Today's link for the agenda is: goo.gl/2kLjG.
When thinking globally it is important to begin reaching outside of your classroom and teaming up with other students and professional around the world. I was introduced to this last year as I was attending the ITSC conference and Silivia Rosenthal Tolisano's work session! She started a quad-blogging project in which you sign up and are assigned three other schools in which you rotate whose blog you read for the week and reply to. What this does is ensure that your blog is read and replied to. I have blogged about this in the past...such ideas as skyping with authors, other classrooms, and professional or using edmodo/collaborize/blogging/etc. in the classroom to connect with others!
When thinking about how I will use this in my situation I struggle with this. I would love to work with a teacher who is interested in exploring this. I can see some great collaboration projects even for the science classroom--everything from talking to "real" scientist, taking virtual fieldtrips, blogging, to gathering data for various topics (weather). One area I think we could really build this into the curriculum is in language arts. It seems like every teacher has a book they love to read with their classes...why not explore the author's blog, twitter feed, and facebook to gather background knowledge. After research skyping with the author might be a possibility if there are additional questions your students would like to know. In addition, if a book is set in a particular location why not try to find another classroom that either reads the same book or is located in that location. Some ways I would try to find a classroom would be through Edmodo Communities, ePals, Twitter, Skyping, emailing local teachers, etc....
On ePals I tried typing in the title of a book I know LA teachers use and got some results. For example, here is a teacher who would like students to be able to discuss books like Huckleberry Flinn, The Great Gabsey, to Kill a Mockingbird, Macbeth, etc... http://www.epals.com/show-profile.php?id=69405692-96ac-462f-915f-bc93bc0604ba and here is another one: http://www.epals.com/show-profile.php?id=be300297-cc87-40c4-a32e-3e91d06b9dcd and one on Huckleberry: http://www.epals.com/show-profile.php?id=51f83dec-a061-4734-a510-252af7a77d7d.
When getting other classes or students to create something for you such as a videos have them send it to DropItToMe so you can pick them up. Check out Joe's Project we got as HW!
Notes: Check out Edmodo Community for global projects revolving around the election.
Screencastomatic, screenr, camstudio (get avi file), Jing, Camtasha (paid)
Reflection App ($15):
Check out equipment....are there any projects PRSD would like to try with iPads?
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
New OS Downloads
I think it is crazy all these new OS downloads...for schools with many iDevices it seems like this is one of the biggest hiccups--updating to new operating systems. This is brought on by the new iOS6 that was just released by Apple! Yet again the public must update their devices! It seems like these updates are coming every three months now and keeping us hopping when it comes to investing time in getting everything up and running. I can only hope that Weston teachers have got this down to an art by now and feel for the extra time it takes to get it done! Someday, I hope to have this same glorious problem!
Major up grades include increased visual maps--there is a flyover arrow in the top right corner that allows you to fly over cities or landmarks! Could be a great tool for virtual fieldtrips and such! I can't wait to see how the tilting and angling of the device changes the view of the cities and such! What about SIRI? Boy I love the idea of this feature. Someday when I have an iPhone or such this will be a lot of fun to use! No more thumb typing for me! Can't wait! And Facetime--works over phone lines as well! If we weren't already connected before we will be now! And finally, the Accessibility app is really coming along with adaptations for special needs people in our world! What a great way to help students focus on one app by being able to eliminate the home row stuff!
So, with that I would like to share one last thing that makes iDevices a good thing--dragon dictation! My son is really seeing the benefits of this in his English class---with his iTouch he reads his paper into the app and emails it to himself! What is awesome is you get to choose the format-word, pdf, or pages-for the email! This makes transferring so easy for us. Once he emails it to himself, he opens the document, saves it to a flash drive, and edits it at school while everyone else is wasting a class period typing! I am glad that Levi had both the initiative and bravery to ask his English teacher if he could do this and it has prompted a discussion with the Superintendent about BYOD, and ultimately resulted in me being asked to prepare a little presentation on this for both the new HS principal and School Board! This is all thanks to the movers and shakers of this world! So, thank-you to all you movers and shakers! You are empowering so many of us to make a change in the world--no matter how trivial it is! In this case we are utilizing our class time much more efficiently and making up for the lack of keyboarding skills training! Yeah You!
Major up grades include increased visual maps--there is a flyover arrow in the top right corner that allows you to fly over cities or landmarks! Could be a great tool for virtual fieldtrips and such! I can't wait to see how the tilting and angling of the device changes the view of the cities and such! What about SIRI? Boy I love the idea of this feature. Someday when I have an iPhone or such this will be a lot of fun to use! No more thumb typing for me! Can't wait! And Facetime--works over phone lines as well! If we weren't already connected before we will be now! And finally, the Accessibility app is really coming along with adaptations for special needs people in our world! What a great way to help students focus on one app by being able to eliminate the home row stuff!
So, with that I would like to share one last thing that makes iDevices a good thing--dragon dictation! My son is really seeing the benefits of this in his English class---with his iTouch he reads his paper into the app and emails it to himself! What is awesome is you get to choose the format-word, pdf, or pages-for the email! This makes transferring so easy for us. Once he emails it to himself, he opens the document, saves it to a flash drive, and edits it at school while everyone else is wasting a class period typing! I am glad that Levi had both the initiative and bravery to ask his English teacher if he could do this and it has prompted a discussion with the Superintendent about BYOD, and ultimately resulted in me being asked to prepare a little presentation on this for both the new HS principal and School Board! This is all thanks to the movers and shakers of this world! So, thank-you to all you movers and shakers! You are empowering so many of us to make a change in the world--no matter how trivial it is! In this case we are utilizing our class time much more efficiently and making up for the lack of keyboarding skills training! Yeah You!
Monday, September 10, 2012
20 Google Search Shortcuts
Great resource and sweet information...can't wait to try these out!
http://lifehacker.com/5940946/20-google-search-shortcuts-to-hone-your-google+fu
http://lifehacker.com/5940946/20-google-search-shortcuts-to-hone-your-google+fu
J.R.R.Tolkien reads Elvish Poem
Listen to J.R.R. Tolkien read Elvish poems from The Fellowship of the Rings:
From the blog post:
From the blog post:
In the short clip above, Tolkien himself recites the Elvish poem Namarie, or Galadriel’s lament, from The Fellowship of the Ringnovel (it doesn’t appear in the film). Namarie translates as “Farewell,” and the poem in English reads thus:
Ah! like gold fall the leaves in the wind, long years
numberless as the wings of trees! The long years
have passed like swift draughts of the sweet mead
in lofty halls beyond the West, beneath the blue
vaults of Varda wherein the stars tremble in the
song of her voice, holy and queenly.
numberless as the wings of trees! The long years
have passed like swift draughts of the sweet mead
in lofty halls beyond the West, beneath the blue
vaults of Varda wherein the stars tremble in the
song of her voice, holy and queenly.
Who now shall refill the cup for me?
For now the Kindler, Varda, the Queen of Stars,
from Mount Everwhite has uplifted her hands like
clouds, and all paths are drowned deep in shadow;
and out of a grey country darkness lies on the
foaming waves between us, and mist covers the
jewels of Calacirya for ever. Now lost, lost for
those from the East is Valimar!
from Mount Everwhite has uplifted her hands like
clouds, and all paths are drowned deep in shadow;
and out of a grey country darkness lies on the
foaming waves between us, and mist covers the
jewels of Calacirya for ever. Now lost, lost for
those from the East is Valimar!
Farewell! Maybe thou shalt find Valimar. Maybe
even thou shalt find it. Farewell!
even thou shalt find it. Farewell!
Google Docs for the iPad
From blog above:
"The best update to arrive in version in Google Drive version 1.1.0 is the editing option. Users can edit much easier and with a cleaner interface. Plus, the editing and collaboration features are much faster through the Google Drive App. Users can also see who is editing on the doc at the same time. In addition, docs can now be accessed offline as well. Users can edit a doc offline and once it hits a wi-fi connection, the doc will sync with Google Drive and save in the cloud. This feature will happen automatically or via the refresh button in the upper-right hand corner of the home screen of the app."
Good luck with this new app! Like I said before--don't give up on Google Docs....
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Mad Lips App = Blabberize
So, I ran across this app for the iDevices called Mad Lips. Currently it costs $2.99...but I heard it has been free at one point. It is a lot like Blabberize, but it works on the iPad. Here you can import pictures or use some from their picture bank and then record yourself saying something. You have some choices like different sounding voices and how much of your own face shows up in the video. This is just another way to bring book talks/summaries, character analysis, and other projects to life! The video is saved write in your photos and I am sure can be emailed to the teacher. In the lesson link below the author talks about having students post it to Edmodo...I don't know if this still has to be done on the computer or if Edmodo and the iDevice are talking more fluently... It seems like you should be able to pull something from your photo album and attach it to Edmodo...but I don't know since I don't have an iDevice to try it on! Maybe someone can comment as to whether this works yet or not!Here is a lesson plan idea using this app to create book reports/talks or character review for LA class: http://www.appeducation.com/2012/06/17/talking-book-covers-using-mad-lips/
Here is the link to the iTunes listing: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mad-lips-make-talking-orange/id454777881?mt=8
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)