We use words to attempt to communicate to others what we mean and sometimes we honestly can’t articulate what is in our mind. And, sometimes, we are so excited about what we want to say that we use words that have lost their true meaning. (I remember that I used the word “dork” in a…
Shelf StuffGoodReads.comI noticed at our school corp year-end celebration that many of the retirees said that they’d now have more time to read and it seems as teachers, we like to read more. Nice layout, easy to use and great connection with other readers you know and perhaps meet. You can start your own reading…
We’ll be looking at the Pew Research Center’s article that explores this issue. Reference: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/808/writing-technology-and-teensTop of the show: A wonderful AIR app for Friendfeed is Alert Thingy Friendfeed is a way to keep all of your self-generated content in one place and a way for you friends to view and comment on that content. Alert…
How effective are blogs for the classroom? And, should teachers use blogs for educational reasons? Download this episode here or subscribe to this podcast on iTunes. Why not generate content through these services: Twitter Tumblr GoogleReader Twitter in Plain English (CommonCraft) Next Episode: EPISODE14 – Could texting and IMing be good for writing?
There’s be lots of talk about wiki (wiki) and their popularity and that using a wiki would be cool for the classroom. Really? Let’s take a look at some of the possibilities. Top of the show: ChaCha (a really useful texting service: ask a question, get an answer). Utterz (audioblogging via your cell phone) The…
Is there long-term value to using web apps such as Google Docs and Buzzword? Is there a web app that will tie my shoes? This week we’ll look at the growing list of standard desktop activities that are now available on the web (mostly free of charge). Links from this show:Google DocsBuzzwordWritewith Download this episode…
And it seems that the 21st Century Skills folk would lead us to believe that by quoting percentages (which are based on surveys) that the truth of the matter has been established. I don’t think so. I stumbled across the 21st Century Skills folk back when I was reading through Indiana’s latest technology plan. I…
It’s _the_ bottom-line question for a teacher: “How do I know that my student has learned?” Moodle has a wide-variety of ways to assess student learning and we’ll take a look at a few of those ways. Show Notes:Tools for memory work: jMemorize (an opensource, java-based flashcard system based on timed-intervals) StudyStack (a free flashcard…
This week, we talked about the idea of should a computer be merely a tool or can it actually teach our students? I got to talk with “Central Florida” about her experience with educational software with her special needs student. I also relate a conversation that I had with someone who works with a popular…
Perhaps you’re just hearing about it and you’re using OpenOffice. Or, perhaps, you’ve heard that you can have good software without paying a dime for it. Better still, what does all this have to do with what happens in the classroom? Listen to the episode here or on the TalkShoe badge on the right side…