FREE - K12 Online Conference

I wanted to share a great conference for K-12 educators.

It is free! It is online! You don't have to travel!

Announcing the second annual “K12 Online” conference for teachers,
administrators and educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0
tools in classrooms and professional practice! This year’s conference is
scheduled to be held over two weeks, October 15-19 and October 22-26 of 2007,
and will include a preconference keynote during the week of October 8. This
year’s conference theme is “Playing with Boundaries.” A call for proposals is
below. . . . .

http://k12onlineconference.org/

See you there.
Lee Anne

To Copyright or To Copyleft - Is That the Question?

Recently, Lisa (our "fab" new leader on the 8th Floor) and I had an interesting conversation about the difference between copyright (which we all know and pretend to understand) and copyleft (which is kind of an uncomfortable perspective for some of us).

The Internet and, perhaps even more so, Web 2.0 tools have changed the way information is "shared." Most people, especially students, feel that if it's on the web, it's free. Well no, it's not that easy, but it also doesn't have to be that hard. We can still maintain control over our material by giving over control of our material. You choose!

Creative Commons is a popular site for designing your own level of "rights reserved" on the material you put on the web. For many of us, it's not a question of whether we are willing to share our material. Let's face it; as educators, isn't that the business we are in? The question is, what do we want to allow others to do with our material? Again, you choose!

There has been quite a bit of chatter regarding the use of copyleft as opposed to copyright when it comes to online and education. Unfortunately, confusingly, the same old rules don't seem to apply. I am both excited by the new attitude of real sharing, and also frustrated by having to understand new, undulating rules.

If you have any insights or comments, we'd love to hear them.

Thanks!
Lee Anne

Subscribe to the Eighth Floor Blog

Did you know that you can "subscribe" to our blog? What that means is that each time we post something on our blog, it comes to you. Think how much time this will save you! Instead of checking our blog everyday for a new post (you are all doing that, right?), now you can sit at your computer and each time I make a post, it arrives at your computer kind of like your mail arrives at your door.

I can hear you asking, "How do I make this wonderful thing happen, Lee Anne?" It's easier than you think. Not surprisingly, we explain the very simple process in our class, Social Bookmarking: Your Internet Partyline. We cover many other exciting skills, but subscribing to blogs and newsfeeds is one of our topics. If you want to start with a clear and simple explanation, check out this short movie, RSS in Plain English. This is a great little movie created by Lee Lefever of the CommonCraft Show. (Check out the site: http://blip.tv/users/view/leelefever.)

Take the class!

Social Bookmarking: Your Internet Partyline

• May 2, 2007 1:00 - 4:00 pm
• July 26, 2007 1:00 - 4:00 pm

If you have questions, just email me. It's that easy!

Thanks!
Lee Anne

What About Blogs? - April 2007

Welcome to the Eighth Floor class, "What About Blogs."

We thought you might be interested in looking at a few of the blogs we find particularly relevant to education and technology integration. There are thousands and thousands of blogs out there. You will find blogs on any topic, from pet grooming to dissertation research. People of all ages are drawn to blogging as a form of expression. As a collaboration and communication tool, blogs have found their place in education. Many teachers use them for professional development and continued learning.

Check out the following education/professional development focused blogs:
Webblogg-ed
Moving at the Speed of Creativity
Teachers Teaching Teachers
Blog of Proximal Development
2 Cents Worth

Several teachers are using blogs in the classroom as a tool for collaboration and communication. They find that blogging results in much more authentic learning for students.

Check out the following education/classroom use blogs:
Mrs. Watts Second Grade Computer Classroom
SAS China
AP English Literature and Composition
English 12
Maybry Online.org - Classroom and Teacher blogs
Applied Science Research Blogs
Alan November - Examples in Education
Mrs. Cassidy's Classroom Blog (1st and 2nd Graders)
Blogical Minds

Check out the following education/safety focused postings and articles:
MySpace Education
Change Agency
BlogSafety.com

Blogging Tips and Tricks:
Web Blog Basics
Blogs - Anatomy
Blogs for Learning
Evaluating Blogging
logging Best Practices

Being as this is a class about blogging, we think you ought to do a little, well, blogging. (Those of you reading this who are not enrolled in the class, please jump in!) We’d like you to share some of your thoughts or concerns about setting up and using blogs either professionally or in the classroom.
--------------------------------------------------------
Here are some questions to get you started thinking:
- What do you want to know about blogs?
- What do you already know about blogs?
- How do you think you can use blogs?
- How do you see others using blogs?
- What are you concerned about when it comes to blogs?
- What experiences (good or bad) have you already had with blogs?
- How important is digital literacy for our students?
- OR anything else you would like to blog about.
----------------------------------------------------------
YOUR TASK:
Come up with at least one idea for using or creating a blog - it doesn't even have to be "school" related, and post a comment at the bottom of this post. Share any other thoughts you might have. If you can't think of something to "DO" with a blog, then share something you have learned about blogs or blogging.

Post your thoughts as a "comment" by clicking on the “comments” hyperlink at the bottom of this posting. You can contribute as “other.” Be sure to include your name somewhere. Read others’ comments and feel free to comment on their comments.

Thanks!
Lee Anne

PBwiki is Giving Away Free "Stuff" that YOU Want!

Go straight to their wiki and check it out.

http://educators.pbwiki.com/PBwiki%20Presenter%20Packs

You can get three Premium Gold wiki accounts (worth $750) for you and to share!

----------------------------------------------------------

PBwiki Presenter Packs

If you're giving a presentation about PBwiki or wikis in general, we're thrilled to offer our PBwiki Presenter Packs to you--for free.

They include:
A PBwiki shirt for you (pick your favorite)
An easy-to-read PDF overview of PBwiki to hand out to your audience ("What's a wiki?" "Can I see some samples?" "What about privacy?"). We'll even reimburse your printing costs.
A Powerpoint with pictures of real people/students using PBwiki.
3 FREE Premium Gold wikis. Keep one for yourself and give the other two away to your audience. (Total value: $750.00.)

To get your PBwiki Presenter Pack, email emily@pbwiki.com. Please include the location where you'll be speaking, the date, your choice of t-shirt, and a mailing address to send the shirts.
------------------------------------------------

Have fun!
Lee Anne

Definition Bubbles Without Leaving your Page?

Answers.com has come up with some fairly cool stuff over the years. I love the trivia quiz bubble that we have on the 8th Floor Wiki. Here's something new that you may find useful for your blog, wiki, or website. They describe it best:

AnswerTips
AnswerTipsTM are small information bubbles that define any word when double-clicked. An AnswerTips-enabled site or blog means visitors get fast facts on 4 million topics provided by Answers.com when they double-click on any word, without opening a new browser or following outbound links. AnswerTips deliver instant definitions, explanations and facts including biographies, tech terms, geography, pop culture and much more.

It looks to be fairly easy to put on your site. If you use it, let us know what you think.

Just Sharin'
Lee Anne

What About Blogs? - March 2007

Welcome to the Eighth Floor class, "What About Blogs."

We thought you might be interested in looking at a few of the blogs we find particularly relevant to education and technology integration.

There are thousands and thousands of blogs out there. You will find blogs on any topic, from pet grooming to dissertation research. People of all ages are drawn to blogging as a form of expression. As a collaboration and communication tool, blogs are finding their place in education. Many teachers use them for professional development and continued learning.

Check out the following education/professional development focused blogs:

Webblogg-ed
Moving at the Speed of Creativity
Teachers Teaching Teachers
Blog of Proximal Development
2 Cents Worth

Several teachers are using blogs in the classroom as a tool for collaboration and communication. They find that blogging results in much more authentic learning for students.

Check out the following education/classroom use blogs:

Mrs. Watts Second Grade Computer Classroom
SAS China AP English Literature and Composition
English 12
Maybry Online.org - Classroom and Teacher blogs
Applied Science Research Blogs
Alan November - Examples in Education
Mrs. Cassidy's Classroom Blog (1st and 2nd Graders)
Blogical Minds

Check out the following education/safety focused postings and articles:

MySpace Education
Change Agency
BlogSafety.com

Blogging Tips and Tricks:

Web Blog Basics
Blogs - Anatomy
Blogs for Learning
Evaluating Blogging
logging Best Practices

Being as this is a class about blogging, we think you ought to do a little, well, blogging. (Those of you reading this who are not enrolled in the class, please jump in!) We’d like you to share some of your thoughts or concerns about setting up and using blogs either professionally or in the classroom.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some questions to get you started thinking:
- What do you want to know about blogs?
- What do you already know about blogs?
- How do you think you can use blogs?
- How do you see others using blogs?
- What are you concerned about when it comes to blogs?
- What experiences (good or bad) have you already had with blogs?
- How important is digital literacy for our students?
- OR anything else you would like to blog about.
------------------------------------------------------------------
YOUR TASK:
Come up with at least one idea for using or creating a blog - it doesn't even have to be "school" related, and post a comment at the bottom of this post. Share any other thoughts you might have. If you can't think of something to "DO" with a blog, then share something you have learned about blogs or blogging.

Post your thoughts as a "comment" by clicking on the “comments” hyperlink at the bottom of this posting. You can contribute as “other.” Be sure to include your name somewhere. Read others’ comments and feel free to comment on their comments.

Thanks!
Lee Anne

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