Ipods continue to change education

As mentioned in the previous posting, Ipods are having a dramatic impact on how education is changing to meet the needs of today's learners. Students in Minnesota have begun using them with remarkable results. Read the article here.

If you're interested inig having students work with digital images in a creative way, check out Big Huge Labs' site This site has been approved by the district and restrictions have been removed. There are a variety of programs that students can use to upload photographs and then turn them into creative projects. One that my students have used is called Mosaic. Students first register for free, then they have access to this program to create a mosaic of pictures. Once done, they can download it into their folder on the server. After that, the mosaic can be imported into Microsoft Word where they can use text bubbles to add details. Click here to see an example of one.

Happy surfing!

iphones revoluntionizing education

Here's the link to a great article I came across recently - talks about how iphones are going to revolutionize education in ways we can't even begin to imagine. Follow this link to read all about it - iphone in the classroom We may have to rethink what our district policy says when it comes to using cell phones in the classroom.

As an aside to this, another great example of using cell phones in the classroom can be found in the book "From Toys to Tools". I have a copy and if you'd like to take a look at it after I'm done with it, let me know. You can also order your own copy from Amazon and use your pro-d funds to pay for it.

The Committed Sardine

Hello everyone,

Happy New Year! Hard to believe 10 years have passed since the millenium. One can only wonder what technological wonders await us in the decades to come. This will actually be my focus at the next staff meeting when I give a presentation on how technology is going to impact education. That ties in to today's blog posting.

Blogs are an increasingly common way of sharing information. Last year I used a program called Edublogs which allowed students to be able to write in a blog and respond to questions that I posed. Today, there are hundreds of thousands of blogs on every conceivable subject. A good one that I have found is called The Committed Sardine and can be found by clicking on the link. It is an informative site with lots of relevant articles on technology and education. If you click on Resources you will find digital handouts that you can read. Some of them include "Understanding Digital Kids I & II", "Living on the Future Edge" and "Teaching for tomorrow". The articles are not very long but are well worth reading.

I will be incorporating information from them in my presentation. If you click on the Blog link on the home page, you come to a very interesting blog that is updated daily with links to the latest and bizarre happenings in the world of technology. Some of them are very interesting while others are extremely funny and good for a laugh. Check it out.

Science, science, and more science

The focus is on (yes, you guessed it), Science!

A great link for science teachers is the The Periodic Table of Videos. This is a site that displays a Periodic table and when you click on each element, a little YouTube video pops up discussing and demonstrating the properties of that element. Very clever! You can find the link here -http://www.periodicvideos.com/#

The next site is called Wonderville which is done by the Alberta Science Organization. It is an interactive site with lots of games and activities. It can be found at www.wonderville.ca

The last site, which is great for biology, is called Cells Alive. It does a great job with animations demonstrating the biology behind cells including the different parts of cells. Definitely worth checking out if you teach biology.

The Big Picture

This weeks entry deals with a site from the Boston Herald called "The Big Picture". Every couple of days a Boston Herald reporter posts high resolution photos of an event that is signinficant somewhere in the world. These photos are taken by professional photographers and they are often stunning!

This weeks photos include pictures of H1N1 activity from around the world which you see to the left, Remembrance Day services across the globe, and the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Not all entries are based on current events - there are thematic entries as well.

The photos are great for creating discussions within y0ur class - you could have them write about what they see, analyze particular photos for specifict deatails or talk about what's signifcant about the picture they are seeing.

New photos are published every other day and you can check the archive at the top of the page for previous posts.

Just a note- when you first go to the site you will see one photo of that event. If you scroll down, you will be able to find a link that will reveal up to 40 photos of that particular event. The photos look amazing when blown up on a big screen - you don't need a smartboard for this application either.

Check it out at www.boston.com/bigpicture/

Glogster

Recently my students have been using a program called Glogster - you can find it at http://www.glogster.com/. It is a way of creating interactive posters using a variety of media. The students quite like them and it makes creating an informative poster much more interesting and fun.
You can sign your class up for a school account at no charge. To do this go to http://www.edu.glogster.com/, register yourself, select how many students you want (you can have up to 200 and I suggest you select that, as you'll have enough for all your students should you want multiple classes to use it.), then they will email you a list of passwords and login names that your students can use.

The great part is you can control the content, who sees it, and be aware of who is creating what.

To see an example watch the video below.

Hippocampus and Ipod Touch

This week's entry focuses on a site that has a little bit of everything. Hippocampus is a site dedicated to providing high-quality multimedia content on a variety of subjects to highschool and college students FREE OF CHARGE.

There are currently 10 subject areas with subtopics to choose from. Although it is an American curriculum, a lot of the subject material overlaps into B.C. curriculum areas. After you choose a subject area, you can browse by topic and select the areas that are most relevant.

Since teachers and students can control the content of the courses using the SMART Board, they are able to quickly pause the course material and take notes at any point during the course. The courses also contain assessments that students can solved on the SMART Board and then put their answers in the space provided to receive feedback.

Even if you don't use this resource in class, the course material is a great way to get ideas to enhance your existing lessons.

Another interesting tidbit that I came across was a school in England who has incorporated Ipod Touches into their classroom. Our district has been considering the idea of providing laptops to students within the next five years. However due to cost and equipment issues this may not be very practical. The Ipod Touch may be an alternative.

If you are not familiar with the Ipod Touch, it is the latest version of the Ipod with a touch sensitive screen. You can download programs called Apps from the Itunes, many for free. A lot of them are designed for educational purposes.

The video clip below shows you what the school in England has experienced since taking on the Ipod touches - this is filmed after about two weeks of using them - and how the students, who are elementary age, have taken to them. Perhaps this may be an alternative to laptops for students. Something to think about.