EST430

"Evernote is a wonderful program which I use every day. At a simple level, it lets you store notes about anything that you choose. These are all synced so that you can access them using the PC / Mac / iPhone / iPad / Android / Blackberry (and other) versions of the software, as well as via the Evernote website itself. Having the notes available everywhere is a fantastic feature and it means that you should always have access to whatever you have stored within Evernote. Evernote has a wide range of potential uses for teachers, so I thought that I would share some of the ways that I use it as part of my own work, both in and outside of the classroom:"

I love Evernote and here's ten more good reasons why you should consider using it too.

"I recently worked on a book with Bill Ferriter and Jason Ramsden entitled Essentials for Principals: Communicating & Connecting With Social Media. As I was working on the professional development section I delved into the topic of Personal Learning Networks (PLN's). Now I fully realize that the majority of educators immersed in social media understand the importance of a PLN and how to establish one. Well, this post is not for you, but instead for a teacher or administrator that you work with that needs either a a little push to set one up or further explanation on it's value."

Still more ideas on the importance of networking and how to develop one.

"Do you ever Google yourself? If you don't, why not? If you do, what do you see? If something about you does not come up on the first page, something is wrong. Your learning community needs to know what you believe is important. Your voice and ideas need to be read and heard! If you are not blogging or putting out a digital newsletter on your school or district website, you are missing golden opportunity to communicate with staff, parents, students, and the stakeholders of your community. Most students and parents are using digital media to communicate with friends and family using websites like Facebook or Google +. If you or your school community are not using these digital mediums to communicate your story, you are missing out, and what is worse, people may be telling your story for you and you might not like their version! As a leader, you have to plug yourself into these networks, to build your school's brand, to keep your stakeholders informed, and to model good communication for your staff. "

More reasoned argument from a principal why it's important to be connected as an educator.

"Tomorrow morning, I'll make a presentation at 7:30 in the morning to get our district technology camp started. My topic is "Building your Professional Learning Network," and will focus on how professionals can use social media to enhance their skills. As I prepared, I thought a lot about my audience, some dedicated educators from our schools who are facing the constant challenge of doing more with less. My job is to convince those gathered that it is worth their valuable time to create their own digital footprint. After some reflection, here's my 6 point argument:"

A short succinct article that makes a lot of sense.

"As the web becomes more and more inundated with blogs, videos, tweets, status updates, news, articles, and countless other forms of content, "information overload" is something we all seem to suffer. It is becoming more difficult to weed through all the "stuff" out there and pluck out the best, most share-worthy tidbits of information, especially if your topic is niche. Let's face it, Google definitely has its shortcomings when it comes to content curation and the more it tries to cater to all audiences, the less useful it becomes. The demand for timely, relevant content that is specific to our unique interests and perspectives has given rise to a new generation of tools that aim to help individuals and companies curate content from the web and deliver it in a meaningful way. These new tools range from simple, application-specific types such as social media aggregators and discovery engines, to more complex, full-blown publishing solutions for organizations."

Just when you thought you were getting a handle on all this stuff eh?

Little Bird Tales is a great online site, (similar to photostory), for creating digital stories that can be embedded into your site all you need do is "Step 1 Create or upload your artwork to each page. Step 2 Record your voice and add text to each page. Step 3 Email friends and family your finished book. "

This looks wonderful (and easy!). I've created my account and am going to use it to create a book with my Kindergarten class to share with their families! Thanks John. (Loving Diigo!)

This binder is an attempt to collect and organize Digital Citizenship resources by age (grade level). Often when we think of Digital Citizenship, we only think about the safety aspects of it but being a digital citizen is much more than just being safe. The nine elements of Digital Citizenship as outlined in the book Digital Citizenship in Schools by Mike Ribble and Gerald Bailey are: Digital Etiquette Digital Communication Digital Literacy Digital Access Digital Commerce Digital Law Digital Rights & Responsibilities Digital Health & Wellness Digital Security (self-protection) Source: http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Nine_Elements.html If you would like to collaborate on this binder, please send the email address that you used when signing up with Live Binders to stmcomputers@gmail.com.

This Livebinder is a really comprehensive and up to date, (August 2011) collection of links to Digital Citizenship Resources

"This formula has been proven in my class over the last 6 months. PBL is my favourite thing at the moment, and if you've read my personal blog you'd think I had the words edmodo and PBL tattooed onto my brain. (I don't, I promise!) PBL is a tough nut to crack when you're working for a public school with limited resources and the pressure of external standardised tests breathing down your neck. PBL is hard because it requires quite a lot of planning as well as quite a lot of guts - you need to have faith in yourself as an educator and faith that your students will 'go with' your radicalised view of teaching and learning. Getting your students to work in small groups to complete a project that will be shared with a real-world audience is pretty daunting. But it is made so much easier, and made so much better, thanks to edmodo."

Check out how this Aussie teacher works with her class in Edmodo, especially step 5 the reflections.

"So it's mid-August and for many teachers the new school year has begun and for others it's not too far away. Some of you will be starting at new schools and with that there's a chance that you'll be coming to terms with a new interactive whiteboard. You may already be familiar with whiteboards already, and are just starting at a school with a different brand. Either way, here's a summary of blogposts I've written in the past that hopefully will prove useful to you."

This could be a useful reference for some of you heading to schools.

"Welcome to the ultimate guide to YouTube. Unless you've been living under rock throughout the 'Noughties' YouTube is quite simply the world's largest collection of video content and as an educator it is an amazing resource that you SHOULD NOT be without. I say should because I appreciate that not all teachers can access YouTube at your school for either political or technical reasons. If this is you then please do not give up on this post as much of the information included will apply to using any similar video service such as the now terrible and ridiculously over advertised teachertube. "

"Twitter can be quite addictive but you have to do it the right way to get the most out of it. That's why I wrote The Complete Guide To Twitter some time back and I highly recommend that you read it (no bias there of course!). Twiends has also produced a fantastic infographic showing how to quickly get started with Twitter, from choosing the right username to understanding hashtags and lists."

"Ask a question, make a hypothesis, and observe what happens in this Sesame Street interactive science experiment! Help renowned scientists, Cookie Monster and Emma, investigate what sinks in water and what floats in water! Experiment with a rubber band ball, a lime and lemon, Ernie's rubber duckie, and a coconut. Start the experiment here! Will Bert's underpants sink or float? Go to http://www.sesamestreet.org/sinkorfloat for the full interactive experiment and find out."

Check out this really neat use of hot spots in YouTube movies to make interactive movies

"Over the last few months, Facebook has launched several initiatives and features to help you keep your account and data secure. Back in May, the company revealed it was switching over to the secure HTTPS protocol and announced details of its login approvals feature. Facebook has also teamed up with Web of Trust to help protect you from scam websites and recently added its social reporting tool to its mobile website. In addition, the company has launched a bug bounty program that rewards security researchers for finding flaws in the social network's security systems. To help you understand the social network's security features and how to protect your account, a Guide To Facebook Security has been launched. The guide, which you can download from Facebook, is 14 pages long and offers all kinds of tips on how to protect your account, including how to spot and avoid scam apps and clickjacking."

"A new research project by the Open University explores the much-debated concept of "the digital native". The university does this by making full use of the rich resource which is its own highly diverse student body. It concludes that while there are clear differences between older people and younger in their use of technology, there's no evidence of a clear break between two separate populations."

This is important research that all educators need to take account of.

"A quiet revolution has taken place in recent months, as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and other internet gatekeepers have revised their search algorithms in an attempt to bring users more personalized information. This subtle shift has enormous implications for students, researchers, and society at large, experts say. When web surfers use Google or Bing to look for information about, say, the national debt, the search results they now see at the top of the page might differ from those of their neighbor. That's because all the major search engines have revamped their formulas to include social media data as key indicators of a website's importance."

Here is a website I found produced by the Australian Communications and Media Authority. Cybersmart is full of activities and resources to help kids of all ages as well as parents be safe when using the internet.

Russell Stannard creates video tutorial series related to a number of tools including Wall Wisher, Voicethread, Fotobabble and lots more.

I looked a voicethread. I like the idea, but as an educator, and one that will probably work in the public system, having to pay for resources isn't always an option. I think I'll stick to trying to find a free version!

An article from the Age related to the iPad trial in DEECD schools.

"What is Vrroom, an ever-growing set of records from the National Archives collection, for anyone learning to use archival records. A tool for 20th-century Australian History, Civics & Citizenship and more - see curriculum connections rich in learning content developed in partnership with the Curriculum Corporation through The Learning Federation"