Teacher training

Today, we, knowclue and I, are training teachers. Our workshop is Introduction to Web 2.0. We feel it is very important for our teachers have the opportunity to learn more about Web 2.0 and see what might be useful in the classroom. This post is actually a place for teachers to to experience a blog. I hope that they will give us some ideas here about how they might use some of the tools we are sharing today.

Learning about Web 2.0

I think that it is great when parents want to learn about a world that seems so easy to their children. Those who have grown up with computers find using them so easy that they can take it for granted. For those who did not grow up with computers, our comfort with them and our willingness to explore varies from person to person. I remember the first computer I came in contact with. I was in eighth grade. I can't tell you what we used it for (yes there was only one), but I remember it. High school was programming. College was programming and word processing. As I write, those things seem somewhat boring, but I was interested and pursued the use of computers in education. Now it's totally different and we all have to be will to take the time to learn. That might mean attending a workshop, joining a social network to get new ideas or reading blogs about Web 2.0. It's an interactive playing field and that's just what we have to do...PLAY!

What do you think?

Write a description of this picture in 3 complete sentences.

Social Networking and related stuff

I did a presentation at NJECC on 11/16/07 on Social Networks. I actually changed the title to Social Networks, Communities and Online Learning. As I spoke to people about the networks they use, I found people used all sorts of networks, but they all seemed to be saying they use networks to stay in contact and learn (on many levels) from other people.

Here are the sites I referenced in my talk:

List of Social Networking websites http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

Social Networks in Plain English from the Common Craft Show (video)
http://www.commoncraft.com/video-social-networking

I referenced the NYSCATE website because they are using Twitter and Ning to keep people up to date on conference info. - http://www.nyscate.org/conferences.cfm?subpage=287

Twitter
http://www.twitter.com

Ning
http://www.ning.com

Specific examples of Nings:
Classroom 2.0
http://classroom20.ning.com/

School 2.0
http://school20.ning.com/

Ning in Education
http://education.ning.com/

Global Education
http://globaleducation.ning.com/

_________________________

The Innovative Teachers Network
http://www.innovativeteachers.com/

Tapped In
http://tappedin.org/

Del.icio.us
http://del.icio.us/

Women of the Web 2.0 - weekly chat
http://www.womenofweb2.com/

Google Groups

Google Teacher Center
http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Teacher-Center

Google for Educators
http://www.google.com/educators/index.html

For a light ending, I shared these:

http://foamee.com/

Facebook song by Rhett and Link - http://rhettandlink.com/videos/#facebook-song

Microphone for iPod video

We, at The Elisabeth Morrow School, are very happy with the MicroMemo from XtremeMac. One of the reason I like it so much is that the small mic can be detached from the adaptor and you can plug in any mic you like. I used headsets to record the audio for digital stories this print and got excellent results. Take a look at their page for the MicroMemo.

You can also check out their their other accessories at XtremeMac.

World Music Podcasts

At The Elisabeth Morrow School, we have lots of multimedia projects. One of our music teachers, Ann Winze, has been doing podcast with her students all year. The fall podcasts (look at the archive) were one of ten schools awarded the JPMorgan Chase Multimedia in the classroom awards in March as part of Channel 13's Celebration of Teaching and Learning Conference. Check out the whole website and enjoy learning about a variety of instruments studied by our students.
The World Music Podcasts require the username elisabethmorrow and he password appleseed.

http://web.mac.com/awinze/iWeb/awinze/Welcome.html

Google Marker (goes w/customized search)

If your looking into or using Google's Custom Search (See my last post), you have to remember Google Marker. Google Marker gives you an easy way to annotate a web page and add it to an existing Custom Search that you have already created. When you set up a custom search, instead of listing all the websites while setting it up you can type in just one web site, save your search and then use google marker to add all of your additional web sites. It's great!