Scratch - FREE application / programming language

Developed at the MIT media lab,

"...a new programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web. Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design. Scratch is available free of charge from the Download page. To find more about the educational ideas underlying Scratch, visit our Educators page."

Free e-Learning Tools

from UBC Arts ISIT: "The e-learning tools listed here are publicly available for academic use, within and outside the University of British Columbia."

The tools include a WebCT Discussion Extractor, Timeline tool, Multimedia learning object authoring tool, Image annotation tool, and more.

PowerPoint to Flash Conversion Tools

Robin Good's "PPT2Flash Top20". Robin asks, "Why Would You Ever Want to Convert a Powerpoint Presentation into a Flash File?" and gives us a "detailed list of the key advantages for converting a PowerPoint presentation into a Flash file. No matter what your final goal is, a Flash-based presentation goes a long way in making your content easily accessible and distributable."

Computer Science Directory

"This directory is developed as a project to list computer science links and articles with high quality. Here you'll only find the best of the best.This directory is developed as a project to list computer science links and articles with high quality. Here you'll only find the best of the best."

Blog Law » 12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know

"...increasingly Internet activity, and particular blogging, is being shaped and governed by state and federal laws. For US bloggers in particular, blogging has become a veritable land mine of potential legal issues, and the situation isn’t helped by the fact that the law in this area is constantly in flux. In this article we highlight twelve of the most important US laws when it comes to blogging and provide some simple and straightforward tips for safely navigating them."

Moodle Buzz

A collection of links to "Moodle news and publications from around the world."

Zamzar - FREE FILE CONVERSION

Convert Document, Image, Music and Video Formats (even YouTube videos!). Exact conversion types listed here.

Blackboard Educate / Innovate

"Educate Innovate is the Blackboard blog about the convergence of education and technology. We aim to use this as a forum to generate discussion about the topics, news, and latest trends impacting e-Learning and campus service offerings; and hope to provide insight about how technology can enable educational innovations for both."

Check out Rob Shea's May 8/07 posting about Ask Dr. C.
[look for moi ;)]

Chemistry Resources

Doc Brown's online Chemistry Clinic

Just Free Stuff! Freebies For Teachers

Check out the extensive collection of free resources in their teacher section.

Wiki Pedagogy

"This article endeavours to denote and promote pedagogical experimentations concerning a Free/Open technology called a 'Wiki'."

Second Life Keyboard Shortcuts

I'm linking you to an EduForge blog post that links you to a file of shortcuts and also provides credit for the file.

Games-based Learning; a serious business application

"This white paper has been written to serve as an introduction to what is rapidly becoming a very hot topic in training and education: gamesbased learning (GBL), also known as ‘Serious Games’."

Check out the extensive resource lists within this paper/report.

Math Videos on YouTube

> Etraffic Solutions, Victoria, BC, Canada has developed some good animations for different math concepts and made them available via YouTube: Etraffic's 9 videos

> Etraffic's site for "Pilot Math"

> Several pages of other YouTube algebra videos (linking you to the search results -- try your own searches)

RSS in Plain English

RSS in Plain English: Thanks to Lee and Sachi Lefever, who shared the code to display the following video. "We made this video for our friends (and yours) that haven't yet felt the power of our friend the RSS reader. We want to convert people... if you know someone who would love RSS and hasn't yet tried it, point them here for 3.5 minutes of RSS in Plain English."

Click To Play

There are two types of Internet users, those that use RSS and those that don't. This video is for the people who could save time using RSS, but don't know where to start.

Powerpoint Learning Objects

World of Teaching: Free Powerpoint presentation Learning Objects in biology, chemistry, math, English, history, physics, geography, Spanish.

Learning Objects - a huge collection

Learning Objects from the WISCONLINE.ORG Consortium: My partner found this, calls it "the motherlode of L.O. sites". It's VERY full of a great variety of lesson snippets and learning activities. Note: "We encourage all faculty to visit and register at the Wisconsin Online Resource Center and comply with the full terms and conditions when using any of the resources provided by the Wisconsin Online Resource Center."

Serious Games - Resource Links

In conjunction with SCoPE's current seminar series, Serious Games & Virtual Worlds, members are developing this page of Resource Links. I assume the page will still be there after the seminars are over, so check it out. While you're at it (and if it's still there), here's their Mind Map on this topic. [Click the title of this post to go directly to the Resources page.]

Vedic Mathematics

What you find when you're browsing! I'm no math person, but I love the 'puzzle' nature of math -- when I can figure things out it's rewarding, and the actual figuring is puzzle-like. So This Vedic Math stuff is fascinating. Here's an example that drew me in -- the 11 times table:

11 X 17 (this will work for any two-digit numbers multiplied by 11)
Add the 1 and the 7 together, giving 8
Put this 8 in between the 1 and 7
Giving the answer to the sum 11 X 17 as 187!

11 X 253
Layout the sum like so:
2 / 2 + 5 / 5+ 3 / 3
2,7,8,3
Giving the answer 2783

My favorite online school, LVS Online, is teaching a class about this:
http://www.lvsassociates.com/register/product_info.php?products_id=195

Learning by Design: Good Video Games as Learning Machines

"How do good game designers manage to get new players to learn long, complex, and difficult games? The answer, I believe, is this: the designers of many good games have hit on profoundly good methods of getting people to learn and to enjoy learning. They have had to, since games that were bad at get themselves learned didn’t get played and the companies that made them lost money. Furthermore, it turns out that these learning methods are similar in many respects to cutting-edge principles being discovered in research on human learning."

Student Self Directed Learning

A new blog from an Australian educator, Phil Brown, a teacher in a secondary college. There's always something good coming from Australian educators, seems to me. This blog is focused on the above topic, and Mr. Brown has begun by selecting some interesting articles already, such as: Exemplary Online Educators; What Makes A Good Learner? "This blog is about my developments in understanding student learning." What a great approach by an educator!

Technology in Schools: What Does The Research Say?

A new report from Cisco Systems and Metiri Group is intended to assist educators to make informed technology investments.

"Overall, across all uses in all content areas, technology does provide a small, but significant, increase in learning when implemented with fidelity. While this statistic is encouraging, the real value to research lies in the identification of those technology interventions that get sufficiently positive results to warrant the investment. Most educators are looking for the value proposition that will significantly advance learning, teaching, and school system efficiencies. Taking advantage of these leverage points requires serious review of specific research studies that specifically address the needs and challenges of specific schools and serious attention paid to leadership development, professional development for teachers, school culture, curricular redesign, and teacher preparation.

"The reader should be cautioned that, although single studies with positive results are encouraging, such results could not be generalizedbeyond specific student populations and contexts within the studies. Educators are encouraged to pilot such solutions and research the effect locally prior to full-scale implementation."

Karen’s Mashups - K12 podcast compilation

This podcast features mashups (compilations) of short excerpts from podcasts and other digital content of potential interest to the educational community. It is intended to give you a taste of a various podcasts that you might want to explore further. Most shows will have a theme, such as math, science, student productions, professional development, museum productions, or technology news. Some shows will be focused on podcasts for administrators and teachers, while other shows will highlight podcasts for students or parents. The show is produced and hosted by Karen Fasimpaur of K12 Handhelds. On this web site, we will include links to the web sites for each of the shows included in the episode, along with brief notes on the nature of the content included.

Windows Vista - what works and what doesn't

Keep a watch on this page. Ohio University maintains this page about issues resulting from using MS Vista. They're testing all applications used on campus to determine compatibility. The page links to Microsoft's list of applications that have earned the "Certified for Windows Vista" logo or the "Works with Windows Vista" logo. Ohio U. also lists a compatibility list for software. One surprise to me is that iTunes doesn't yet work well with Vista, another that Acrobat Reader 8, PhotoShop 8, and a few others only work "with modifications". Good page to bookmark if you don't have time to keep up your own research about whether or not to move to MS Vista. 04/03/07

History Education - Trends and Issues 2007

If you teach history, this page from wwwTools For Education will no doubt be a useful source of resources. Click the heading of this post to go directly to the history resource page.

FlashMeeting - Webconferencing Software

"FlashMeeting is an application based on the Adobe Flash 'plug in' and Flash Media Server. Running in a standard web browser window, it allows a dispersed group of people to meet from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. ...During the meeting one person speaks (i.e. broadcasts) at a time. Other people can simultaneously contribute using text chat, the whiteboard, or emoticons etc. while waiting for their turn to speak. ...A replay of the meeting is instantly available, to those with the 'unique' replay url."

Read this review by somebody who's used FlashMeeting for a year now.

Creating ePortfolios with Web 2.0 Tools

Creating ePortfolios with Web 2.0 Tools: More excellent help from Helen Barrett. This page links to Tools, Sample Portfolios, and Help/Instructions. Excellent!

Visual Calculator™

"A Simple, Clean Calculator for Homework & Everyday Math. It features an interactive calculation history which may be used to build large expressions in small chunks." Even though it looks extremely simplistic when you first arrive, if you take a quick look at the Help screen you'll see how the calculator allows advanced users to type in their expressions. It is able to do exponents, square roots, trig functions, etc.

Second Life VOICE to launch by June

"Linden Lab said on Tuesday it will launch integrated voice capabilities within the next several months, including effects to prevent a cacophony of overlapping voices. ...Introducing voice could expose the broadening language gap in Second Life, where more than half of users now speak a first language other than English. Also, some in Second Life have argued that integrating voice could break the “magic circle” that makes the world so convincing, by pairing real voices with virtual avatars."

Also check out Second Talk, which is in beta right now.... something to use in the meantime until the above completely integrated voice talk is ready to use in June. Second Talk is a "free, easy-to-use voice chat to Second Life." Kind of funny -- your avatar goes to a kiosk and gets a headset to wear.

101 Fun and Relevant Ways to Use Spreadsheets in K - 12 Classrooms

Dr. Alice Christie's Using Spreadsheets in the Classroom Page. All fun activities to get students involved in using the spreadsheet tools.

The Phrase Finder

The meanings of idioms phrases, sayings. As well as an alphabetized index (on a second level page) and a search engine, they're categorized under headings like Shakespeare's sayings, biblical, nautical, proverbs, euphemisms, the body, nonsense/fallacies, etc. There's also a discussion forum, a Phrases Thesaurus (kewl idea!), phrase quizzes, most-popular phrase links, 'a phrase a week'. If you're into words and phrases, this is a fun site!

Alcwin.org - resource site

"Whether it is chemistry, geology, mathematics or a whole range of topics, our resources offer practical advice and information for every day life. Build your own volcano; learn about earthquake or source a new Recipe's in our extensive library. Find out about OWW (World Occupational Wages) or visit our American aircraft section (United states / U.S.). Wherever your thirst for knowledge takes you today - find the answer at Alcwin.org."

How to Write Articles and Essays Quickly and Expertly

From Stephen Downes. A link for your students?

How do I embed sound and music in a page?

Headings include: File format choices; Linking directly to audio files; Embedding audio files to play in the background; Embedding music with Flash and XSPF Music Player; Fine tuning: repeat play, autoplay, shuffle play, images, and autoresume; Alternate methods. Each section gives specific instructions and code!

RegEx for Math

You may be one of the many people who use RegEx as a way to create the variations for answers in math questions in their online courses. I've heard it's simple to learn and use, but I don't do math so I don't use RegEx. However, my Resources website does have a page of reference and resource sites on the topic.

Here's one of them: RegEx Side. Says the site's author: "Regular Expressions are a necessary evil. So necessary they are, that they could be considered good." See his recent posting, Regex Cheat Sheet.

YouTube For Educators

Says Dean Shareski in his blog, Ideas & Thoughts From an EdTech, "I’ve started a group called K12 in Youtube. I wondered if those posting videos might want to add them to this category. I know many students and teachers are creating good stuff but it’s hard to find it. sPerhaps this will help. Spread the word around so we begin to collect a repository of educational content."

WAVE Accessibility Validator

Test your website for accessibility issues. You can enter any URL, and WAVE will give you feedback to help with accessibility. The tool is not perfect but a great starting point and guide.

How to search Google Educational Videos

"...an amazing trick for finding educational videos on google Video."

Infinite Thinking Machine

"...a Google sponsored blog designed to help teachers and students thrive in the 21st century. Through an active blog, an Internet TV show, and other media resources, the ITM shares a "bazillion practical ideas" for turning the infinite universe of information into knowledge."

Setting up a vodpod - for video

A blog posting at EduBlog provides a simple tutorial. "Vodpod is a great way to show videos directly in your blog. No downloading needed for the viewer."

Edublogs tutorials

"This blog is designed to get you started in blogging with simple tips and hints on how to improve what you are doing."

Learning in Immersive Worlds: a review of game based learning

I like Stephen Downes' comment in his review of this report: "Rather than using games in learning, I still think educators should be looking at how to use learning in games."

"[The report], authored by Sara de Freitas, scopes out the current use of games for learning in UK HE and post-16 education and has been produced to inform practitioners who are considering using games and simulations in their practice.
The report includes:
. a review of the literature
. a series of case studies from practice to illustrate the range of uses of games
. synthesises the key issues and themes arising from learning in immersive worlds."

Scholar - academic social bookmarking

"Blackboard Scholar® is a social bookmarking service customized for education. It provides an exciting new way for students and instructors to find educationally valuable resources on the Web. Using the knowledge and power of our network of educational users, Scholar makes it easier for instructors and students to find relevant resources on the Internet for courses and research. Furthermore, by storing and sharing associated information with each resource such as tags, disciplines, other users who have tagged and more, Scholar allows users to evaluate the resources and find the most relevant and reliable. And it is directly integrated within the Blackboard Learning System(TM) - Enterprise, Vista, and CE Licenses, providing easy access right within the course environment."

OER Commons - Open Educational Resources

Welcome to a worldwide learning network — OER Commons: "Resources, or OER, offer new ways to engage with free-to-use learning content." "...open network of shared resources and practices, from K through college, from algebra to zoology -- it's all free to use."

Peterson's - a very helpful website for students

Search "Online Learning Programs" by filters of Course of Study and Level. "Even if you don't have a clue where you want to go, there's no reason to worry. We'll guide you through every step of the college-planning process, from discovering the right school to finding scholarships."

Many other tools available on the site -- search for colleges by discipline; get advice about choosing a college or about campus life; lots of help for new college students; help with preparing for tests --filtered by specific existing test types; excellent last minute study tips for various types of tests; and MUCH MORE!

Distance Learning Moves Into 'Second Life' Virtual Classroom

Another higher education institution has moved into Second Life -- University of Florida in Gainesville.

"Paul Fishwick, a computer science and engineering professor, is teaching one of at least two classes offered at UF this semester largely in cyberspace — specifically, the trendy three-dimensional online world called Second Life. There, Fishwick’s 'avatar', the character that represents each player in Second Life, leads discussions among some 30 other avatars controlled by upper-level UF undergraduate and graduate students in CAP 4403/CAP 6402, Aesthetic Computing.

With distance learning decades old, classes on computer are nothing new. But Second Life, which has more than 2 million users worldwide, opens a wealth of fresh possibilities, one educators nationwide are increasingly experimenting with."

Curriki ~ Global Education & Learning Community

Curriki stands for (I'm guessing) curriculum wiki. They're new, so resources are limited right now, but please join and contribute!

"The Curriki Community is comprised of thousands of people like you who want to create and use high-quality educational resources. ...Our mission is to improve education around the world by empowering teachers, students and parents with user-created, open source curricula, and it's all free!"

Embedded Media HTML Generator

"The Embedded Media HTML Generator has been developed to ease the burden of inserting video and animations into web pages." The page will generate code for embedding Flash, Quicktime, RealMedia, Windows Media.

Accessibility Information & Resources

Accessibility Information & Resources: from Saskatoon Catholic Cyberschool, a commented list of resource sites.

Instructional Scenarios Wiki for WebCT Vista

Topics included are Content, Communication, Course Management, Evaluation. Lots of good tips 'n' tricks here!

"This site is designed and maintained by the Teaching Technology Services group of Instructional Multimedia Services of McGill University. This wiki describes how to use WebCT Vista to do complex instructional tasks using multiple tools. We (the Teaching Technology Services staff) built this wiki to explore the potential of the technology and to experiment with collaborative group work. These instructional scenarios are meant as a complement to the WebCT Vista manuals and do not duplicate any information from them. "

Video Blogging Resources

Video blogging made easy: From Telus, a step-by-step how-to for those who are new to videoblogging. The article includes links to other help/tutorial sites, so I'll include those here too:

• The Video Blog Handbook - a community project for documenting tips and tricks


• Node 101 - an educational resource aimed at teaching people how to video blog


• Freevlog - a multi-lingual how-to on video blogging


• How to video blog with Blogger - A tutorial on video blogging with Blogger and QuickTime

DropShots: A Free sonline video host -- "family friendly photo & video sharing service". s"We support MPG, AVI, MOV, WMV, and 3GP from all major digital cameras. You just drag and drop the video to our application and we resize, transcode, upload, and host your video. We use the Flash plug-in to stream the video, which is already installed in over 98% of browsers and has a 1-click install process. This makes video easy to post and easy to view."

Zippy Videos: "Your media sharing community." Free host for an unlimited number of videos up to 100mb each. You can create your own URL on the site for sharing videos.

Think.com - An Online Community for Learning

A password-protected learning community, Think.com "turns students into multimedia authors for a global community and allows peers to think and learn together. ...Experience a new level of collaboration with Think.com Projects. Identify a topic of interest, assign your students, and allow others locally or across the globe to join. ...Free service without any advertising for accredited primary and secondary schools. Think.com provides interactive learning tools to thousands of schools around the world in 8 languages."

EduNation - Second Life in Education

"...the first private island simulator in Second Life dedicated to online training seminars and conferences, and the use of Second Life in Education. EduNation is a 65,000m2 island in the Second Life virtual world with seminar, powerpoint, audio and videocast facilities. Use of the seminar facilities is free. It also features small land and accommodation rentals for other educators to rent and use on a weekly basis."

My Second Life - An Educator's comments

Educause Connect: a post by Jeff VanDrimmelen, which Stephen Downes describes as a "description of a teacher's experimental forays into Second Life." A short but interesting read if you're an educator who is either new to Second Life or haven't yet experienced it.

Distance Learning Programs

A free guide for researching, evaluating and applying for online college degrees and online university programs from online universities worldwide. Undergraduate and Master’s programs plus trades. Thousands of distance learning options.

With so many online universities to choose from and so many online college degree programs, we felt there needed to be a top-notch, easy to use free online resource to help people learn about these distance learning programs and to get more information from the ones that they are interested in.

The OWL at Purdue

A fantastic resource site: "Free writing help and teaching resources, open 24/7" Here are some of their categories:

The Writing Process; Professional, Technical, and Scientific Writing; Job Search Writing; General Academic Writing; Research & Citation; ESL; Literary Analysis & Criticism; Writing in the Social Sciences; Writing in Engineering; Creative Writing; Teaching Writing.

-- and each one has many sub-menu items. I can't describe it; you'll just have to check it out for yourself!

Learning with Handheld Technologies

"This handbook on learning with handheld technologies arises from a two year study by the Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol... . This study comprised observations and interviews with some of the leading practitioners of handheld learning in the UK, and desk-based research to identify other developing projects in this area. In the course of the project, a number of key recommendations and observations emerged which have been distilled by the researchers on the project in this publication." The handbook includes recommendations on:

• planning and implementation
• outreach
• professional development
• technology provision and support
• teaching & learning

Teacher Created Rubrics for Assessment

From the Online Professional Development for K-12 Teachers - University of Wisconsin: Rubrics for various subjects at various levels:

Cooperative Learning Rubrics
Research Report Rubrics
Writing Rubrics
Math, Art, Science Rubrics
Oral Presentation Rubrics
Rubrics for Primary Grades
Web Page and ePortfolio Rubrics
Video and Multimedia Project Rubrics
...plus a section on Creating Your Rubrics

Ready for Internet Explorer 7?

Maybe you already have it, if your settings are for automatic updates. If not, here are two helpful sites.

Internet Explorer 7 checklists
"Whether you're a consumer, developer, or IT professional, we've created the checklists to make sure Internet Explorer 7 is compatible with your favorite websites and applications."

Internet Explorer 7 Readiness Toolkit from Microsoft.

BLOGORRHEA

Logorrhoea is my personal word of the day, found accidentally at Answers.com

Logorrhoea or logorrhea (Greek λογορροια, logorrhoia, “word-flux”) is defined as an “excessive flow of words” and, when used medically, refers to incoherent talkativeness that occurs in certain kinds of mental illness, such as mania. The spoken form of logorrhoea (in the non-medical sense) is a kind of verbosity that uses superfluous or fancy words to disguise a useless or simple message as useful or intellectual, and is commonly known as “verbal diarrhea.”

So I told my partner and he's just coined a new word (in the title of this post). Take it, use it, spread it around, but link to this blog post when you do, ok?

Practical Uses of Math And Science (PUMAS)

Ralph Kahn, author, describes the site as

"...a collection of one-page examples of how math and science topics taught in K-12 classes can be used in interesting settings, including everyday life. The examples are written primarily by scientists and engineers, and are available to teachers, students, and other interested parties via the PUMAS Web Site. Our goal is to capture, for the benefit of pre-college education, the flavor of the vast experience that working scientists have with interesting and practical uses of math and science."

10 Academic Resources Daily

"Our main purpose is to provide valuable solutions for students and young researchers; disseminate additional knowledge, skills and attitudes that are useful in their youth work; communicate within the academic community of scholars, professionals and students from all branches. We share information about scholarships, grants, conferences, study abroad opportunities, exchange and professional training programs and internships all over the world."

The Teachers' Lounge - lesson plan resources

Lesson plan resources. A wiki site. Rob Lucas, author, explains:

"...my first year of teaching, I spent many late nights planning lessons for the following day. During those nights, a single thought gnawed at me: Thousands of other teachers across the country were doing just as I was, and thousands more had done so every year for decades. Yet there was no way for me to fully benefit from the experience of all those who had come before. I’ve created this website to change that....any registered user...can post lesson plans, links, handouts, PowerPoint presentations—virtually anything! And you don’t even have to know HTML. Editing a page is as easy as using a word processor. My vision is that over time, we can develop an extensive library of creative, finely-tuned, engaging, exciting lessons."

E-Learning Concepts and Techniques E-Book

"This e-book, E-Learning Concepts and Techniques, is the result of a collaborative effort by students in the Bloomsburg University, Department of Instructional Design spring 2006 E-Learning Concepts and Techniques online class as well as several guest authors and contributors from around the world." Headings include: What is E-Learning? Instructional Design Models for E-Learning; E-Learning Tools; Instructional Strategies; Development; Delivering; Evaluation; Web Standards.

Folklinks: Folk and Fairy-Tale Sites

A colleague sent me this link and said, "I came across this great web site as I searched for short short stories that can be used in English classes. 2 great things about it: 1) it includes folktales from all over the world and 2) it is categorized by subject or topic or theme. Enjoy."

WikiBooks and WikiSource

WikiBooks and WikiSource: Wikipedia's Free collections of textbooks. "Wikibooks went online on 10 July 2003, and there are 22,403 modules currently on the site." ..."Wikibooks differs from Wikisource because content on Wikibooks is expected to be significantly changed by participants. Raw source documents such as the original text of Shakespearian plays is hosted on Wikisource instead."..."Wikisource collects and stores in digital format previously published texts; including novels, non-fiction works, letters, speeches, constitutional and historical documents, laws and a range of other documents. All texts collected are free of copyright, either because this has expired or because the text has been released under a GNU Free Documentation License."

Free Academic Podcasts

This site has a list of 145 (to date) links. Says the site author: "About a year ago, I put together a listing 30 or 40 free podcasts of lectures from Universities. When I started putting together another list, I was amazed at how many more lectures are available. The lectures in this list are all free and don't require any type of authentication--you don't have to be a student to download them. The links are to the rss feed of class lectures. If you copy the URL and in iTunes click on Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast it will automatically download the lectures and new ones as they become available."

Skypecasts Academic Potential

This article describes the latest offering from Skype, Skypecasting, and discusses its potential for education.

"Skypecasts as “large, hosted calls on Skype.” Sound pretty simple. Basically you can create or join a large online conference call with UP TO 100 people. Skypecasts are scheduled to begin and end at a certain time and usually have a certain topic of discussion. The users must download and use Skype in order to join the Skypecast."

"There are many programs out there that already allow users to create online classes, but those cost thousands, and even tens of thousands of dollars to implement. This option is FREE. That price tag is always a big plus for education and their limited resources."

"Overall, I was very impressed with Skypecasts and the potential it possesses in education. Above all else mentioned above, I think it is absolutely necessary to help students understand cultures beyond their own. This technology opens up the way for them to do that, not only through other people’s Skypecasts, but by having students create their own."

Podcasting in Education

The author explains podcasting, links to articles that show it works well in education, links to working examples, provides some ideas for you. A section entitled 'How to go about it: Curriculum and Class Management'. A technical section with info about applications, plus some downloads and resource links.

APA addendum for citing ONLINE SOURCES

This guide is from SFU librarian Jamie Anderson, August 1, 2006. "The APA Manual should be your main source of information for citing sources, but this addendum was put together to cover several types of electronic sources which are not covered by the APA. Here’s what the guide covers: Webpages, Blogs, Online Journal Articles, Online Encyclopedias and Dictionaries, Email, Online Images, The TECH 100 text Teamwork and Communication."

Writing Guides from SFU Library

This is a very helpful site. Includes STYLE guides, WRITING guides, and other tools. Includes style guides I hadn't heard of until now -- CBE (for biologists), IEEE (for engineers), and MUCH more...check it out.

Teaching with Games

Final report of a study/project by FutureLab. "The Teaching with Games project was a one-year study designed to offer a broad overview of teachers' and students' use of and attitudes towards commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) computer games in schools. It aimed to identify the factors that would impact the use of these entertainment games in school and describe the processes by which teachers plan and implement games-based learning in existing curricular contexts. Finally, it aimed to provide recommendations for future games-based learning approaches in schools for teachers, developers and policy makers."

knowschools

"This is the place for teachers who work online or are new to online to work and share together." From their newsletter: "is devoted to resources and skills needed to use technology in the classroom as well as building skills with these technologies and facilitation when working with students in a virtual environment."

knowmoodle

A new community devoted to all things moodle. Links to moodle resources as well as moodle courses and facilitation skills.

Second Life + Education (a new page on my site)

Click the title to link to my newest page in my Resources site.

Communities and Institutions & Organizations already in SECOND LIFE

This site lists (so far) Universities, Colleges, Schools, Organizations, Libraries. It a wiki site ~ "feel free to log in and add your own content. For a more extensive description of [Second Life] projects, see Second Life: Universities and Private Islands."

7 Principles of Good Practice in Undergrad Education

Honolulu.hawaii.edu offers these for their own faculty. "How can students and faculty members improve undergraduate education? Many campuses around the country are asking this question. To provide a focus for their work, we offer seven principles based on research on good teaching and learning in colleges and universities."

Back to School with the Class of Web 2.0

"TOOLS" is the topic of this first of a 3-Part series of articles. "The following is a compilation of Web 2.0 products that I’ve personally researched and tested. These services are grouped into two main categories: Tools and Office Applications. Some more specific services include: organizers, gradebooks, research tools, document managers, diagrams, and more."

Dimdim: The world's FREE web meeting

"Dimdim is the Open Source web conferencing company. With Dimdim you can show Presentations, Applications and Desktops to any other person over the internet....Attendees can use either Internet Explorer 6 or Firefox 1.5 while Presenters can use Internet Explorer 6 on Windows (XP/2000/2003) only. Firefox porting for Presenters will be available soon. Please understand that this is Alpha version with known issues and bugs and our development team is squashing them. This release is meant for technically skilled early adopters."[my emphasis]

Best of the Best Web 2.0 Web Sites

"What makes a site a Web 2.0 Site? Web 2.0 is the second coming of World Wide Web. New and improved sites that make the web their platform, provide users a way of interacting with each other, and organize and categorize their content are perfect examples of Web 2.0. Below is a list of web sites that are the best of the best!"

Learning Resources for Civics and Citizenship Education

This week the WWWTools For Education newsletter is featuring the topic of Civics & Citizenship. LOTS of links and information on the topic of civics in several countries. Includes links to collections of resources and classroom resources. A civics glossary. Advocacy links. Civics in the news, including some links dealing with the USA election this week. Resources for Professional Development.

Blackboard & Google become partners in search 'appliances'

Today's article from Blackboard Media Center.

PowerPoint compression tools

Diehard MS Powerpoint fans are always looking for ways to optimize the usually-big files for browser use inside online courses, etc. These two tools were mentioned recently on the webct users' list. Each one was praised highly by the person who recommended it. Both have a free trial and a low cost when you want to purchase it.

PowerPressed

Optimise & compress PowerPoint® files up to 95%
No proprietary plug-ins or viewers are needed.
The .ppt file format remains at all times.
A true plug-in… no stepping in & out of PowerPoint®.
Simple to use… no expert knowledge required.
Easy to install & manage.

PPTminimizer

Reduces your PowerPoint® file size by up to 96%.
Your original presentation doesn´t get modified; PPTminimizer creates an optimized copy instead.
Transparent Integration in Outlook®, Windows-Explorer® and PowerPoint®!
Save time: No need to zip/unzip anymore.
Due to the integrated E-mail function of PPTminimizer, the presentations can be sent directly after the optimization.

ESL Resources for Instructors and Students

Check out this newest collection of links on my Resources site.

Bedford Handbook Online Resources

Lots of free goodies here at the "companion web site for The Bedford Handbook. Includes online resources for writing, gramma, and research. No charge. No activation code required." Includes peer review tools, grammar helpers, writing and research tools, and special sections for Instructors & students.

OpenLearn at Open University

(Britain)From a BBC News article: "The OU is making its educational resources available free on the net for anyone in the world to use. It aims to make 5,000 hours' worth of material available by April 2008 - not only for learners, but for educators to adapt and use for their own purposes." Open University says, "Open content provides the opportunity for access to high-quality learning materials which would not otherwise be available and affordable to many groups within both the developed and developing worlds...We want to lead the learning revolution, experimenting with new models of content and technologies. OpenLearn is a huge step towards this aim. The philosophy of open access and sharing knowledge - a cornerstone of this project - matches the founding principles of the Open University."

The complete work of Charles Darwin

"The largest collection of Darwin's writings ever assembled...contains every Darwin publication as well as many of his handwritten manuscripts. All told there are more than 50,000 searchable text pages and 40,000 images. There is also the most comprehensive Darwin bibliography ever published and the largest manuscript catalogue ever assembled. More than 150 ancillary texts are also included, ranging from reference works to contemporary reviews, obituaries, descriptions of Darwin's Beagle specimens and important works for understanding Darwin's context. Free audio mp3 versions of his works are also available."

Education meets Second Life: virtual world education departments

About 4 or 5 years ago my partner was "addicted to" the multi-user micro world, Ultima Online. They called it a "game" but it was a full, rich underworld, populated by millions of people of all ages, but dominated by youth. At the time, we (both of us teachers) thought what an amazing education tool it could be if we were to set up a school within that world. A "real" (academic) school where students could earn real-world graduation credits. Why not?.... the game already used real-world money for property transactions and more. Students could earn not only course credits and degrees for the "real" world, but in doing so could also earn other items that would be of value to them in their virtual world.

Of course, we didn't take that idea any further, and now in 2006 the rest of the "real world" is catching up to our idea. Will they acknowledge that we were the first to think of it? Ya right. Nevertheless, I'm glad it's finally happening. Academia, welcome to your Second Life.

Second Life lands B.C. campus

Sloodle - 3D Learning Management System

Women of Web 2.0

"Women of Web 2.0 is for all who are using the tools of the internet whether it be in a classroom setting, leading seminars, authoring books, maintaining blogs or wikis, or just enjoying the tools of the internet in an educational and exciting way."

Robin Good's Official Guide to Web Conferencing and Live Presentation Tools

A rich resource for web conferencing Systems reviews, comparisons. Also: recommended solutions; key strengths & weaknessees; functionality; terminology; and a directory of vendors. One-stop shopping :)

WebCT VISTA - Adding News Feeds to your Course

A tutorial from Georgia Southern University.

Math Resources

The following were recommended by a colleague who teaches math.

Math.com: Recommended by a colleague who teaches math. Site has Math help at all levels: practice, tutoring, tools, games, and homework help.

SOS Math.com: "...free resource for math review material from Algebra to Differential Equations."

A-Plus Math.com: "...web site was developed to help students improve their math skills interactively." Headings include: Flashcards, Game Room, Homework Helper, Worksheets.

PurpleMath.com: Lots of help for students and resources for teachers. Lessons, homework guidelines, study skills, and links to reviewed internet sites.

edHelper.com - Teacher & Student resources

Many teaching and student resources under a clear Table of Contents, includes a wide variety of subject areas and levels: Math, Reading Comprehension, Themes, Lesson Plans, and Worksheets.

Create a Podcast using Powerpoint

Randolph Decker's posting in eGram about a quick technique for converting your favorite Powerpoint presentations into podcasts.

AskAway: Virtual Reference Service

The province of British Columbia and BC's public and post-secondary libraries have launched a new reference service that uses a live, chat-based format to offer immediate, interactive and knowledgeable help online.

The AskAway website uses special software to connect BC residents with librarians from 46 public libraries across the province. It also connects with 100 librarians from 20 BC colleges and universities to provide specialist resources for post-secondary students, including access to academic research databases:
http://www.askaway.org

Timesavers for Teachers

"Timesavers for Teachers.com specializes in often-used, teacher-created, classroom management forms, practical teacher tools, report card comments, worksheets and teacher resources used by teachers of all grades on a regular basis. "

Web 2.0 and eLearning 2.0 Start-Up Guides

A list of links for "...a few new start-up guides/introductions to Web 2.0 and eLearning 2.0."

Half an Hour: Things You Really Need to Learn

"Your school will try to teach you facts, which you'll need to pass the test but which are otherwise useless. In passing you may learn some useful skills, like literacy, which you should cultivate. But Guy Kawasaki is right in at least this: schools won't teach you the things you really need to learn in order to be successful, either in business (whether or not you choose to live life as a toady) or in life." Stephen Downes says, "Here, then, is my list."

A good list indeed! Now all we need to do is convince our Education ministries to go for this curriculum!

Google Book Search

Starting August 30/06, readers can find new, and free, downloadable versions of some of the world's greatest books.

"Working with our library partners, we're expanding access to books that are out of copyright and have become public domain material. Users can search and read these books on Google Book Search like always, but now they can also download and print them to enjoy at their own pace."

Web 2.0 could be used in health e-learning

An article from eHealth Insider.

"Web 2.0 technologies such as wikis, podcasts and blogs could be quite effective tools in e-learning for health professionals in patients, according to a new paper published by BioMed Central. The very interactivity of the technology could prove a boon for professional and patient education, providing that any changes and collaboration is effectively monitored....If effectively deployed, wikis, blogs and podcasts could offer a way to enhance students', clinicans' and patients' learning experiences, and deepen levels of learners' engagement and collaboration within digital learning environments..."