Education 843

I read about this great website from a recent post by David Pogue of the New York Times. It’s called Readbility. If you have ever tried to read a webpage that is distracting, Readability allows you add a link to your browser’s toolbar. Go to the webpage, click the link, and it’s readable! When I have time I’ll add it to all my student computers. I’ve already added it to mine.

I posted this for my students at LMS and thought you’d like to try these too!

Here’s an experimental Google Image search, it’s called Google Image Swirl. Try it, it’s a different way to search for images. It searches for an image then groups similar results together.

Google developed its Image Swirl as related to the Google Search “Wonder Wheel.” I have never seen Wonder Wheel, and I think you might like it!

If you search on Google, click on “Show Options.”

Then click on “Wonder Wheel” (look down on the left):

You’ll get search results that are categorized and help you narrow your search. Here’s an example:

See if you like it

I know this time of year is CRAZY! Here’s a little kick in the pants from Taylor Mali:

On Saturday, we’ll first quickly discuss the websites you picked as your favorite blogs. Below is the presentation.

In addition, we’ll discuss what you need to add to our class wiki by our December 5th meeting:

Today we will devote the whole class to creating your presentation and catching up with everything that I wanted by today!

Welcome back!

For starters today…

Did You Know? 4.0  by Karl Fisch

As we create our blogs: Blogs in Plain English

1) To create your blog, click above on the “Resources for Creating a Blog” tab. Links to Creative Commons image search engines: FlickrStorm andFlickrCC

If you need more resources for images that are ok to use with attribution, look at the list here.

Good etiquette to follow in your blog:

• If you mention a website, link to it.
• If you mention an online persona, link to that person’s website.
• Don’t forget to add tags and give your post a category (aren’t these great skills for students?)
• If you use an image, include an attribution and link to it. This means link to the specific webpage the image resides on. Example, for the photo above, I have included all this in order to give proper attribution:

• Don’t use student photos (or any other photos) without permission.

2) There are more resources if you scroll down to #6 on the links (rt. side of this page).

Web 2.0

Definitions + an example:

An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube by Mike Wesch (I’ll be showing a portion of this…the video below is his full length presentation.

For visuals, visit this post from last year on the Web 2.0 project.

First, I’d like to thank Jennifer in Period 1 for the fantastic header image you see above! Nice work! I’m checking in to see how you all are doing! I’ll report on my adventures integrating technology into my Language Arts class.

1. I’m using a blog as our class homepage. Right now we’ve got a homework page, so they can check their homework if needed. Our first unit is on the main page, with a quiz I made using MyStudiyo. Easy! My goal is to eventually train my students to create these quizzes for their vocabulary words.
2. I wanted to see if they knew how to use Word, so as part of our Character Counts, they created “Responsibility Posters.” Tech goals: check your spelling, use a different font and different color for each line, don’t press Return at the end of the line, and choose a size that allows your poster to fill the page. An example:    
   
3. Luckily we have a school-wide email system for students (not many teachers use it, however). I introduced them to it, then emailed them questions to answer using their text. I had them answer one set in handwriting, and the second set by email. I liked it and they liked it! I’ll probably continue in that manner.
   

Just so you know, for both projects, they took longer than I thought. We just had a make-up day Thursday, with students finishing up their posters and their questions. Now that the stress of the “first time” is over, I think we’ll do well.

So…how are you doing? How is your class so far? Have you been able to start the technology project yet? (Don’t worry, you still have 2 weeks). I’m just checking in.