Activity #6 - Social Bookmarking

Claire this one is for you!!!!

They now have online bookmarking services where you can save links and "tag" them with key words to organize them any way you wish. When you tag the sites you find, the service connects them to other people who have used the same tags. So if I bookmarked a site and tagged it "reading" and "fluency" I would be connected to other people who share the same interest thereby creating a community of researchers. We can read and connect to what others reading.

Two free social bookmarking services are Furl.net and del.icio.us

I have set up an account at delicious that we will explore together. http://delicious.com/Jeannine10

** When you have a few minutes take the time to browse one of these sites and if you're feeling adventurous sign up for your own account.

Activity # 5 - Wikis

One of the most important sites on the web today is Wikipedia.org . Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that is created by people like you and me. The word wiki is from the Hawaiian word wiki-wiki which means quick. In 1995 Ward Cunningham was looking to create an easy online publishing tool where anyone could write and edit anthing anytime they wanted. If you know a great deal about photography and it isn't on Wikipedia you can create a page about it. If something you know is wrong about an entry on baseball, you can erase it or fix it. It know it sounds a but scary and there are always some vandals around but the majority of people work to make it as accurate as possible. Will Richardson stated in his book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and other powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, Wikipedia has over 860,000 entries from the hads of pleople just like us with the conceipt that everyone together is smarter than anyone alone. There are wikis on all different topics: Favorite recipes - Wikirecipes, Quotes - Wikiquotes, Song lyrics - kiwilyrics to Star Trek - memory-alph.org/en/wiki/main_Page.

I have created a wiki at cranstonclavertschool.pbwiki.com
** Click on the link and look for the edit button to try out our new wiki

Activity #4 - Podcasts

This is an amazing school radio show by kids for kids. Check out this podcast about ants by a group of second graders at Willowdale elementary school. Think about how you could use podcasting with your students. Please share some of your thoughts and ideas under the comments section.
http://www.mpsomaha.org/willow/radio/shows/Willowcast24.html


** Think about how you could use podcasting with your students. Please share some of your thoughts and ideas under the comments section.

What is a Podcast

From Wikipedia, the free internet encyclopedia. A Podcast is a media file that is distributed over the internet using syndication feeds, for playback on portable media players, iPods and computers. An easier explanation is an online radio show.

What are the benefit podcasting in education?

• Teachers can record lessons for students and parents
• Explain classroom management
• Help build a student's vocabulary
• Create a school radio station
• Enable students to submit work in the form of a podcast
• Great resource for ELL students
• Help improve fluency

Introduction to blogging

Activity #3 - Create Your Own Blog

**Today you are each going to create your own blog. It can be a class blog to be used with your students, a resource blog for parents or a blog to share some of your own interests. Go to blogger.com and follow the easy to use instructions. Once you have created you blog send me your address and I will link it on our school site. If you have any questions you can email me directly at rid01139@ride.ri.net or post in the comments section.

**Once your peers have created their blogs please take the time to check them out and post a comment. We can all learn a great deal from each other.

Activity #2 - What is a blog?

• An online journal
• An organizing tool
• A place to discuss or react to specific topics
• A communication tool from one to many
• A space to share news, links and ideas
• An informal, quick writing process that is free on many sites
• A place to collect things that you find interesting
• Blogs post in reverse chronological order
• All published on the internet but can be public or private
• Brings the world to the classroom on a daily basis

For more of an in depth look:

A blog about blogs http:tcea.blogspot.com

Dissecting a web log bespacific.com

** Please take a few minutes to look at some of the blogs linked in the left hand column under Our Blog List. After searching through a couple of these sites, add a comment or two about your thoughts or add a link to a new site that you may have found. We'll add it to our list.