Emerging Technology Tools in the English Classroom

This article from the Interdisciplinary Journel of E-Learning and Learning Objects describes social bookmarking and discusses Diigo and the way it can be used as a facilitator of learning and as an enhancement for collaborative research. 

A blog post from August 20, 2012 that discusses the value of RSS feeds for providing a never ending source of reading material based on interests and enjoyment. In a very short time, students can create their own free, individualized collections of reading material.  That kind of access contributes to many students achieving a higher level of knowledge than would have be possible otherwise. Another side effect of using RSS feeds is that students might be encouraged to write more blog posts themselves, and interact with other students' posts.

Apparently created by educational technology masters students, this Google Site draws lots of information together about the educational applications of Diigo.

A blog post hat makes you think about the purpose of using software like Animoto. The title is, "Digital Storytelling and Animoto are Mutually Exclusive." A lively set of comments follows the articles as readers discuss the potential value of asking students to create Animoto movies.

Dr. Steve Yuen describes what can be done with Diigo.

Though this post is written for college students ready to take the GRE as a part of what is required for graduate college admission, what the author says here applies to younger students as well. Establish a reading habit, and you'll develop higher comprehension skills over time. Some of the suggested RSS feeds are suitable for high school students, but a teacher would want to develop his or her own list of suitable RSS feeds from which students could select according to their own individual needs and interests.

A great lesson idea from readwritethink. Students predict the content of a post by reading the "advertisement" for that post in an RSS feed. After making predictions, students write those in a T-chart. Then they read the blog post and figure out if predictions were right. They use the other side of the t-chart to indicate whether their predictions were accurate or not.  If students were inaccurate, ask them to explain their thinking Why was their prediction inaccurate? What would have helped them to make an accurate prediction?

Another interesting lesson in Readwritethink. Students create a persuasive podcast.

"Annotations are encouraging the students to speak their mind more about the poetry - a fantastic plus."

Use Animoto to upload your pictures or photos and add an audio track if desired. Animoto adds interesting transitions and special effects. Teachers can request free educational accounts which include some premium features and the ability to add up to 50 accounts for students. This article describes Animoto and some other video tools that could be used by students as they develop videos and showcase text.

Written in 2004, this article discusses the idea of requiring students to submit work through blogs that are available to the public, and why that method can be of benefit to growth of students as writers.

Studentpublishing.com Free accounts for teachers and their students. Create Internet individual storybooks, classbooks.

A description of how Animoto was used for a student poetry lesson, with some examples to enjjoy.

A source of ideas for using Animoto with students in a way that supports learning.

Ideas for using Animoto with students.

Participate in projects using Skype. Teachers join and look for experts in particular subjects, and join various projects. 

Describes 50 ways that Skype can be used in the classroom.