Diigo highlighting tool allows the teacher or
student to highlight in an article or a web page
The key concepts or vocabulary words could be
highlighted to check for understanding.
Some students have problems determining what
should be highlighted in an article or passage. Teachers could use this tool to
demonstrate how to correctly highlight and find the key points.
About diigo.com
page
Details and Tags
Print
Download PDF
Backlinks
Source
Delete
Rename
Redirect
Permissions
Lock
discussion
history
notify me Protected
Details
last edit by cmh459 Sunday, 7:53 pm - 36 revisions
Tags
none
About diigo.comDiigo or
Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff is a social bookmarking
site that allows its users to bookmark and tag websites. Users are also able to
highlight information and put sticky notes directly on the webpage as you are
reading it. Your notes can be public which allows other users to view and
comment on your notes and add their own or it can be private. Sites can be saved
and stored for later reading and commenting. Users can also join groups with
similar interests and follow specific people and sites. Teachers can register for an educator account that allows
a teacher to create accounts for an entire class. In an education account,
students are automatically set up as a Diigo group which allows for easy sharing
of documents, pictures, videos, and articles with only your class group. There
are also pre-set privacy settings so only the teacher and classmates can see the
bookmarks and communications. This is a great way to ensure that your students
and their comments are kept private from the rest of the Internet community.
Diigo is a great tool for teachers to use to have students interact with
material and to share that interaction with classmates.
Best Practices for using Diigo tools
Tagging
Tool
Teachers or students can tag a website that
they want to bookmark for future reference.
Teachers can research websites or articles that
they want their students to view on a certain topic and tag them for the
students. This tool is nice when
researching a certain topic. The teacher can tag the websites that the students
should use eliminating the extra time of searching for the sites that would be
useful and appropriate for the project.Highlighting Tool
Diigo
highlighting tool allows the teacher or
student to
highlight in an article or a web page
.
1The key
concepts or vocabulary words could be
highlighted
to check for understanding.
Some students have problems determining
what
should be highlighted in an article or passage.
Teachers could use this tool to
demonstrate
how to correctly highlight and find the key points.
Sticky Notes
Tool
The sticky note tool is a great addition to the
tools of diigo. Students may add sticky notes to a passage as they are reading
it. The sticky notes could be used to make notes or ask questions by the
students.
Teachers could postition the sticky notes in
the passage for students to respond to various ideas as they are reading.
Students could use sticky notes to peer edit
and make comments on other student's work through Google docs.
These are just a few ideas of how to
apply the diigo tools to your teaching practices. Both students and teachers
benefit form using these tools. The variety of uses or practices give both
groups a hands on way of dealing with text while making it more efficient.
Bookmark/Snapsho
islt9440 - Group 7: Diigo for Education
guest · Join · Help
· Sign In ·
Join
this Wiki
Recent Changes
Manage Wiki
Group 7 Project HomeDiigo RSS FeedsSample Lesson Plans
Social Studies
Spanish
Math
(Functions)
Math (Geometry)
Collaboration Pages
Collaboration Home
Job Assignments
Project Info
Lesson Plan Ideas
About
diigo.com
page
Details and Tags
Print
Download PDF
Backlinks
Source
Delete
Rename
Redirect
Permissions
Lock
discussion
history
notify
me
Protected
Details
last edit by
cmh459
Sunday,
7:53 pm
-
36
revisions
Tags
none
About
diigo.com
Diigo or
Digest of
Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff is a social bookmarking
site
that allows its users to bookmark and tag websites. Users are also able
to
highlight information and put sticky notes
directly on the webpage as you are
reading it.
Your notes can be public which allows other users to view and
comment on
your notes and add their own or it can be private. Sites can be saved
and
stored for later reading and commenting. Users can also join groups with
si
Diigo or Digest of Internet Information, Groups and
Other stuff is a social bookmarking site that allows its users to bookmark
and tag websites
Diigo highlighting tool allows the teacher or
student to highlight in an article or a web page.
The key concepts or vocabulary words could be
highlighted to check for understanding
Diigo highlighting tool allows the teacher
or
student to highlight in an article or a web
page.
The key concepts
or vocabulary words could be
highlighted
to check for understanding
Diigo highlighting tool allows the teacher or
student to highlight in an article or a web page.
The key concepts or vocabulary words could be
highlighted to check for understanding.
Some students have problems determining what
should be highlighted in an article or passage. Teachers could use this tool to
demonstrate how to correctly highlight and find the key points.
Diigo highlighting tool allows the teacher
or
student to highlight in an article or a web
page.
Teachers or students can tag a website that
they want to bookmark for future reference.
Teachers can research websites or articles that
they want their students to view on a certain topic and tag them for the
students.This tool is nice when
researching a certain topic. The teacher can tag the websites that the students
should use eliminating the extra time of searching for the sites that would be
useful and appropriate for the project.
The sticky note tool is a great addition to the tools of diigo. Students may add sticky notes to a passage as they are reading it. The sticky notes could be used to make notes or ask questions by the students.Teachers could postition the sticky notes in the passage for students to respond to various ideas as they are reading.Students could use sticky notes to peer edit and make comments on other student's work through Google docs.
Early EFL: Leahn is located in Spain, where she works as a freelance language assistant teacher and as a teacher trainer in workshops for primary and secondary school teachers.
Box of Chocolates: Join this EFL teacher from Recife, Brazil, who is very passionate about teaching
Neslihan Durmusoglu: This blog reflects on the world of EFL and about being a 21st-century learner and teacher.
Reflections of a Teacher and Learner: David teaches kids at a private college in Turkey and he also is a distance student on the University of Manchester’s MA in EdTech & TESOL programme
An A-Z of ELT: This blog is managed by the man who wrote An A-Z of ELT in 2006, Scott Thornbury.
Authentic Teaching: This blogger has taught EFL in Brazil, and taught ELT for several years as well. He now is earning an MA in Education in London
Jeremy Harmer’s Blog: Jeremy is a writer and teacher/teacher-trainer for English to speakers of other languages, and he blogs about presentation.
Marisa Constantinides — TEFL Matters: This blogger runs CELT Athens, a teacher development center based in Greece.
Shaun Wilden’s Blog: Shaun has been involved in English language teaching for almost twenty years. He also maintains several online teaching sites including ihonlinetraining.net.
So this is English… This blog is filled with ideas, thoughts, discoveries, feedback and more about the teaching and learning of English.
Teaching Village: Barbara is an English teacher currently living in Kitakyushu, Japan, and using Web 2.0 tools and virtual worlds.
Technology and teaching - two words that seem to fit together perfectly today for most teachers and learners. So much so that a slew of new blogs have come on board to talk about education technology - or, edTech. This list of the 50 best education technology blogs are not inclusive, as there are so many new blogs available; however, if you look at links provided by many of these blogs to other edTech blogs, you may learn about even more blog that you aren't reading yet.
Since it is through communication
that we exercise our political, economic and social power, we risk contributing
to the hegemonic perpetuation of class if we fail to demand equal access to
newer technologies and adequately prepared teachers for all students
They can benefit
their students by developing and then teaching their students to develop expertise
in evaluation of search engines and critical analysis of Web site credibility.
Well-prepared teachers, with a deep and broad understanding of language, linguistics,
literature, rhetoric, writing, speaking, and listening, can complement those
talents by studying additional semiotic systems that don’t rely solely
on alphabetic texts.
Not only will teachers need to understand
“fair use” policies, they are likely to need to integrate units
on ethics back into the curriculum to complement those units on rhetoric.
Students should be counseled not only on the risks to their
physical safety, but also on the ways that the texts they are composing today,
and believe they have eliminated, often have lives beyond their computers, and
may reappear in the future at a most inopportune time.
learn methods of critically analyzing
the ways in which others are using multiple semiotic systems to convince them
to participate, to buy, to believe, and to resist a wide range of appeals
It also implies the process of uncovering one’s
own cultural, social, political and personal (e.g. age, gender) backgrounds
and understanding how these backgrounds can and often do influence one’s
own ways of communicating and interacting with others in virtual and face-to-face
encounters.
nstances of anti-social behavior in online communication such
as using hurtful language and discriminating among certain members of virtual
communities have been reported.
allows their members
to construct and act out identities that may not necessarily be their real selves
and thus lose a sense of responsibility toward others
Professional development for teachers and teacher educators must be ongoing,
stressing purposeful integration for the curriculum and content, rather than
merely technical operation. It also needs to provide institutional and instructional
support systems to enable teachers to learn and experiment with new technologies.
Offering release time, coordinating student laptop initiative programs or
providing wireless laptop carts for classroom use, locating computer labs
in accessible places to each teacher, scheduling lab sessions acceptable for
each teacher, and providing alternative scheduling for professional development
sessions so that all teachers can attend, are a few examples of such systems.
Finally, teachers and students must be provided with technical support as
they work with technology. Such assistance must be reliable, on-demand, and
timely for each teacher and student in each classroom.
educators must address plagiarism, ownership, and authorship
in their classrooms.
strategies to
assess the quality of information and writing on the Web
help students develop netiquette
Such netiquette is thus not only about courtesy;
more importantly, it is about tolerance and acceptance of people with diverse
languages, cultures, and worldviews.
Teachers and teacher educators must examine with students the social processes
through which humans grow individually and socially, and they must expose
the potentially negative consequences of one’s individual actions. In
doing so, teachers and educators will be able to reinforce the concept of
learning as a social process, involving negotiation, dialogue, and learning
from each other, and as a thinking process, requiring self-directed learning
as well as critical analysis and synthesis of information in the process of
meaning-making and developing informed perceptions of the world.
" * About Russell Stannard
* ELT/ESL Videos
* Web 2.0/ICT Videos
* Russell's Research
Videos
* 9 Great Spelling Sites for ELT
* Free on-line screen capture tool
* Zimmer Twins-Brilliant Cartoon/Dialogue Tool for Kids
* Word Magnets-Great vocabulary/Grammar Tool
* How to use Survey Monkey
* My favourite Website on the Web
* 5 Simple but brilliant ELT tools
* Great Text Tool called WordSift
* Wolfram Alpha Great Question Making Tool
* Fun Viral Marketing Tools
* Amazing 3D dialogue builder
* 2 amazing presentation tools
* Best Pronunciation Sites
* Best ELT sites 2008
* Great dictation site
* Wordle-Great Vocab Site
* My favourite Listening Site
* 10 vocab sites for kids
* ELT Videos with subtitles
* Brilliant Comic Site
* 7 Great Fun sites for ELT
* Unusual Vocabulary Site
* Really Fun Dialogue Building Tool
* A site for drawing&Recording
* 11 great sites for teaching English
* Recording & Searching Podcasts with Podamatic
* Good sites for ELT Video content
* Review of the best ELT podcasts
* Voicethread- Presentation tool
* Fun drawing tool
Humanising Language Teaching
The Blogs I use most for ELT
* Larry Ferlazzo's blog
* Nik Peachey's blog
* Blog at IH Barcelona
* Ozge's Blog
* Carl's Blog
Newsletter
For extra free materials and training videos, sign up to our monthly newsletter!
Email Address:
Confirm Email Address:
Name:
Organisation/Institution: "
Over 42,000 spelling words with customizable sentences and
definitions
A REAL person who says each word and sentence
Free home pages for teachers and parents to save lists
Teacher
training videos
Free printable handwriting worksheets
Free teaching resources with lists and lesson plans
Twenty-five games to play online or to print such as
Over
Over
42,000
spelling
words with customizable sentences and
definitions
A
REAL
person
who says each word and sentence
Free home pages
for
teachers and parents to save lists
Teacher
training
videos
Free printable
handwriting worksheets
Free teaching
resources
with lists
and lesson plans
Twenty-five games to play online or to print such
as
:Alphabetical
Order, Unscramble, Parts of Speech, HangMouse, Crossword Puzzle, WordSearch, and Vocabulary Test.
A free forum and newsletters
Over
42,000
spelling
words with
customizable sentences and
definitions
A
REAL
person
who says
each word and sentence
Free home pages
for
teachers and parents to save
lists
Teacher
training
videos
Free printable
handwriting worksheets
Free teaching
resources
with
lists
and lesson plans
Twenty-five games to play online or to print
such
as
:
Alphabetical
Order
,
Unscramble
,
Parts of
Speech
,
HangMouse
,
Crossword Puzzle
,
WordSearch
,
and
Vocabulary
Test
.
A free
forum
and
newsletters
SpellingCity.com has:
- Over 42,000 spelling words and ten learning games!
- A REAL person who says each word and sentence.
- Free home pages for teachers and parents to save lists.
- How To Videos to explain to teachers and parents how to use SpellingCity.com.
- A free forum and newsletter with more vocabulary and spelling resources!
- Ten spelling and vocabulary games to play online or to print.
- Free printables for handwriting practice with your saved lists.
- A Resources Section which highlights features and existing lists for Dolch words, compound words, sound-alikes (their, there, they're), contractions, possessives, and more.
After taking the online spelling test, students can print out a report, retake the entire test, or get tested only on spelling words that they got wrong the first time.
TeachMe spells and displays the word in ways that stimulate memory for visual and verbal learners.
Printable Games include WordSearch, UnScramble, WhichWord?, Sentence UnScramble and MissingLetter.
Printable Handwriting Worksheets for combined spelling and handwriting practice can be created from any saved list (this feature only works if the list is saved). Choices includes three sizes of lines, capitals or small letters, script or cursive, and with directional arrows on or off. How cool is that?
All you have to do is type in the list of words and bam! at least 10 games are generated for the students! It also teaches and tests the students on the words. You can save the lists as a teacher and have students search for your lists or you can have students input their own lists without saving them.
A superb resource where teachers can sign in and input spelling lists for pupils to learn by playing games. Give pupils the link and they don't need to sign in to use it. Site only recognises US spelling when generating example sentences, but you can input your own easily. Free option should be enough for most users, but 'paid for' option is available.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English
The Teacher Wall is a virtual town hall that gives teachers an opportunity to talk about the things that are most important to them--from challenges to "A-ha! moments," from lessons learned to job satisfaction, from curriculum to parent engagement. The topics tackled on the Teacher Wall showcase a wide range of voices and provide teachers with a chance to interact and share with one another, all while adding to the conversation on America's schools.
Backed by the Gates Foundation. Go to the site and click on teacher wall to view some of the features before signing up.
If you are fearful of Facebook and MySpace then you need to create an Edmodo account. Edmodo was designed specifically for educational purposes. You must be a teacher, student, or parent to gain access. It allows you all the amenities of those other social networking sites but with a lot more security/privacy.
Yes, it is free and you can manage student accounts. It is only open to those you invite in and only educators may obtain an account. You may monitor and moderate all conversations, administer quizes, embed media, etc. The groups feature is very effective and you may grant access to your group to other classes. We just had 700+ students interacting in a global collaboration project, Digiteen.
Students do not need an email address to use Edmodo, so under 13 is OK for CIPA. It looks much like Facebook, so kids love it and parents need some education on it as they fear it at first. Parents can get monitoring access so they may monitor their child's activity. It is a great tool to show parents how social media is used in education.
Story StartersGrades: PreK–K, 1–2, 3–5, 6–8This interactive tool creates quick writing prompts to help young students delve into creative writing.
Immigration: Stories of Yesterday and TodayGrades: PreK–K, 1–2, 3–5, 6–8Take a tour of Ellis Island, explore an interactive immigration timeline, and meet young immigrants in this online activity!
Science ExplorationsGrades: 3–5, 6–8, 9–12With the help of audio, text, photos, and video, students thoroughly explore six science topics, from the Galapagos Islands to giant squid.Read more >
"Over the last two weeks I've had five occasions to work with teachers to either develop new websites or improve existing websites in Google Sites. Over the course of these workshops I've found that there are five ways that Google Sites are commonly being used in schools.
Before you jump to the list, the shameless promotion department at Free Technology for Teachers would like to mention that you should see Google Sites for Teachers if you need help getting started using Google Sites."
Overview
Three-quarters of AP and NWP teachers say that the internet and digital search tools have had a “mostly positive” impact on their students’ research habits, but 87% say these technologies are creating an “easily distracted generation with short attention spans” and 64% say today’s digital technologies “do more to distract students than to help them academically.”
Overall, the vast majority of these teachers say a top priority in today’s classrooms should be teaching students how to “judge the quality of online information.”
The internet and digital technologies are significantly impacting how students conduct research: 77% of these teachers say the overall impact is “mostly positive,” but they sound many cautionary notes
Teachers and students alike report that for today’s students, “research” means “Googling.” As a result, some teachers report that for their students “doing research” has shifted from a relatively slow process of intellectual curiosity and discovery to a fast-paced, short-term exercise aimed at locating just enough information to complete an assignment.
Second and third on the list of frequently used sources are online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia, and social media sites such as YouTube.
94% of the teachers surveyed say their students are “very likely” to use Google or other online search engines in a typical research assignment, placing it well ahead of all other sources that we asked about
e databases such as EBSCO, JSTOR, or Grolier (17%)
A research librarian at their school or public library (16%)
In response to this trend, many teachers say they shape research assignments to address what they feel can be their students’ overdependence on search engines and online encyclopedias. Nine in ten (90%) direct their students to specific online resources they feel are most appropriate for a particular assignment, and 83% develop research questions or assignments that require students to use a wider variety of sources, both online and offline.
Teachers give students’ research skills modest ratings
Despite viewing the overall impact of today’s digital environment on students’ research habits as “mostly positive,” teachers rate the actual research skills of their students as “good” or “fair” in most cases. Very few teachers rate their students “excellent” on any of the research skills included in the survey. This is notable, given that the majority of the sample teaches Advanced Placement courses to the most academically advanced students.
These research skills relate to the common core literacy standards, and many ratings of students' skills in these areas fell into fair or poor categories.
Overwhelming majorities of these teachers also agree with the assertions that “today’s digital technologies are creating an easily distracted generation with short attention spans” (87%) and “today’s students are too ‘plugged in’ and need more time away from their digital technologies” (86%). Two-thirds (64%) agree with the notion that “today’s digital technologies do more to distract students than to help them academically.”
Recently I read on the oz-teachers mailing list a warning for teachers about using social networking sites unprofessionally. This UK article, suggests that teachers should be cautious of what they post online and check what information is available about them. Teachers are warned that schools are scouring social networking sites and googling potential candidates for school positions.
This warning is not of concern to me. I am very wary about thinking before posting. I use Facebook in a limited way, while using Twitter for entirely professional reasons.
“A teacher needs to be a role model, mentor, and advice giver – not a ‘friend.’” When a high school student gains access into a teacher’s network of friends and acquaintances and is able to view their family photos, for instance, the student-teacher dynamic is altered.
While students may be eager to find and friend their teachers on Facebook, many of them understand the implied rules and boundaries of this virtual environment. “I do understand why my teachers do not want me to add them until I graduate,” says Jegaraj.
sites like Facebook are social environments. Teachers guide students in a professional capacity, and being social doesn’t seem like part of the job description
"In the virtual world, the definition of a student-teacher relationship is hazy, particularly on social networks like Facebook and MySpace, where adults and teens share the same forums to connect and keep in touch with friends, classmates, relatives, and co-workers. Chances are, your teen has already found her teachers on Facebook and sent friend requests to join their networks."
Thank you! This is great information! James McKee wrote: > Shannon, > > I was recently referred to this video of Michael Wesch who teaches cultural anthropology at Kansas State University. He ...
This is a powerful quote. Thinking back to my schooling, it could probably be said that I thought of knowledge as finite, only limited to what my teacher and textbook said.
Too bad it took an economic crises to spur this movement.
“I don’t believe that charters and vouchers are the threat to schools in Orange County,” he said. “What’s a threat is the digital world — that someone’s going to put together brilliant $200 courses in French, in geometry by the best teachers in the world.”
Wow! He is absolutely right on. Why take a course with based on a rigid time and place when one can learn at a place and pace that makes sense to them?
“We believe that the world is going digital, but the jury’s still out on how this will evolve,” said Wendy Spiegel, a Pearson spokeswoman. “We’re agnostic, so we’ll provide digital, we’ll provide print, and we’ll see what our customers want.”
This is where I think textbooks companies need to lead. Customers typically only want more of the same, more of what has worked in the past, more of what has a track record. They dont' necessarily think beyond and/or have the luxury of being visionaries.
At Empire High School in Vail, Ariz., students use computers provided by the school to get their lessons, do their homework and hear podcasts of their teachers' science lectures.
Down the road, at Cienega High School, students who own laptops can register for "digital sections" of several English, history and science classes. And throughout the district, a Beyond Textbooks initiative encourages teachers to create - and share - lessons that incorporate their own PowerPoint presentations, along with videos and research materials they find by sifting through reliable Internet sites.
7/9/2009Google Apps Tips, Tricks and Even Lesson PlansWant to
learn the best ways to use Google Apps in your classroom? Visit our new Education Community Site, where you can
learn tips and tricks on using Gmail, Calendar, Docs and Sites, join our
education forum and read news all about Google Apps. Or check out
standardized lesson plans at the new Google Apps
Resource Center - for classroom use of our tools across K-12.
7/9/2009Sites for TeachersCheck
out the new Sites
for Teachers page to see how teachers, students and administrators are using
Google Sites to create their class sites, organize school trips, and run school
projects.
7/9/2009Books, Books,
BooksGoogle has reached an agreement with authors and
publishers that will make millions of books more accessible in the U.S.
You can view full pages from and purchase complete access to millions of
in-copyright, out-of-print books or your school can purchase institutional
subscriptions to offer your students and teachers complete access to millions of
books.
At Google, we support teachers in their efforts to empower students and expand
the frontiers of human knowledge. That’s why we’ve assembled the information and
tools you’ll find on this
"Conversation is
key
. Sawyer succinctly
explains this principle: "Conversation leads to flow, and flow leads to
creativity." When having students work in groups, consider what will spark rich
conversation. The original researcher on flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, found
that rich conversation precedes and ignites flow more than any other
activity.1 Tasks that require (or force) interaction
lead to richer collaborative conceptualization.
Set a clear but
open-ended goal
.
Groups produce the richest ideas when they have a goal that will focus their
interaction but also has fluid enough boundaries to allow for creativity. This
is a challenge we often overlook. As teachers, we often have an idea of what a
group's final product should look like (or sound like, or…). If we put
students into groups to produce a predetermined outcome, we prevent creative
thinking from finding an entry point.
Try not announcing time
limits.
As teachers we
often use a time limit as a "motivator" that we hope will keep group work
focused. In reality, this may be a major detractor from quality group work.
Deadlines, according to Sawyer, tend to impede flow and produce lower quality
results. Groups produce their best work in low-pressure situations. Without a
need to "keep one eye on the clock," the group's focus can be fully given to the
task.
Do not appoint a group
"leader."
In research
studies, supervisors, or group leaders, tend to subvert flow unless they participate as an
equal, listening and
allowing the group's thoughts and decisions to guide the
interaction.
Keep it
small.
Groups with the
minimum number of members that are needed to accomplish a task are more
efficient and effective.
Consider weaving
together individual and group work.
For additive tasks-tasks in whicha group is
expectedtoproduce a list, adding one idea to another-research suggests that
better results develop
the tools, and add notes.
Register Now
Learn how to implement instructional resources that support the use of formative assessments in the secondary math classroom, as well as design your own literacy template tasks that create high-quality and engaging student assignments.
The EduCore platform is specifically dedicated to providing secondary teachers with high-quality teaching and learning resources aligned to the Common Core. The Math and Literacy Tools on this site have been designed with you, the teacher, and your students in mind.
Strong Student-Teacher Relationships
Within the Common Core, students and teachers become partners in the teaching and learning process.
123
Despite their spectacular growth in both daily life and mainstream education, little research to date has been conducted concerning the use of social networking sites in foreign language learning. The aim of this study, therefore, is to examine the use of such sites to learn a foreign language. Using an auto-ethnographic approach that included self-aware participation, learner diaries and peer debriefing, we investigated the social networking site Livemocha to study Korean from our perspectives as native speakers and experienced teachers of English. Specifically, we focused our questions on aspects of socio-collaborative principles and practice. Results of a grounded, thematic analysis indicate that the site had number of counter-productive pedagogical impediments to language learning that included, for example, flaws in site design. We conclude our paper with suggestions for improved foreign language learning through social networking sites.
Share My Lesson is a place where educators can come together to create and share their very best teaching resources. Developed by teachers for teachers, this free platform gives access to high-quality teaching resources and provides an online community where teachers can collaborate with, encourage and inspire each other.
This site is sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers, but all teachers may register to use the free resources or contribute lessons to the site.
Feed readers
are probably the most important digital tool for today's learner because they
make sifting through the amazing amount of content added to the Internet
easy. Also known as aggregators, feed readers are free tools that can
automatically check nearly any website for new content dozens of times a
day---saving ridiculous amounts of time and customizing learning experiences for
anyone.
Imagine
never having to go hunting for new information from your favorite sources
again. Learning goes from a frustrating search through thousands of
marginal links written by questionable characters to quickly browsing the
thoughts of writers that you trust, respect and enjoy.
Feed readers can
quickly and easily support blogging in the classroom, allowing teachers to
provide students with ready access to age-appropriate sites of interest that are
connected to the curriculum. By collecting sites in advance and organizing
them with a feed reader, teachers can make accessing information manageable for
their students.
Here are several
examples of feed readers in action:
Used specifically as
a part of one classroom project, this feed list contains information related to
global warming that students can use as a starting point for individual
research.
While there are literally dozens of different feed reader
programs to choose from (Bloglines andGoogle Reader are two
biggies), Pageflakes is a favorite of
many educators because it has a visual layout that is easy to read and
interesting to look at. It is also free and web-based. That
means that users can check accounts from any computer with an Internet
connection. Finally, Pageflakes makes it quick and easy to add new
websites to a growing feed list—and to get rid of any websites that users are no
longer interested in.
What's even
better: Pageflakes has been developinga teacher version of their tooljust for us that includes an online grade tracker,
a task list and a built in writing tutor. As Pageflakes works to perfect
its teacher product, this might become one of the first kid-friendly feed
readers on the market. Teacher Pageflakes users can actually blog and create a
discussion forum directly in their feed reader---making an all-in-one digital
home for students.
For more
information about the teacher version of Pageflakes, check out this
review: