Recently in 09. Misc Category
saw this new online tool mentioned in Anne Davis's post and thought it's a nice tool to try out, and best of all, you get to share your findings with other users. something about the tool:
iBreadCrumbs is...
A Social Network for Researchers
to Share Recorded URLs, Track Websites,
Review Notes Online, and Encourage
Online Collaborative Research.
to find out more, visit the site now!
2 things that came to my mind before i actually try out the tool:
1. the dynamicity of the www can lead to the fast outdating of our research. for how long would such a research 'history' be useful and how much would it benefit other fellow users?
2. organising makes info more mearningful but it takes effort and time as well if we were to review the list recorded by the tool and strike off sites that we deemed not useful. not sure if this would be too overwhleming.
will try it out soon :)
exactly 3 months ago i posted about voicethread and about 22hrs ago a comment left by a fellow singaporean CL teacher came as a pleasant surprise. he's 德顺（his students would call him 关老师）from rulang pri sch, and he has got some real voicethreads going live! check out his reflections on his experiment with his students, and be sure to drop by his collection of voicethreads too!
great work keep it up and keep the voicethreads coming :)
chanced upon this tool "Voice Thread" when i saw it mentioned in one of my blogline feeds (which has been neglected for 3 weeks at least), it's a pretty impressive tool which allows a teacher to engage students in self-expression or group conversation on some common topic. the 'topic' can exist in 14 types of media format (wmv, ppt, gif, pps, pdf, jpg, doc, png, opd, bmp, xls, mov, flv, avi) and the conversation can occur in 5 ways (voice, video, phone, type, upload).
more useful features for teachers include comments moderation, which allows teachers to invite parents, communities to view and participate (students can only invite peers within the community to comment on their work); to protect privacy further (or i think it suits students' needs to adopt different personalities at different time), they can create multiple identities/avatars when 'talking'.
would definitely like to experiment with it if i were in the classroom right now, if only ...
you simply have to check out the following official intro to learn more about Voice Thread (not juz in written form here):
if you are currently in school teaching, you can 'go pro' any apply for a FREE (with some conditions) account and explore it for use with your students! details' here.
am slow in finding out about this platform, but it's never too late :)
for record and (future) reading pleasure:
1. Using Blogs for Formative Assessment and Interactive Teaching [article]
2. Using technology in teaching and learning: Resources to help you navigate a digital world [article]
the blog hasnt seen new content for quite some time as i'm tied down by this and this.
Yes, Culture Talk 2007 aka 《文化，开讲!》is finally announced! It is a Chinese Language online discussion forum competition for secondary school students. The theme is naturally "culture" as you can tell from the name of the competition.
registration for the competition is now opened, am waiting to see how many schools will be interested :P
for more info, check out the forum :)
2006 is coming to an end real soon. so what has been the top 10 ed-tech stories stirring up in the states, read this report from eSchoolNews to find out :) oh btw, Part 2 of the article goes here.
a quick glance at the 'headlines':
10. Cell phones: The good, the bad, and the ugly9. One-to-one computing: Promising solution--or overhyped mistake?
8. Video-gaming in the classroom: Playing attention
7. 21st-century learning environments: Building schools of the future
6. Social-networking web sites challenge policy makers
5. Online learning comes of age, multiplying the opportunities available to students and teachers.
4. Video goes 'viral,' expanding the reach of college lectures--and turning ordinary students into internet celebrities.
3. Education 2.0 has arrived: The emergence of web-based services and other open technology alternatives is changing the nature of school software.
2. Disaster planning takes on added importance for schools--and technology plays a huge role.
1. Elections bring a 'changing of the guard': New Democratic majority in Congress set to tackle several education issues.
If you can�t read this headline, you�re clearly not using text messaging as efficiently as possible. It actually reads "Text messaging abbreviations to know and use". the above i received in an email from hp, you may want to read an article on text abbreviation by hp, or another article by webopedia to learn some of these shortcuts :)
