Click on the “click here” button to see new possibilities. My thoughts for this in my classroom would be to use this when kids need a break from the usual routine, when things are getting stale, on early out days and class periods are short, and so on. Once you see how it works, you could also make your own options with your own curriculum and choices for how/what type activities and let kids draw from a hat. Then give them 20 or so minutes to get set, do whatever researching they need to do, practice, and then have them hit the stage! This would be lots of fun and the kids may not even realize they are learning as well as doing a little teaching.

I’ve posted before here about my love of Voice Thread and I just received an email from them touting even MORE to make Voice Thread better! If you’d like to read even more about Voicethread – check out their blog.

They’ve added the New York Library’s Digital Library with over 700,000 historical images that can be used in the Threads. VT has also improved its Flickr search and import capabilities along with adding Learning Modules which allow you to set options giving other’s permission to copy and use your VoiceThreads.

These changes and updates are awesome! What a great way to start a new school year with an old friend who has some fresh features?

Photo Story 3 is a free download for Windows XP and greater computers. It is a program that is very easy to learn and show others how to create their own digital movies, narrate them, set them to music tracks, and publish them for others to view. Students can create their own videos for just about any topic you can think of. Turn them loose with a couple of digital cameras and see what they can come up with. Don’t have any digital cameras? Use Flickr to search for photographs relating to the topic and have students use those.

Here are directions on how to download music to Photo Story 3 from a CD as well as general Photo Story directions. (The directions on downloading music were created by Melissa Given.)

There are some ideas and websites listed below for inspiration.

The following activities are just a few samples from TeachersInTouch.
* Learn how to create a farewell, end-of-year video file that will be remembered long after the streamers are cleaned up and the DJ has gone home. Using still images and text, you can create a video file complete with music and narration using Microsoft Photo Story.

* What I should have done in the holidays – Students always write a recount of what they did in their holidays. Here is a way to make their recount dynamic and more meaningful. Using Photo Story 3, students narrate their
recounts making their everyday recount come to life in visual and audio multimedia.

* In this activity, students create a Photo Story video file using still images, text, narration and sound files to advertise and promote sun safety. Throughout this lesson, students will gain an understanding and appreciation of their home climate and its affect on skin.

* Waltzing Matilda – In this activity, students are asked to analyse the meaning behind a well known song or quote. Students create a visual audio story using Microsoft Photo Story and synchronize it with a PowerPoint presentation detailing the song lyrics along with their own interpretation.

Websites with examples:

Digitalcamerasined – a wiki with resources on using digital photography in general in the classroom along with Photo Story 3. Lots of great ideas!

ReadWriteThink - Here is a website that has a lesson plan and activities using Photo Story 3 and/or Movie Maker from the ReadWriteThink site.

This is a site in progress but here are its first efforts to have some great applications for almost any classroom in today’s world. The link on the left side under Find what works for English Language Learners takes you to some techniques and information that you can use not only for ELL/ESL students, but students with reading difficulties or low achievement/motivation students. These activities and suggestions can be used across the grade levels and curriculum with just a little bit of thought and planning.

This site also has a subscription link so you can be notified when they make updates to this site. I am looking forward to added content for cognition & learning as well as for math & science.

It is incumbent upon us to keep current with best practices so that not only will we reach the goals set for us by the Federal Government, but so that we can also do what’s right by our students.

Differentiated instruction is the best way to ensure students of all levels are reached. Differentiation of process, content, and product allows for great flexibility on the part of the teacher to exercise their creativity. Students are given choices with their learning and how they demonstrate mastery of the material. One of the greatest gifts we can give our students is the ability to choose and learn how to make good decisions on the part of their education.

The above slide show (be sure to come over to the blog site if your reader stripped the slide show) was created by CoolCatTeacher for one of her presentations at a convention. This slide show shows how technology can seamlessly differentiate for us according to Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. She has done a fantastic job with this presentation.

This slideshare show gives the reader excellent resources on where to find various Assistive Technology for free. If you are reading this blog on a reader, the slideshow itself has probably been stripped so you’ll need to head on over to my actual blog-site to see the show.

Pres. Bush is recommending zero funding for educational technology funding for the next budget. The above link gives more information and to the right of the page is a box that you can put in your zip code and you’ll be taken to a page with pre-written letters for your Congressional members about this issue. It does ask for you contact information at the bottom of the page to verify you are a real person and not a computer.

This is important – our kids, our grandkids, our neighborhood kids need to be kept competitive with the world and cutting the budget isn’t how it’s done.

This is an on-line, graphic, collaborative way to brainstorm. Take a look at a sample screen shot:

Bubbl.us is stripped down to the necessary buttons and features. It states that one of its main goals is simplicity – such that a 6th grader can figure it out in 10 seconds or less.

And guess what else I found for you? A teacher who actually uses this program with his class, assigns them to create “mindmaps” and then also requires them to post the maps to their blogs!! What an inspiration to me this teacher is! Be sure to click on that link and spend some time scouting around his and his students’ efforts.

With second semester beginning – I can always use a bit of excitement and inspiration to get my enthusiasm back up, I think this could well help with the winter classroom “blahs”.

I want you to read that post and consider sharing it with your faculty and peers to use it as a discussion starter. Don’t use it in an accusatory, finger-pointing sort of way. Just start some dialog and see where it goes.

“Is it okay to be a technologically illiterate teacher?”

If you would like another post to read and use a video to begin conversations in your school, check out the “Did you know 2.0? – shift happens” presentation. The actual video is a fairly long download, so make sure you have it saved before you need it and don’t try to stream it. They have a wiki set up to continue discussions online with your global peers.

Shift Happens wiki

Once you have some good talks with your peers, direct them to these blogs & wikis (mine included of course!) and set them free to begin their own technological journey.

Flashback: The last time you took students to the computer lab to research a topic. What happened? “Where do we go for the information?” “I can’t find anything!” “Can I use ebay as a source?”

Solution? Google’s custom search engine!

Enter Google’s latest tool to help people create a search engine that will narrow down options and limit hits to those sites which are specifically listed.

Try mine out.

The really cool part that sold me on this tool is the option to “opt out” of advertising on the search results page. This option is only available to government and non-profit entities (such as schools). I LOVE it! I don’t have to worry if there is going to be an ad asking my students if they want to register for a dating website while they are researching topics for my class.

Best of all? It’s FREE! And no sur-charge to make it “advertisement free” either!

These are the directions I’ve written in a word document to help you get started in making your very own baby search engine. Enjoy!

Creating a Custom Google Search Engine