New on this page: Following + subscribe

I've just added a couple new things to my side panel: A Followers box and a new Subscribe link to replace the atom-feed link I had before. Both of these should make it SUPER-EASY for you to subscribe and keep track of What's New in PinkFlamingo's Resource Lists!

What's "Following"?

If you use Google Reader: After you click Follow, you'll see a folder in Reader called "Blogs I’m Following".

If you have a blogger.com site, you'll see the sites you follow in your dashboard.

More details in Blogger Help.

You can choose to follow anonymously (so your profile pic won't show up in my Followers box) or publicly. (Of course, I'd enjoy the public option, especially if I get a lot of Followers to show off here. ;)

PRISM: Free Video Converter Software

"Prism is a free video converter for Windows and Mac. It can convert video files from avi, wmv, 3gp and more into avi, asf, wmv, mp4, 3gp and others. It can also convert DVD discs to your hard drive or compress video files to reduce size. Use this video converter software to convert video files into the formats you need to watch on TV, load to a cell phone, put on a website, create a presentation, watch on your portable device and much more. In fact, the possibilities are endless using this powerful video file converter."

Why an iPod Touch in education?

"...a list of iPod Touch apps that are appropriate for education. Some teachers have begun purchasing the devices, but really don't know what kind of apps can be put on them. [The author] may list some 'paid' apps here, but most will be the 'free' ones."

Teachers TV

| Thousands of education programmes on TV and online |

"With over 2000 videos available online, the Teachers TV website is an invaluable resource for any busy education professional. Watch videos when you want and download great resources including lesson plans, worksheets and more. ...Our programmes cover every subject in the curriculum, all key stages and every professional role – from teaching assistant to headteacher. You can watch us on digital cable and satellite and programmes are also available anytime, on-demand and for free on this website. We have 15-minute CPD offerings packed with useful information, exciting pupil programmes for use in class, and a daily education news summary. ...award-winning documentaries on everything from global citizenship to education practice in other countries. Regular specialist hours cater to new teachers, governors and other specialist audiences, and core curriculum hours cover primary and secondary maths, English, science and ICT."

ClassTools.net

FREE tools and templates for creating educational Flash games, interactive learning materials and activities, and more.

"Host them on your own blog, website or intranet! No signup, no passwords, no charge! ...A fantastic way of building cutting-edge technology into the curriculum! ClassTools.net is a brand new, FREE website allowing teachers and students to create interactive Flash diagrams for learning and revising material. All diagrams created can be saved as data files or web pages to host on your own school website or intranet!"

AcademicInfo.net: Online Degree Programs, Subject Guides, and Resources

For your students:

Most of their headings fall under categories of links to online schools & colleges, accreditation, degrees, and sources of financial aid. They also have links to Education blogs and other education resources (directed at students).

"An online education resource center with extensive subject guides and distance learning information. Our mission is to provide free, independent and accurate information and resources for prospective and current students (and other researchers). We currently feature over 25,000+ hand-picked resources and update the website on a daily basis."

From the height of this place

"At Google we are all technology optimists. We intrinsically believe that the wave upon which we surf, the secular shift of information, communications, and commerce to the Internet, is still in its early stages, and that its result will be a preponderance of good."
via googleblog.blogspot.com

The whole article strikes a chord within me. If you haven't read it, do. I'm impressed by its optimism. There's wisdom, too, in the author's predictions for the future of the internet. I'm blown away by Google's "observations on the future of the Internet for all of us to assess, consider, and carry as we do our work."

THIS is the kind of article that leads.

Describing Googlers, the author is surely describing all of us who live and work online:

"We are standing at a unique moment in history which will help define not just the Internet for the next few years, but the Internet that individuals and societies around the world will traverse for decades. As Googlers our responsibility is nothing less than to help support the future of information, the global transition in how it is created, shared, consumed, and used to solve big problems. Our challenge is to steer incessantly toward greatness, to never think small when we can think big, to strive on with the work Larry and Sergey began over ten years ago, and from this task we will not be moved."

A Job in Paradise

Please bear with me. My blog and resources site never have ads, just great links. And I never do self-promo here. But today is an exception......

Our video application for "The Best Job in the World" (Island Caretaker) has been accepted and now appears on the Island Reef website. Please watch (it's only 1 minute) and PLEASE VOTE! And you can vote again if you open a different browser. THANK YOU!

(If you have any friends who might get into the spirit, please send them this link and ask them to vote too.)

Here we go...woooohooooo...Watch and VOTE FOR IAN (and me)

Technotes:

You need Javascript enabled in your browser.

You need Flash plug-in version 9.0.45 or above..

Please be patient; sometimes the website is so busy that it takes minutes for the page to load.

To vote, mouse-over on the "rating" stars.

Thanks for viewing and voting!

West Coast Screenwriting - Learn to Write For The Movies

"From Blank Page to Big Screen - Learn to Write For The Movies"

Vancouver Island screenwriters Keith Digby and Brian Paisley offer regular, personalized workshops in screenwriting. Link above is to their main website. Also check out their new BLOG here. A recent post: "Ten things to do… or not to do with dialogue." I'd say they are just as applicable to storywriting as they are to screenwriting.

Top 50 Best CSS Articles & Resources

A very rich site, as its title implies. It's part of a site that's devoted to design, inspiration, and tech.

Second Life in Education

SLED - Second Life Educators Mail List: Recommended by colleagues who are already active SL Educators. I hear it's a very active discussion list. Good place to start learning and getting some ideas from those in the field who are actively using SL for various education purposes. NOTE: The signup page I'm linking to isn't just for signing up. It also has some links to more resources and sites.

SLED Blog (K-20 Education Using The Second Life World): "This blog is written by educators and for educators, for those who are seasoned Second Life veterans and for those just starting out, for those who are die-hards and those who are skeptics. All are welcome. We hope you’ll read, enjoy, and comment on what you see."

Graphing Calculator for the iPod

(The link opens your iTunes application, so won't work if you don't have that.)

My buddy/colleague Randy Decker teaches Math 11/12 (British Columbia schools). He says:

"There's a free download of a Graphing Calculator on iTunes Apps Store. I'm quite impressed with it. I would recommend this application for use in Math 11 in British Columbia. It can tackle almost everything in the curriculum. Its display is far better than the Ti-83 or Ti-84. One can easily compare graphs because each is a different colour. It lacks a TVM solver. However, one can use graphs to solve some financial problems such as finding the time required to double an investment. One feature I really like is the ability to take a screenshot of a graph and email it."

Wireless tools for education

The link above is to a new page on my resources site. Please post a comment if you know of any sites about wireless for education so I can add the links to my page.

Here's something my colleague/buddy Randy Decker just told me about.

iTunes is a source of FREE wireless educational applications! Yes, it's true. Here's what to do:

Open iTunes and click to the Store.

Then select App Store.

Then select Education.

Then select Top Free Applications.

There are more than 90 listed today! Here's a screenshot of the top 21 I found, just as a sampler for you. (Sorry, blogger.com seems to make it rather small; you'll just have to do the search yourself to see things clearly.)

Excellent, online learning -- tons of topics! DISCOUNT code here.

Where can you take a 6 week course for $25? [AND I have a discount deal to offer you at the end of this!]

I've been a student at LVS Online for about 20 different courses. They have a wide range of topics to choose from, like a community center kind of thing. The instructors are knowledgeable and really friendly.

The way it works is:
- On Saturday (for 6 weeks in a row) a new lesson is posted online, along with homework assignments.
- The homework is about 2 - 4 hours a week. There's no deadlines, though; if you can't get it done that week, it's OK to relax and enjoy the process.
- When you're done your homework, you "hand it in" -- various classes have different ways you'd do this. They tell you how, so don't worry about not knowing how to do things online.
- The "classroom" for each course is its own private discussion forum, where you can ask questions, chat with the instructor and/or fellow students, discuss each others' work, etc. It's fun!
- You can request to get a certificate at the end if you want, or just do it for fun and learning.

Warning! Once you start taking classes at LVS Online, you may not want to stop. I haven't stopped yet after nearly 10 years. I'm signed up for the January session to take the "Artist's Workshop" course. Returning students only pay $20 a course.

Here's the discount code to get a 20% discount if you're a new student. When you register, use this code:

JAN09

LVS says: "Registration ends January 7th. However, we have a 2 week late registration period and the coupon code expires January 21st."

At least check out their huge list of courses.

Hope you enjoy it! If you want to ask any questions by adding your comment here, I could try to answer.
..........

Oh ya, it would be great if you give them my name (Kate Britt) when you register. They have a system where you can earn certificates to take courses by referring new students to them. Thanks!

ePortfolios: Engaged Students Create Multimedia-Rich Artifacts

Electronic Portfolios: Engaged Students Create Multimedia-Rich Artifacts: This paper discusses a required university-wide ePortfolio Program at Clemson University.

"We believe that by getting students excited about the work they are doing in their classes, and the above examples certainly demonstrate excitement and motivation, and encouraging them to "show off" this work in their ePortfolios they will become engaged in the ePortfolio process. By helping students understand why they should create an ePortfolio, and by scaffolding them through the process of how to create an ePortfolio our chance for a successful implementation is greater."

Effective Practices with e-Portfolios

"Our infoKit covers the main drivers, purposes, processes, perspectives and issues around e-portfolios."

You can select information depending on which "stakeholder" category you belong to:

"learners, practitioners, employers, professional bodies and insitutions -- we've highlighted particular areas of interest for each to form tailored 'pathways' through the infoKit."

Of particular interest to me was the PDF (or Word text) download entitled Effective Practice with ePortfolios, which "draws out key points from established and innovative examples."

txtng is gd 4 lrng

"Texting does not erode children’s ability to read and write. On the contrary, literacy improves. The latest studies (from a team at Coventry University) have found strong positive links between the use of text language and the skills underlying success in standard English in pre-teenage children. The more abbreviations in their messages, the higher they scored on tests of reading and vocabulary. The children who were better at spelling and writing used the most textisms. And the younger they received their first phone, the higher their scores."

The Power (and Peril) of Praising Your Kids

New York Magazine article. A study was done on what kinds of praise to give kids, what works to encourage them, etc. I learned something....I've always thought it was a good idea to tell kids how smart they are. Not so much, apparently! Instead, the study indicates that we should "praise effort rather than intelligence" and that "giving kids the label of 'smart' does not prevent them from underperforming. It might actually be causing it." Go figure!

I found a link to this article on a webpage about education and "Things that make you go Hmmmm...."

Gamers do better at math

An article that describes a study (The Effects of Modern Math Computer Games on Learners' Math Achievement and Math Course Motivation in a Public High School Setting). But math teachers already knew this, right?

Dictionarist: Online Talking Dictionary

A free online multilingual and talking dictionary service for translations with audio pronunciation in English, Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Russian, Dutch, Greek, Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages.