A Wiki about Educational Blogging

You know, I love it when the stars align and there is order and symmetry in my special little universe. If you know me at all, then you know that my latest and greatest passion is the use of the Web 2.0 tools in education (the Read/Write Web). I was reading one of my favorite educational bloggers today, Wes Fryer, and found a wiki he created on educational blogging. You just gotta love THAT!

If you want to see an example of how to use a wiki AND you want to find out a LOT of information about blogging, then go to Wes' wiki called "Support Blogging." http://supportblogging.wikispaces.com/

I almost feel like I should run out and buy a lottery ticket . . . .

Thanks!
Lee Anne

Are You in the Mood for Something Del.icio.us?

One of my most important jobs here on the 8th Floor is to surf the net. How fun is that! Well, it's not ALL fun. I have to surf with a purpose. I am forever on the hunt for sites and tools that may be useful to educators. I find a lot of them out there! When I find them, I save them in a way that anyone can access them. I have been using the bookmarking site, Del.icio.us, for quite some time. I love it. Every time I find a website that I want to return to or that I want to save to share with others, I post it to my Delicious account. I can share these sites with my students, 8th Floor participants, and my coworkers because anyone can access them from anywhere. That's what makes it "social" - the sharing part.

I invite you to visit my Del.icio.us account http://del.icio.us/lamorris . Notice on the right side of the screen a list of "tags." Tags are a way to categorize sites by topic (or however you choose to organize them). I also invite you to set up an account of your own. When you do, add me to your network!

Now, you know I'm not going to finish this post without plugging a class here on the 8th Floor, so let me just get right to that. We have a class on Social Bookmarking. (It's one of our many classes on Web 2.0 tools.) In the class, we look at several ways you can use these sorts of bookmarking sites for research, sharing, professional development, etc. For more information, check out the schedule on our website, or feel free to contact me, lamorris@eighthfloor.org.

Thanks!
Lee Anne

Classroom Internet Resources for Every occasion

I think I have hit the motherload of classroom and teacher resources. I HAD to share this with everyone. I found this on the Regional Consortium for Education and Technology - Southwest Conference site. This is a site for an upcoming conference in Missouri.

You may or may not be interested in the conference, but you will definitely be interested in all these resource sites. If you run across one you think is particularly fabulous, please leave a comment and share.

Have fun!

Thanks,
Lee Anne

Internet Detective

I was looking for some sites to help with evaluating internet sources for students. I liked this one for high school and college. It is clear, concise, and informative.

Internet Detective: Wise up to the Web

For the younger crowd, I liked this one. It was published last in 2000, which might seem a bit old in the web world, but the format was appropriate and the material appeared quite useful.

QUICK: The Quality Information Checklist

If you have any sites you like, please share!

Thanks,
Lee Anne

Google Earth Adds Wikipedia Content and Much More

Google Earth is one of my favorite places to "play." Now they have added new layers that integrate Wikipedia articles as well as photos from Panoramio.com. Check out this Monkey Bites post on the Wired Blogs.

Or, go straight to the new Google Earth http://earth.google.com/earth4.html

Thanks!
Lee Anne

Are you a PowerPoint User or Loser

I was reading one of my favorite "teacher" blogs, TeachingHacks.com, and came across this post, PowerPoint Extreme Makeover. I hear so many educators say they hate PowerPoint but that they use it anyway. Okay, can't say I don't agree. Here's some help:

Dean Shareski has posted a great little PD [professional development] video in the K12 Education YouTube group on a few power-pointers that anyone who does presentations would find useful.

This is a short (20 minutes?) video that has some worthwhile advise on design and technique. If nothing else, it's a great review.

FYI - we offer several two hour courses on creating your own templates and master slides, as well as using animation and hyperlinks to make PPT more interactive. The spring schedule will be available shortly!

If you know of similar resources, please share.

Thanks!
Lee Anne

School Newspapers are Moving Online!

Here's an interesting article from eSchool News Online: As with so many of our other modes of communication, it looks like more and more schools are moving the publication of their newspaper online. It's quite inexpensive, according to the article, and shouldn't we be teaching kids to communicate in an online evironment anyway?

What does this mean for print journalism?

Just Askin'
Lee Anne

Wiki Classes on the Eighth Floor

Want to create a website for your classroom? Nothing is easier than a wiki.
We have two classes on Wikis in November.

Nov 15, 8:30 - 11:30 pm
Nov 28, 4:00 - 7:00 pm

We have created an Eighth Floor Professional Develoment Wiki.

Click on the WikiSpaces button below.



Thanks!
Lee Anne

Want to Make Something of Your Blog?

I ran across this article: 21 Surefire Tips for a Successful Blog Launch. Now, the intended audience here is people who want to be out in the blog world - sell something, become famous, stuff like that. However, I thought these were good tips. Not all of them are useful in an educational setting, sure, but many are. What's important here is if you are teaching using blogs or are allowing your students to reference blogs, you need to know what's going on behind the scenes. So here your go.

Thanks!
Lee Anne

FREE Resources - But They are Wikis!

Looking for free resources for you classroom - or yourself? Check out this site Scott found called Wikimedia.org. It is a repository for several pop culture and free content wikis. Free books, free content, free a lot of stuff. Wikimedia is perfect if you are teaching a foreign language since it is published in most any language you might be speaking. Also, great for looking up what something means or what "the kids are calling it these days."