Create a Beautiful Flyer with Smore

I learned about Smore from Richard Bryne’s blog Free Technology for Teachers. According to Richard, “Smore is a new service for quickly creating great-looking webpages. Smore markets itself as a service for creating online flyers.”  This seems like a great way to advertise club events or create interesting info-graphics for your students. Watch the one minute video below for an overview of Smore in action.

 

A Cupcake Story from Smore on Vimeo.

 

 

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Use Podio for collaboration and communication

Podio is for your team

You can work with everyone on Podio: with your co-workers or with your students in dedicated work spaces. You can communicate with anyone .  Podio Apps add structure to your work, with a social activity stream featuring comments, likes and status updates. Check it out today!

 

 

 

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Nota- Collaborate with online presentations

Nota is a unique, cutting-edge collaborative web platform that allows users to create, share and collaborate on presentations and virtually any other form of online material. Using Nota’s proprietary toolset, users can instantly integrate text, video, maps, clip art, photos from web album or on the local computer, or license-free images from Flickr, and material from an ever-expanding array of sources. Users can then instantly embed their work in Facebook or blogs, and can share and collaborate with friends.

  • It’s easy to use, even for someone with no computer experience.
  • Fast load times mean near instant co-creation.
  • Embed anywhere including your blog and social networks – and it automatically pushes changes to all of these in real time.
  • Also, it is purpose-built to work well with touch interfaces.

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Use Neat Chat to Back-Channel

This week I tried my first back-channel with my AP class. I was impressed with the level of participation and discussion while we watched the video. What shocked me the most was that students asked and answered questions during the video. I posed a general question to the class that elicited responses but many students made comments about the video and even asked the class questions. We used Edmodo as the platform, which worked well. I was thinking of researching some other back-channeling options. Today’s Meet is blocked at my school so that option is out.

I recently discovered a back channeling option called Neat Chat. Neat Chat is the easiest and fastest way to have an online conversation with a group of friends or colleagues. The process of starting a chat session and inviting people is dead easy! Neat Chat provides you a clean, fast, and robust chat room.

 

 

 

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Back-Channel in the Classroom

I am looking for interesting ways to bring technology into my classroom. One of my goals this year is to incorporate back-channeling into my classroom. This year I am going to  try back-channeling using Edmodo while my class is watching a video. I think students will be excited to share their information. I plan on posing a series of questions on Edmodo and having students reply to the questions and other students comments.  I just read a Great post from Richard Bryne at Free Technology for Teachers about Back-Channeling. He created the following slideshare post about back-channeling in the classroom.

Here is another Post called five platforms for classroom back-channels  from Richard Bryne at Free Technology for Teachers. Richard Posts mentioned 5 platforms. He posts:

Chatzy is a neat little website that I learned about from Wes FryerChatzy provides a free platform for hosting your private chat area. To use it, simply name your chat area, select your privacy settings (you can password protect it), then send out invitations. Instead of sending out invitations you could just post the link to your chat area.”

TodaysMeet is completely free to use. Setting up a chat area in TodaysMeet is very simple. To set up your chat area just select a name for your room (that name becomes the url for your chat area), how long you want your room to exist, and select an optional Twitter hashtag for your chat area.  

Edmodo is a microblogging service designed specifically for educational use. Using Edmodo teachers can create a microblogging network for their classes. The latest version of Edmodo updates in real-time so that members of group can quickly respond to each other. Edmodo also provides teachers with a place to post assignment reminders, build an event calendar, and post messages to the group.

Present.ly provides a platform for creating your own private micro-blogging community. The free version of Present.ly lets you create a community based on your email domain. For example, if I had other people using freetech4teachers.com as their email domain, I could establish a Present.ly community just for people with that email domain.

Although it could be difficult to get enough invites for all of your students to use it now, in the futureGoogle Wave could be a great platform for back-channel discussions. Google Wave allows users to thread conversations, invite people into a conversation at any point, and see the text that others are typing as they’re typing it. Wave also allows you to post links, embed maps, and a myriad of gadgets. Watch the video below for a concise introduction toGoogle Wave.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Free Tools Challenge

My friend from upstate NY is possibly getting a 1:1 classroom with a smart-board. Before I start, let me say that I am JEALOUS. I wish I could have that kind of environment and flexibility. They called me for advice on what digital tools they should be using in their new state of the art classroom.

My Top 6 FREE and Easy to Implement Classroom Resources: 

  1. Edmodo http://www.edmodo.com 
  2. Google Docs http://www.google.com/educators/p_docs.html
  3. Glogster http://www.glogster.com
  4. Pollseverywhere http://www.polleverywhere.com/
  5. Animoto http://animoto.com/education
  6. Cel.ly http://cel.ly/ 
I then shared resources from the Free Tools Challenge from EDU Blogs. Everyone loves free! Here’s a list of 26 different web tools that are great for students, educators, bloggers, and more. I am proud to say I have used most of them. These are some simple ways to incorporate 21st century learning into your classroom. Check them out today!
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Video Interview using Wetoku

Wetoku is a web service that provides a simple platform for interviewing someone via the Internet. Collaborating globally is a must for our students and as result interviewing can be a challenge. Wetoku makes doing an interview as easy as filling out some basic information, creating an interview session and then sending the URL to the interviewee. You can embed the interview into your blog or website. You will need a web-cam for this tool. Great idea for bringing the world into your classroom. Give it a try today!

 

Here is a sample video:

 

 

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WebDoc like Glogster

Today I was updating some of my lessons with new project ideas. I discovered a new program called WebDoc. It allows people to express themselves around particular topic with pictures, videos and music from all over the web, but also interactive applications like games, polls, slideshows or web services such as Google Maps and Twitter.

WebDoc reminds me of glogster but for an older crowd like middle school and high school. It seems simple to use and I can’t wait to try it next school year with my students.

For more information visit the What Every Social Media Marker Should Know about WebDoc, writtten by Neil Glassman:

Coolest feature

Drag-and-drop WYSIWYG interface for simple, intuitive and quick interactive postings.

Feature rundown

  • Mixed media — photos, videos, audio, etc. — can be used to attract and retain attention
  • Incorporate services  such as Google Maps, Twitter, SlideShare and others
  • webdoc can be posted to a Facebook Page, website and blog, as well as linked from Twitter or email
  • HTML5 is indexed by search engines and works on tablets like the iPad

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What is Edmodo?

My resolution for the new year was to research and USE a internet platform in the classroom that has many different uses within and outside of my classroom. I was looking for a program that allows my students to blog, post comments, upload assignments, email, and a download useful handouts. The technology coordinator within my district suggested to try the website Edmodo.

What is it? Edmodo is a free, secure, social learning platform for teachers, students, schools and districts.

Application in the Classroom: Edmodo provides teachers and students with a secure and easy way to post classroom materials, share links and videos, and access homework, grades and school notices.  Teachers and students can store and share all forms of digital content – blogs, links, pictures, video, documents, presentations, and more.

I found this site to be very useful and practical to use. It is very similar to Facebook, which will be an easy tool for students to learn. It took some playing on my part, as the teacher, but I am so excited to start the new marking period off with this exciting technology.

For more information Visit: Edmodo or Live Demo of Edmodo in the Classroom

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Embrace Technology

The first semester is winding down and I would like to create an interesting and engaging lesson to integrate technology into the first week of school. I found a video called a A vision of students today. This is a video organized by Professor Wesch from the Digital Ethnography at Kansas State University.

My first glace at this video made me reflect on my own teaching and how the teaching profession is not the same as when I went to school. Our students are immersed in technology and we as teachers need to use the “beast” to our advantage. All too often teachers fall stray to reading and teaching from the textbook and the chalk board. We as teachers need to embrace technology and find creative ways to bring it into the classroom. I have been following a few blogs that have been soo helpful in creating and advancing my own career (listed below).

1. Free Technology for Teachers (my life line to technology the past year).

2. Technology Tidbits

3. Teachpaperless (creative ideas and interesting ways to help the environment; all while being a creative and engaging teacher)

I plan on using a A vision of students today in my classroom on the second day of school. I am going to use this video as an activator to start the idea of how students learn and ways to use successfully use technology within the classroom. I am going to create a google doc form and have all my students reflect and discuss ways we can make our classroom, our school. and our society integrated with technology.

My hope is through a few technology programs like Edmodo, Google Docs, Wiki’s and Blogs I can engage my students to see the value of technology beyond facebook, twitter, and youtube.

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