Technology+in+Learning

There are no rules here. Learn a new technology and apply it to your program. Share what you learned. Check out the resources page for some links. Feel free to add your own.
I have been using **Learn 360** to play different video clips on Character Education to focus our students on the Character trait of the month. I have also used it to find and incorporate clips on African-Canadian history. It has been a valuable tool. We are beginning to use Read & Write Gold with our students. I am starting a unit later this month on consumer reports and I plan to use the note-taking facility with my students. I don't know yet how I will use my new wiki - maybe for our Book Club members to respond to their reading. It will take me time to learn how to use these tools effectively but if I don't wade in I won't do it. by June Hall

Prezi: I have decided to learn how to make prezis. This style of presentation is found under the Research toolkit. It is not difficult to learn the basics, the on line manuals are readily available and direct. However, when it comes to the more advanced features there are no consistent instructions. Luckily, some of my students are hooked on prezis and can mentor me. I would like to invite editors to help, if anyone is interested.

[|prezi on personal learning environment] By Simone Nieuwolt

Lovely Prezi on PLNs, Simone! Ellen

GlogsterEDU I created an account last week and played with this application. Glogster allows you to create a virtual poster, with the usual titles, text and images, however you can also embed links to other websites, videos, etc. Educators can sign up for free accounts for themselves and their students. A welcome change from the classic bristle board version, and you can upload links to or embed posters! My simple Toronto By Book poster - all images and the map are linked to other sites Ellen Douglas

del.icio.us This is a social bookmarking site. Create an account, add the bookmarking applets to your bookmark bar, and then start bookmarking the great websites you stumble across. Add tags to sort those bookmarks. You can share your bookmarks with others, or make them private. You can search del.icio.us (I hate typing that) and see sites what other people tagged Try searching for bookmarks tagged at Graphic Organizers! Use del.icio.us and you'll never sit at a school or library or friend's computer and wish you could access the bookmarks you created on your own computer, because you can access your del.icio.us account from anywhere Ellen Douglas

This site has a link directly from the school library web site under Web. 2.0 Tools. This web site allows students to create comics and characters online. They are able to work at school or at home. I created an account for several classes. Once students have created their comics they can be shared by all classes. Each student began by creating an avatar and then several characters. The comics that students are creating relate to the pathways that the senior, junior and primary divisions are working on. Students are excited because the program is easy enough for grade ones, yet just as interesting for the grade four to eight students. Click here to see a sample for a Special Education grade seven student who based his comic on __Diary of a Wimpy Kid.__ Eva Wills
 * __Bitstrips For Schools__**

Loved the example, Eva! I'm going to have to take a look at this! Ellen

__**Wall Wisher and Survey Monkey**__ Gloria used Wall Wisher at our Interdisciplinary Studies session. Although it is on the elementary site, I think it would make a great resource for secondary students as well. It's an online bulletin board where you can place "post-it" like notes that are accessible to everyone ;who accesses your "customized" board. I don't know if I'll actually get to use it before our next session, but I've already spoken to a couple of teachers who would like to use it in group assignments, so that students can share info relating to their project in a different way other than e-mailing each other. Because each "note" has a limited number of characters, it's also quick. It's really easy to use. Another application I'm looking at is for brainstorming. Also, because you can be anonymous, it would be great for getting feedback or reflections from students and staff. Our students do a lot of surveys, so I'm going to see if teachers are interested in using survey monkey. I think it will work well as a "green alternative" to the traditional paper survey and that the students will enjoy doing surveys in this format. I will also be using Glogster - as we all know students are always required to do multiple posters and aside from the "enjoyment" and other reasons for using this technology - I'm sick of picking up the little bits of garbage they leave behind when they put their posters together in the library. Also, maybe I won't lose as many gluesticks and pairs of scissors that I loan them. Karen Smulevitch

SurveyMonkey is terrific. The only drawback is the 10-question limit. Sometimes I have to make a part A and a part B. You can post a Word doc in the pickup folder on a school computer, with the survey hyperlinked to it for ease of student access. Ellen

Wordles by Julie Martin

Re: Survey Monkey. It is so worth the $200.00 to get a membership. Then everyone in the school can make surveys without the 10 question limit. Gloria

**Easy Web Creation with Wix**
[|http://www.wix.com]//From Brian Easton//

This site makes it easy to create your own Web site. Simply create an account and select one of the free templates to use. It is incredibly easy to use. When you want to place pictures on your Web site, wix will automatically go to your hard drive. Creative students who do not want to use the templates can make a site from scratch with the clip art that is included. Students can also add sound. This would be ideal in academic schools to post essays with pictures or for a variety of other inquiry based projects. The sample linked below was created from scratch by a student, who created this wix webpage for a Spanish class that was creating children's stories.

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Audacity With Free Play Music or U jam From Brian Easton
Many librarians are now making podcasts with students. Musical introductions, or even having music throughout the podcast can be very effective. Free play music has an incredible array of copyright free music that is there for the taking. There are a variety of different styles of music and you can select short samples to listen to and then download the clip as an mp3 file. It is really easy to import this file to Audacity.

U jam is new and you can create your own tune just by singing or humming a short clip and then use the program's features to completely augment or change the sound of your voice. Create an account and give it a try, it is incredibly addictive and fun. I just made a dance version of the Beatles, Strawberry Fields Forever. Shy students can change their voice so that it sounds like an instrument and the files can be exported as an mp3 and then imported to to Audacity. Audacity and wix above make fantastic unit or final culminating assignments in just 2-4 classes. Audacity is free wear that can be loaded on to your school computers by using ehd. For ujam ask the help desk to install flash veersion 10.

[|http://www.ujam.com]

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