Twitter conversation for #CDL_MOOCed

Effective coaching thrives not on quick fixes and ready answers, but on questioning and listening.

Sometimes teachers and administrators need a kick in the pants to see what they perceive as problems re-framed in a different way. Adam S. Bellow, author of The Tech Commandments, and founder of eduTecher, spoke to a roomful of receptive teachers at the recent ISTE 2011 conference, and demonstrated some of the ironies and contradictions the education system is mired in. And he had some advice.

3x3Links enhances the speed-dial experience known from Opera, Chrome and the Firefox extension by allowing you to take your start page with you, organize it your way and to use high-speed keyboard shortcuts. As a bonus, it can store up to 729 links by using folders, display website logos instead of thumbnails, and performs really fast by using the new HTML5 LocalCache feature.

The International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education (IJMCE) publishes cutting edge research and substantial in-process reports and theoretical accounts of mentoring and coaching in educational contexts, including schools, colleges and universities. IJMCE provides overviews of how mentoring and coaching are evolving as well as circulating critical engagement with theoretical and practical issues. It enables insights into variations in mentoring and coaching on a global platform, evidencing their situated nature and generic characteristics as well as reporting on emerging issues in mentoring and coaching theory and practice. This unique journal highlights what is recognised as effective practice in specific contexts, as well as evidencing why this is so and discussing possible transferability to other contexts.  IJMCE regularly features informed reviews of mentoring and coaching publications and provides conference reports from events that have global significance.

A great listing of Professional Organizations for Educators

Search by newspaper title, language, or address and get a map of the world with pinpoints for each newspaper. Awesome for finding newspapers from different countries and in different languages.

The Teacher Challenge is made up of free 30 day professional development challenges where participants are stepped through weekly tasks that increase their skills while working together as part of a global community. The Challenge is open to anyone who wants to increase their skills - blogs will be used for reflecting your progress while learning and connecting with each other. We've observed success of any use of online technology is strongly related to the teacher's abilities. The greater we support and increase a teacher's skills, the better they are able to support their students use of web 2.0 technologies.

"The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) illustrates how teachers can use technology to enhance learning for K-12 students. The TIM incorporates five interdependent characteristics of meaningful learning environments: active, constructive, goal directed (i.e., reflective), authentic, and collaborative (Jonassen, Howland, Moore, & Marra, 2003). The TIM associates five levels of technology integration (i.e., entry, adoption, adaptation, infusion, and transformation) with each of the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments. Together, the five levels of technology integration and the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments create a matrix of 25 cells as illustrated below. "

"With Myfakewall.com you can easily create fake profile pages just for fun. This fake facebook wall generator allows you to create a funny profile to entertain your friends. Create it, and share it on Facebook !"

A Timeline tells a story - of a major historical event, of last night's big game, of your life - in an exciting visual way, using pictures taken by the world's top photographers. (And you, too!) Browse Time's timelines, other people's creations, or create your own!

"Becoming accustomed as a coach to not having your own classroom or your own students was probably challenging. I am sure, however, you quickly engaged in conversations with your colleagues about offering to demonstrate or co-teach some lessons to those teachers willing to share their students with you. Although alien at first, I'll bet it was very rewarding to work with students again and feel that great "high" that a teacher feels when the lesson worked well. "

"ClassJump.com provides teachers web sites free of charge, where multiple classes can be managed and updated using an easy to understand interface. No knowledge of web site programming is needed to get your class or classes set up and quickly providing up-to-date information for your students and parents. "

Voisse has three core features at its heart - Record, keep and share. 1. Record Voisse allows users to record any audio (or sound) they choose in whatever way they want - on-line using any modern browser, phone by calling a dedicated number or uploading existing recordings. In doing so anyone, from the youngest child to the oldest adult can create recordings (Voisses). 2. Keep The heart of Voisse is a personal store for all your Voisses, called My Voisses. This area is private by default and provides users with a simple method of cataloguing and tagging their Voisses. These Voisses can then easily be grouped together to create fantastic slideshows each with their personal narrations, giving relevance and context and a rich user experience. Slideshows can be viewed on-line through a custom built viewer or downloaded to an iPod device so that they can always be with you and viewed whenever you want. The portable slideshow is in technical terms a podcast. No-one else gives the you the ability to easily create their very own podcasts. There's desktop software that does similar things to Voisse, but it's infinitely more complex and require considerable technical ability. 3. Share A core reason people choose to record audio is to share. Voisse gives you this ability, if you choose, via email or social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Many people have things to say, experience and wisdom to pass on, things which others value. For those who have popular or unique recordings or slideshows, we have created a Marketplace where they can be bought and sold. The Voisse Marketplace offers you a unique area to create and sell your audio content.

"Summer is a time when many of us are thinking about and planning professional development workshops for our schools and for other schools. I've always found that a short 3-5 minute video can be a good introduction to a PD sessions and or make for a nice thought-provoking break during a PD session. Here are seven videos that I think serve those purposes well."