January 2008 Blog Posts (123)

Spring08: Storybook brainstorming - Phase 1 done

Today I finished reading and responding to the last of the Storybook brainstorming assignments that students turned in for my three classes this week. In all three classes, the students do a Storybook project, and this first brainstorming assignment is basically the same for all three classes, with slight variations - the students propose four possible Storybook topics, and I give them feedback on each one (if you are curious the specific assignments are here:… Continue

Added by Laura Gibbs on January 31, 2008 at 9:13pm — No Comments

IOC Conference - Social Networking

Just finishing up my presentation for the IOC conference. If anyone else is planning to attend, stop by to say hello or let me know if you are presenting and I will visit your session etc.

I'm talking about why we should teach with social networking tools....

Also coming up is the TCC Online Conference as well...anyone planning to attend?

It's too bad we couldn't set up a classroom 2.0 lounge at all these conferences.

Added by Mary Hricko on January 31, 2008 at 1:30pm — No Comments

300 members on NanoScience Network

The first Hungarian virtual social network of

NanoScience started in November 2007. Today

have 300 members, and is a meeting point for researchers, industrial partners,

students from more than 50 country (Hungary,

India, USA, Germany,…). 20 thematic groups

(nanotoxicity, nanoeducation,…), forum topics, chat, videos and photos are available

for the network members. Everybody can create „My page" to find new contacts,

partners… Continue

Added by Andras Paszternak on January 31, 2008 at 1:12pm — No Comments

New to this

Today i received the classroom 2.0 from an Asociation of teachers from Portugal called ANPRI.

I decided to join to see what's this is all about..!

Let's see.

Added by Wolfman on January 31, 2008 at 8:02am — No Comments

Spring08: Happy Fat Thursday, everybody!

Fat Thursday 2008. Today, January 31, marks the

holiday of "Fat Thursday" in 2008. You have probably heard of "Mardi

Gras" ("Fat Tuesday") which is a holiday celebrated the day before Ash

Wednesday (that will be next week). Well, "Fat Thursday" is a similar

holiday, marking the last Thursday before Lent; you can read more at wikipedia.

The Fat Thursday holiday is especially celebrated in Germany… Continue

Added by Laura Gibbs on January 30, 2008 at 10:14pm — 2 Comments

The Savvy Teacher’s Digital Toolbox:<br/>Downloading YouTube

By Alix E. Peshette

Cross-posted from EdTech Gold Rush

There is nothing like getting ready to present at an upcoming conference to bring on a frenzy of online research, re-examination and synthesis of information. What tools and strategies might be included in a digital toolbox for both PC and Mac…

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Added by Alix E. Peshette on January 30, 2008 at 9:30pm — No Comments

Bring it on!

Today was a fantastic day. Ten teachers from one of our campuses came to visit with me about inclusion. While the talk of inclusion gets my juices flowing, we crossed over into the discussion of using iPods in the classroom. They had millions of questions and were certainly interested in using those little devices in their classrooms. Of course they want someone to come and teach them how to do it, and naturally I volunteered.

After that conversation, my principal stopped me in the…

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Added by David James on January 30, 2008 at 9:28pm — 1 Comment

This is a test!

I haven't created a blog entry yet, so I'm giving this a try.

Added by Jerry Talandis Jr. on January 30, 2008 at 9:20pm — 1 Comment

On Terror and Twitter

Last Thursday evening I was at home with my wife in our small kibbutz apartment when my cell phone gave a loud ring. The incoming number was from the Tel Aviv area – not an expected call. The…

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Added by Reuven Werber on January 30, 2008 at 11:45am — 1 Comment

Why Blog in Science Class

(cross-posted from my blog)

The lab bench, beakers, liquids, a balance, data in a notebook these are the makings of the class lab. Now add in the lab report. Follow the way of writing science, abstract,

introduction, methods, results, discussion…Now turn it in, and move

forward to the next assignment.

Now consider this: The lab bench, beakers, liquids, a balance, data in a notebook these…

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Added by Rick Biche on January 30, 2008 at 8:18am — 2 Comments

Online Educational Comics Helping Students Write, Read, Tell Stories in Many Languages

Dear reader,

I am an author of books that are used in many educational programs to

encourage students to express themselves through writing. I have launched a free new web site -- http://www.makebeliefscomix.com -- where students can create their own comic strips. The site offers fun animal and human characters with different moods, thought and talk balloons to fill in with words, and story prompts. It's a wonderful resource to spur children and adults to write, read and communicate… Continue

Added by Bill Zimmerman on January 30, 2008 at 5:48am — No Comments

I have an e-dream 2.0

The web 2.0 and the

so-called e-learning 2.0 have placed a new, huge world full of

information and state-of-the-art, free educational resources at out

fingertips. However, all this enormous stream of knowledge is sometimes

overwhelming and our capacity to sail across that ocean of information

is limited. RSS and other tools help to some extent, but we still need

to be guided.

I have an e-dream 2.0: a world-wide,…

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Added by Carlos Guerrero on January 30, 2008 at 1:24am — 1 Comment

The chaos begins (NOT) - jumping into the deep end with my ESL students

Well we're taking the journey further into the world of Ning in my class.

Today we went through some different features of our class Ning and we

jointly composed a response to a Forum topic and a Blog post (before I

deleted it when I accidentally pressed backspace - Memo to self - teach

students about saving drafts). The shared writing gave them a much

needed foundation. It seemed to help them when they were in the

computer… Continue

Added by Greg Oz on January 29, 2008 at 11:07pm — No Comments

What is social justice?

This was a question posed to our class by a professor the other day. Is social justice a set of specific values that people hold? Should they try to push "values" of social justice on other people? Does it have a place in our schools? Should students be made to participate in social justice? Are teachers instruments of social justice?

Many answers came out of that discussion. I have digested them all and here is what I am left with...

Social Justice is the right of every human… Continue

Added by Sara on January 29, 2008 at 10:39pm — 1 Comment

Do not go quietly into your classroom

I spent Friday morning with 22 student teachers and a couple teachers from my school. My goal was to introduce them to the world of web2.0, wikis, and del.icio.us. Well 2 out of 3 ain't bad- I didn't really get into delicious beyond an introduction. That aside, I think this group of future teachers really understood my point that education is changing and our teaching needs to change too!…

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Added by David Truss on January 29, 2008 at 10:21pm — No Comments

Spring08: January 30, Gandhi, Rama

Tomorrow, January 30, is the sixtieth anniversary of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. I wanted to share here the announcement I am sharing with my class (see below). There was a discussion at the Fireside Learning ning about cultural literacy and I was discouraged about the notion that there was nothing in Hindu culture that belongs to the "basics of basics," the essentials of cultural literacy. Now, I don't want to be in the business of drawing up any "basics of basics" (I think that's a… Continue

Added by Laura Gibbs on January 29, 2008 at 10:11pm — 1 Comment

Be part of my podcasts

Be part of my podcasts

Hi everyone in Tim Holt's Friends list on Classroom 2.0!

I was hoping you could help me out with a favor that involves recording a short bumper for my podcast.

All you need to do is say something like:

Hi, I am XXXXX from (your blog site /podcast site here) @ XXXXX (Your url here) and I listen to Tim Holt's Intended Consequences podcast.

You of course can ad lib if you wish.

You can make them as fancy as you wish,… Continue

Added by Tim Holt on January 29, 2008 at 7:51pm — No Comments

Spring08: student web publishing galore

Today was a watershed day in my classes this semester: tonight, at midnight, the first web publishing assignment was due. And it's gone quite well - more or less 91 students (my current roster) have published their first webpages. Simple simple simple: just two pages, linked to each other, with some link to another website. We'll add images next week.

As usual, most of the students had never published a webpage before.

Even better: most students were surprised at how easy it… Continue

Added by Laura Gibbs on January 28, 2008 at 10:53pm — No Comments

The Common Principles of 21st Century Schools

(Cross-posted from my blog)

My Twitter network came alive this weekend at the Educon 2.0 Conference in Philadelphia, PA. I met so many people that I have known virtually for a long time. We had amazing conversations about learning and technology (in that

order). What was most…

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Added by Elizabeth Davis on January 28, 2008 at 7:53pm — 1 Comment

Saywire.com Safe All in one web 2.0 solution for schools

Hi folks,

As we evolve in this new communication medium, we are all getting used to online social networking and what it means for building relationships, collaborating and business.

I want to be completely honest up front, I am here in classroom 2.0 to get your feedback and thoughts about a new software platform that provides a safe social networking enviroment for schools.

The platform is at www.saywire.com

Please let me know…

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Added by David Levesque on January 28, 2008 at 3:04pm — 1 Comment