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From Richard Byrne Free Technology for teacher, quoted below:Listen and Read - Non-fiction Read Along Activities Listen and Read is a set of 54 non-fiction stories from Scholastic for K-2 students. The stories are feature pictures and short passages of text that students can read on their own or have read to them by each story's narrator. The collection of stories is divided into eight categories: social studies, science, plants and flowers, environmental stories, civics and government, animals, American history, and community. Applications for Education Listen and Read looks to be a great resource for social studies lessons and reading practice in general. At the end of each book there is a short review of the new words that students were introduced to in the book. Students can hear these words pronounced as many times as they like. Listen and Read books worked on my computer and on my Android tablet. Scholastic implies that the books also work on iPads and IWBs"

Might help create a blended classroom, even when you have to share the blender.  Common sense advise for the real world of underequipped classrooms and stretched thin teachers.

"There are several ways educators can use Awesome Highlighter , here are some suggestions : * Teachers can use it to show students the important parts of a lesson * Teachers share links of Highlighted text of relevant interest with students to save them time * Students can use it to share referencing quotes between each other * They can also use it to gather information for research and classroom project"

I like how Bowen is questioning the use of tech for tech's sake. This further shows how it's not about the technology, but about the teaching.

Study Blue is a website for students to share and collaborate on the creation of study tools. High School and college students can share notes from class, create multi-media flashcards, email, and share calendars using Study Blue. Students can establish study groups or search for study groups already creating on Study Blue.

"Over the course of this event we will be looking at a small range of web based tools that will enable you to create motivating online language learning activities for your students. These can be used either in class or set as homework. You will have the chance to understand how these tools work, find out how to use them with students and be able to try your hand at creating and sharing activities with other teachers. By the end of the event you should have a small 'toolkit' of resources and ideas that will enable you to enhance your lessons though the effective and pedagogically sound use of technology."

Ideas for using technology to increase student interest/engagement

Blog from last year's 6th grade Language Arts class, includes descriptions of projects/activities and student reflection on activities. Lots of information about using Web 2.0 technology in the LA classroom.

tips on how to use blogging with students

"Educators seem to be constantly searching for new activities and ways to use Twitter with their Students. At the same time developers seem to be constantly looking for ways to build on the success of Twitter and develop apps and sites that will extend its functionality and increase its usefulness and usability."

Educators seem to be constantly searching for new activities and ways to use Twitter with their Students. At the same time developers seem to be constantly looking for ways to build on the success of Twitter and develop apps and sites that will extend its functionality and increase its usefulness and usability.

Bill Gates says some surprising things about need for tech in schools!

Poems from more contemporary poets. Includes readings of some poems

"The University of North Carolina Press joins the UNC Office of Information Technology in publishing the Internet Poetry Archive. The archive makes available over a worldwide computer network selected poems from a number of contemporary poets. The goal of the project is to make poetry accessible to new audiences (at little or no cost) and to give teachers and students of poetry new ways of presenting and studying these poets and their texts. "

My students have even told me that they cannot read in school because it is "too distracting" with friends and activities, etc!!! The phones are vibrating, the latest drama unfolds minute by minute--I have decided that half my job it is train them to recognize the proper environment for the proper activity. It is slow going!

I noticed this myself in my second year of college; the way I was reading (especially literature, etc) was changing rapidly as I became more inundated with short-message communication (Facebook, email, texting, etc.). I would even argue that our composition models are changing. I can fire off short bursts of information very quickly (like right now). However, I am finding more often that I may have to actually plan to find a place to read (frightening...?).

Use the time-slider on Etherpad to see students' writing process. Very cool!

Tutorials on tech topics for teachers and students

Collection of tips and curriclum for blogging in the classroom with students.

"Text2Phonetics is a very handy site if you like to use phonemic script with your students. It can take a lot of the hard work out of transcribing text to phonetic symbols. You just paste in a short piece of text, click a button, and it does it for you."

We take it for granted as English language teachers that we need to develop our students' reading skills, but in most cases the nearest our students get to reading online is a printed version of a web page pre selected by their teacher. At best they may actually get to see a pre selected page on the screen of a computer, but is this enough to really develop their digital literacies?