John Costilla's Blog – August 2008 Archive (21)

I believe in YOU! Do you believe?

What a breath of fresh air and a burst of energy. Do You Believe?

In an era of NCLB, Assessment, and Accountability, there is a voice we should all be listening to. His name — Dalton Sherman and the many others across the great… Continue

Added by John Costilla on August 29, 2008 at 11:30am — No Comments

Is This Good for the Company? (For Teachers & Students)

Over the past few weeks, I have been blogging about Web 2.0 tools and lists of great resources for school, work, life, productivity and more. Exploring, reading blogs and learning about these wonderful tools can take a lot of time and I'm sure I'm not the only one who juggles between work, family, and just getting on the computer to Stumble Upon or learn new techonlogies.…

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Added by John Costilla on August 28, 2008 at 6:21am — No Comments

Yet Another List - 5000+ Online Resources

Mashable always seems to have a few great finds. This is the mother load of Web resources so surely there is something here for you. Check it out.

View THE COMPLETE LIST

Everything from tools for blogging, podcasting, communications, photo & video editing, web… Continue

Added by John Costilla on August 27, 2008 at 8:08am — No Comments

First Day of High School - Much ado about "Oh nothing"

I don't remember much of my first day of high school. I guess I probably remember being nervous, somewhat fearful of the juniors and seniors, but most of all a bit awkward about being in a new environment and about four foot tall. Well today I watched my oldest boy, AC, head out into the whole new world of high school and it really brought a lot of tears to see him go off. As he walked off down the street to catch his very first "yellow dog" I was comforted to know that there was a nice blue… Continue

Added by John Costilla on August 26, 2008 at 7:30am — 1 Comment

100 Free Web Tools for Elementary Teachers

Tools of the Trade.

Oh the joy of the first week of school. Nothing like going with mom to the store and buying your new clothes, school supplies and Snoopy lunch box. Today, students are probably no different. I can see it now... go with mom and dad to get a new laptop, iPod, digital camera and upgrade to unlimited text messaging on the cell phone along with the… Continue

Added by John Costilla on August 25, 2008 at 8:26am — 8 Comments

Summer 2.008 Recap

I bumped upon this great post by Mathew Inman who shares the State of the Web 2008 through a set of his own illustrations. I just thought it was a great recap of some very interesting and real experiences that transpired this summer. Click image to see the full summer recap.…

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Added by John Costilla on August 21, 2008 at 3:14am — No Comments

Online Conference at Second Life

I'm looking forward to diving into this world called Second Life. Quite honestly, I really don't get it and don't understand why their avatars are so "off-the-wall." I assume there are good and no so good "islands" in the 3D environment, but I've just struggled to find out what the point is. So in any case, I am going to dive in 3D glasses and all and join in to participate in this Pre-conference for Learning… Continue

Added by John Costilla on August 20, 2008 at 3:13pm — No Comments

1950 Prediction of the home computer by 2004

I think they got it right...who would have known that my toaster would have more computing power than this thing.

A Chumby can do more in it's small shell that the beast above. With over 700 widgets across 30 different categories such as weather, social networks, photos, sports, news, entertainment,… Continue

Added by John Costilla on August 19, 2008 at 1:59pm — No Comments

Are you Geek enough?

So what type of geek are you? I recently came upon this interesting set of characters that illustrate 56 Geeks types by Scott Johnson.

I would definitely consider myself to be a Gadget Geek. I love my iPhone, widgets, and my son's… Continue

Added by John Costilla on August 19, 2008 at 11:24am — No Comments

Web 2.0 Workplaces

Have you ever wondered what and where the folks at some of your favorite sites such as Twitter, Flickr, Digg or Facebook might look like? You would think that folks from Web 2.0 environments might have a more vibrant, high energy look and feel. I think that the people and the work place tell a lot about your organization. Some places are in high… Continue

Added by John Costilla on August 18, 2008 at 6:57am — No Comments

Stumbled Upon Textorizer

One of my new favorite "toys" is Stumble Upon. I added it a while back, but never really gave it much attention. Now I find it very addictive and interesting all the same. It's a great place to generate ideas and gather new one. The concept is simple actually. Once you register, it asks for you to select categories of interest. Then it adds a navigation bar to your… Continue

Added by John Costilla on August 15, 2008 at 8:37am — No Comments

Do schools today kill creativity?

This is an excellent presentation by Ken Robinson.

If so, what are the ways you enhance creativity for your children in and out of the classroom?

http://www.ted.com

A must-see for every parent and teacher. Education guru Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and… Continue

Added by John Costilla on August 14, 2008 at 4:15pm — No Comments

100 Best YouTube Videos for Teachers

Although YouTube has been blocked from many/most schools, for obvious reasons and not so obvious ones. YouTube does provide great resources and content for teachers and students. View the list of the Top 100 Videos for Teachers. This list is provided by… Continue

Added by John Costilla on August 14, 2008 at 7:59am — 24 Comments

Big Pond... small fish

With so many Web 2.0 resources, tools and blogs sprouting up, how do you get noticed and more importantly, what can you do to bring traffic to your content? It seems that outside of your traditional name droppers - Google, Twitter, Flickr,… Continue

Added by John Costilla on August 13, 2008 at 8:00am — No Comments

Blog + iPhone - Mofuse

Preview my mobile blog or create your own. It's quick and easy.

http://jcostilla.mofuse.mobi/iphone

If you love your iPhone like I do and you are a blogger, than for no other reason than the "cool factor" you have to try mofuse.com. A great way to mobilize your blog and give it the Web app icon on your… Continue

Added by John Costilla on August 12, 2008 at 11:20am — 2 Comments

Okay, maybe it is about the Top Tools...

So are you using the tools voted into the Top 100 Tools Spring 2008 list?

Click to view Top Learning Toolset, 2008

I thought this was a pretty interesting list.

Very inclusive list, but some missing: Vimeo,… Continue

Added by John Costilla on August 11, 2008 at 11:30am — 1 Comment

Not just about the tool...

I started out my career as a middle school classroom teacher teaching computer literacy and language arts. Go figure. At the time I was asked to teach "what" a computer was, not really "how" to teach writing and literature using a computer. Being the rebel, I thought I would kill two birds with one stone by having student learn about main idea and supporting detail through learning how to use a word processor and a floppy disk. I did more… Continue

Added by John Costilla on August 8, 2008 at 8:06am — No Comments

Web 2.0 for Teachers... Who has the time?

Image by Dave F

Today, my focus is on Web 2.0 and the many applications out there. In my last post I posted a blog about the many tools available.

I've got my twitter, a blog, a NING community,…

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Added by John Costilla on August 8, 2008 at 7:39am — No Comments

Welcome to Candyland.

There are so many free tools out there that help businesses, teachers, students and just about anyone embrace new technologies to doing things that were not possible even a few years ago. In my own experience, Web 2.0 tools is like being a kid in a candy store. Every day I find some new tool or widget that allows me to do something complex with a very simple tool.

A great… Continue

Added by John Costilla on August 8, 2008 at 7:07am — 1 Comment

Are WE Social Enough?

As a member of the WeAreTeachers marketing team, I like to follow blogs that provide insight into market strategies, brand and community engagement activities. Interestingly enough, I came upon a audio post by Jeremiah Owyang, a well respected leader in online marketing, blogging and social media. In his latest report with… Continue

Added by John Costilla on August 4, 2008 at 8:22am — No Comments