The American Association of School Libraries have published links to the top 25 sites that “foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration. They are free, Web-based sites that are user friendly and encourage a community of learners to explore and discover.” The sites are grouped with standards for each.
Category Archives: Web2.0 Tools
iPad Apps – this blog is very helpful
Carisa Kluver’s blog “The Digital Media Diet” illustrates some fabulous iPad Apps for the reluctant reader. also take note of her other contributions and links on the side bar.
QR Codes in the classrom
Brendan Jones recently presented this Slideshare sharing many new ideas of ways to implement QR Codes.
First QR Code in the IRC
Many schools do not allow the use of phones during school hours and our school follows this policy. For a bit of fun this QR Code was displayed today and we are watching for reactions (Our Senior Students are allowed to listen to music during study times in the IRC so do use music storage devices and this of course includes phones for this purpose only.)
Social Media and Learning
The blog post from Mind Shift: How we will learn entitled A Case for Using Social Media with Learning is worth sharing and fosters ideas and discussion points as teachers come to grips with the integration of social media into learning activities. Aran Levasseur says that “Social media has the potential to revolutionize our model of learning by transforming individual students from information silos into smart nodes within a dynamic and interdependent learning network. By serving as the connective tissue of a learning environment — whether it’s a class, school or community organized around common interests — social media can enhance student communication, collaboration and problem solving by aggregating perspectives.” This blog post could initiate discussion in the staffroom as we come to grips with change in our schools and classrooms.
TED talk by inspirational School Librarian, Dr Joyce Valenza
Dr Joyce Valenza is well known worldwide by Teacher Librarians for her innovative use of technology in schools and her contributions to the development of Web2.0 tools integrated into school research practice. She regularly visits Australia to share at our professional development conferences.
Draw it Live – collaborating with design and creative ideas
This search engine is visually amazing and fun to navigate
Discover Ancient Rome in Google Earth
iPad Apps – Bloom’s Taxonomy
Kathy Schrock’s Blookin’ iPad has a wonderful chart organising iPad Apps according to their use within Bloom’s Taxonomy . She would like more people to fill in the Google Survey if they have found other useful Apps.
Having looked for some time for a simple ‘mindmapping’ tool, I was excited to trial the one suggested here and then upgraded for $2.99 for added features.
Books go interactive – a TED example
Mike Matas demonstrates an interactive book on an iPad in this ‘TED’ clip. The book demonstrated is “Our Choice”, Al Gore’s sequel to “An Inconvenient Truth”.
Schools these days are weighing up the use of digital books on iPads as an alternative to hardcopy textbooks and this gives valuable insight into possibilities. The comments on What this e-book is missing are also worth reading and provide further issues and possibilities.
Wiki walk-through created by Teachers First
This site defines wikis and their use in education with examples of application in most KLAs. There are ideas for new users as well as extension ideas for the experienced wiki user.
Did you know?
This video clip looks at the “changing media landscape, including convergence and technology, and was developed in partnership with The Economist.” This impacts us in the environment of education and decisions regarding the degree of inclusion of these technologies has to be made and then implemented.
Organising the Internet – All My Favs
Biology Students – this one is for you!
A Biology teacher from Victoria, Andrew Douch, is making podcasts of various topics for his students – and sharing them with the world! Check out the topics….. and be quietly doing some biology study while your friends think you are listening to music! His podcasts can be downloaded/subscribed to free through iTunes or go to: http://biologyoracle.podomatic.com/rss2.xml