp can provide just what you are looking for.

With features like a shared calendar, forums for discussion, links to various web resources, and the ability to make this modrated or invite only ALL FOR FREE, I can’t think of a school group, sports team, or common interest group that would not find some use for this service. Please take a look, and add your thoughts to this page. The page is not intended to be a primary source of new information, but rather a living example of another great FREE tool available to educators and community groups.  I will be automatically notified of any changes or additions, and will be sure to act on valid suggestions.

This sideshow and many other useful “Best Of” lists can be found at the web site of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies. Click on any that you might not be familiar with to see what they have to offer. I always recommend listening to what other educators find useful, and this is a great way to add new tools to your proverbial toolbox. Please keep in mind that these resources are gathered and reviewed by educators from around the globe, so as you explore, please understand that certain links will be blocked by various educationally based firewalls and security measures

As most of you are probably aware, we will host our 11th annual SDPBC Technology Conference in March 2009. We are pleased to be returning to Santaluces High School for the second consecutive year. Here an example of a free online publishing tool that you can employ to spread the word. Feel free to share this countdown with anyone you think might want to have it simply by clicking on share in the lower left corner! Or better yet… go to www.sproutbuilder.com create a free account and build your own! You can build all kinds of widgets and other neat things. If you build something you’d like to share, LET US KNOW!!

Here is another link to a Beta that is currently FREE! www.mathway.com is new, and I am liking this online math help site. Use this as a supplemental resource or as a review for your students. It is a great stand alone math review resource, but this site allow the teacher to find some examples of the topic of your choice, and embed them on a web page or send specific problems and solutions to an email recipient. Simply click on the following math problem for an in depth explanation of how to solve it. How easy is that?