Smart Notebook Update

The clever SmartBoard people from Canada have added a new feature for Smart Notebook, the Lesson Activity Toolkit It allows for teacher (and student) creation of lessons and activities in a really easy and straight forward manner. Who out there will give this a try?

Need Some Ideas

Every several weeks I see Dave Tarwater bringing some new tool (wireless mouse, wireless keyboard, etc.) It is like Christmas, the kids and I get really excited to see what we can do to use the technology in the classroom.
I just discovered the tools and graphics in the Smartboard software, they are awesome! We used one in Math to do division, it turned out great, the kids were way into it. We used another one in Science about the states of water.
I NEED SOME IDEAS.
1. I would like to start using blogs in my classes. I am familiar with, and have used blogger to create blogs for classes I teach during the summer, I really like it. I have looked at bloggmiester and gaggle blogs, is anyone using anything other than blogger in class? If you are what do you like not like?

2. I would like to have my students communicate with another class somewhere else in the world as part of our Weather unit next year and our plants unit (kind of like pen-pals). Does anyone have websites or resources of where I can find other Science teachers around the world that would be interested in collaborating in this way??

Edublog Awards 2007 Finalists Announced!

Lots of Blogs and Wikis from around the world have been nominated in several categories. It is interesting to see the work of teachers as they embrace the collaborative aspects of Web 2.0. Check them out and cast a vote for your favorites. Will the Global Learners group have any nominees in 2008?

Wiki work

I'm attempting to use my wiki in a "blackboard" sort of way. My students are posting their work to the wiki....this is as far as I've gotten so far! I feel good to have gotten this concept across to my language learners but please check it out! Today they will be posting paragraphs on pages they create themselves! I have small classes so I'm not too worried about stealing or manipulating other students' work....I don't think they have it completely figured out to be able to sabotage their classmates....hopefully it won't get to that!

check out our wiki and see what we're up to!

There is a link to American History Three and we are currently at causes of WWI! I would appreciate input and ideas! Feedback is awesome!

Learning 2.0: A Conversation

Save the date for Saturday February 23, 2007. Karl Fisch and Bud Hunt are organizing a Colorado conference focused on how the changing face of information is changing our classrooms.

Details will follow at:

Bud Hunt's Blog

Karl Fisch's Blog

I finished my research proposal

Yesterday I presented my research proposal...hopefully I won't have to change anything!
my question is: "what happens when English Language Learners are taught to blog?"
my sub questions ask:

• Will writing achievement be affected?
• will students see them selves as part of the classroom community?
• Will students be more reflective about the content?

All of my students are ELL who are facing "double the work." According to Short and Fitzimmons (2007), the country is attempting to find solutions to trying to teach content, literacy and language to students at the same time. High-Stakes testing has created an environment where language learners must perform on tests in their second language. They must learn to read and write as adolescents in their second language at a time when they should be using reading and writing as a learning tool. On top of that, they must learn the content provided by the state and district standards.

My plan is to teach them to blog. I will slowly implement blogging as a reflective tool in my social studies classroom. My hope is that by the end of my research they will not only respond to teacher questions but, summarize, reflect, and internalize the course content. I also hope that they visit the blogs of other students to comment and connect.

Blogs and technology are an important tool and resource for our students to learn. Due to technological advances jobs and expectations of employees are rapidly changing. According to former Secretary of Education Richard Riley, I am preparing my students for jobs that do not exist yet.

Okay, small "trailer" of my research. I'm hoping to being to quantify what we all know: technology makes a difference in the engagement and achievement of our students. After watching Darren and other educators successfuly integrate blogs I am excited to capture this process in my research. I believe that blogging creates an atmosphere of collaboration where, as Darren puts it, students become the experts!

Who Owns Digital Content

In March Lawrence Lessig the revered Stanford Law Profesor and creator of Creative Commons delivered spellbinding TED Talk (TED stands for Technology Entertainment and Design) about the future of copyright and creativity. The talk is outstanding for three reasons: (1) He explains our modern culture so that it is easily understood, (2) he addresses issues that are relevant to us as educators and important for us to teach to our students, and (3) he is one of the best visual presenters alive (in fact, his style of presentation is called the "Lessig Method").

Phot Credit (http://flickr.com/photos/jdlasica/)

As leaders in the field of 21st Century education we can learn a lot from this talk. However, I think we can learn even more by showing this talk to our students and colleagues and absorbing their reactions. You will not regret taking 19 minutes to watch this talk.

Watch the Lessig talk and tell me what you think. What do we teach our children to respect about digital content? How do we encourage our students to experiment and participate in digital cutlrue?