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Happy Digital Citizenship week. As part of connected educators month, this is digital citizenship week. Here is the webpage to help you participate and promote the event.

K12 online presentations for 2009. Our Digiteen, Flat Classroom, and Eracism kids will have live presentations and interactions with K12 online participants.

From MGuhlin: I wrote the following as part of my participation in the Abydos Learning Writing Institute. I'm grateful to the feedback from folks during "clocking" exercises. As you will see, it is my first attempt to address the cognitive tension that exists between paper-oriented publishing approaches to writing workshop and the digital possibilities.

The Implementing One-to-One Laptop Learning in Alberta's Schools resource is available online. This support resource and the accompanying summary document are gudes for implementing a one-to-one program with advice from the participants of the Emerge One-to-One Laptop Learning Initiative.

Featured Post Scholastic's The First Thanksgiving What it is: Scholastic has amazing resources all year long but the interactive on The First Thanksgiving is topnotch!  Students learn about how the Pilgrims reached America, and what daily life was before the First Thanksgiving.  Students can take a tour of the Mayflower, take the virtual journey to America, compare and contrast modern life with when the Pilgrims lived (housing, clothes, food, chores, school, games), and the Thanksgiving feast.  There is a great slideshow and play a webquest feature where kids can learn more about the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag and the famous harvest feast.  The site includes audio for every page and activity.  This is great for younger students. How to integrate Scholastic's The First Thanksgiving into the classroom: The First Thanksgiving is a collection of great activities for students to learn about Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims.  Students can use this site independently as young as first grade because of the audio features on The First Thanksgiving.  The site can be used as a center activity that a few students can explore together, independently in the computer lab setting, or as a whole class with a projector or interactive whiteboard.  The webquest at the end of the activity checks for student understanding with a quiz.  Increase students participation further with some The First Thanksgiving bonus features and extras.  Print out a Thanksgiving Readers theater, door signs, a fact hunt, a vocabulary quiz, and some letters from historical figures.  There are also research and historical fiction journals that students can continue learning with.  These range from a Plymoth Colony research starter to Our America: Colonial period. Tips: Check out Scholastic's Teaching resources for The First Thanksgiving as well as the literature connections that are available. Leave a comment and share how you are using The First Thanksgiving  in your classroom. Read More

Participants in today's Parent Coffee Talk will create a Google Account and sign into Google Reader. A great school blog. Also see: Grade 2 video blog tutorial for parents http://www.mjgds.org/21stcenturylearning/?p=445

Where things get a bit more confusing with PLNs is when we fail to advance beyond those warm fuzzy feelings about being connected to others with more substantive knowledge and action.

Cool Webinar tomorrow - Live Webinar with the Folger Shakespeare Library on Wednesday, March 18 from 8:00 - 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time (5:00pm start Pacific Time, 12 midnight GMT). Our speakers will present and demonstrate methods for teaching Shakespeare using digital media. The educational activities to be presented were developed by trained workshop leaders and teachers during the Folger's Teaching Shakespeare Institutes and sessions. Participants will learn practical and exciting ways they can incorporate Shakespeare's King Lear and other literary works into history, social studies, English, and language arts instruction. I try to understand why we cannot use these as credits - they are free and they are announced a few days a head of time -- but still, they are valuable learning experiences.

My photoblog to keep a record of my participation in the twitter365 and 2009/365

For people who love to make movies on their cell phones. A lot of educators are participating in this network created by Janet English. They send you a prompt and you upload a video from your cell phone.

A virtual drum roll please… We are thrilled to officially open the application process for the Discovery Student Adventures Pilot Program. Join us as we discover more of our incredible planet earth together with adventure trips to Australia, South Africa, and China. In order to participate in this pilot trip, you must be a STAR Discovery Educator. Not only are you able to take part in this once in a lifetime opportunity, each STAR selected will be able to choose four of their students to join them on the adventure! This is at no cost to you or your students! So with no further ado… here's the official wording and post importantly the link to apply.

Call for those to particpiation in the Second Life Community Convention Education

Those doing educational work in Second Life are invited to submit for a poster session in SL. Call for Participation in the Second Life Community Convention Education Track (SLEDcc) Poster Sessions

A new project for kids ages 8-12 that is part of the grassroots effort of some teachers to connect younger classrooms.

A project for ages 8-12 year old has sprung up as part of the grassroots movement of teachers to connect their students and flatten their classrooms. If you are interested in participating, join this wiki, fill out the poll, and take it on!

Young innovators grant.

Young innovators award from HASTAC and the McArthur foundation -- this is targeted to innovators aged 18-25 with original, participator learning projects. (I'm not young but am working on another grant with this organization as well.) Apps are due October 15th so get going!

Free textbooks will be available beginning Jan '09. Not sure what grade levels this will be available to (just college?).

Open source textbooks - this is a movement in that direction.

Interesting tidbit in their press release this week: "Flat World has announced 17 new author titles under contract. Flat World's in-classroom beta test gets underway this week, with 20 participating colleges and universities nationwide." Open Textbooks may be closer -- this model is a more hybridized version. If we had a "wiki to print" tool or technology, then we could literally have grassroots teachers writing and creating textbooks together. This is interesting to follow

Time for K12 online conference proposals: "We are pleased to announce the call for proposals for the third annual "K12 Online Conference" for educators around the world interested in the use of web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice. This year's conference is scheduled for October 20-24 and October 27-31 of 2008, and will include a pre-conference keynote during the week of October 13. The conference theme for 2008 is "Amplifying Possibilities." Participation in the conference (as in the past) is entirely free. Conference materials are published in English and available for worldwide distribution and use under a Creative Commons license. Some changes in the requirements for presentations are being made this year and are detailed below. The deadline for proposal submission is June 23, 2008. Selected presentations will be announced at NECC 2008 in San Antonio, Texas, USA on July 2.

K12 online 2008 call for proposals.

Cool World environment day activities. - June 5th.

World Environment Day - -share what you'redoing -- this is June 5th - it is for New Zealand but it is something I think that others may participate in.