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"Video: The Amazing Youtube Choir Social media continues to amaze me. I believe a new online collaborative art form has emerged in which several people contribute to create a masterpiece. This virtual choir conducted by Eric Whitacre and produced by Scott Haines will show you what I mean by a collaborative masterpiece. Read the rest of the story of how this was created here. You may also want to see the collaborative video masterpiece my PLN has helped me create. This video was tweeted by @larryferlazzo."

"Freeware. Lightweight. No nags. doPDF is a free PDF converter for both personal and commercial use. Using doPDF you can create PDF files by selecting the "Print" command from virtually any application. With one click you can convert your Microsoft Excel, Word or PowerPoint documents or your emails and favorite web sites to PDF files. "

"Cheating, and specifically the time-honored act of plagiarism, has been receiving a good deal of attention in education circles of late. The rise of the Internet as a virtual paper mill has tuned educators in to the fact that students, when given the chance, will often resort to dishonest measures in order to get high marks in a course. Many of my colleagues have reacted very strongly to the rise of Internet cheating. Some have strengthened their policies on the matter, others have added new paragraphs to their syllabi addressing the issue directly, and still others have been spending hours online trying to find any paper they believe to be pilfered from a source other than the student's brain."

"Students are so emerged with technology, sometimes they act as the educators, showing their teachers how to do certain things and use certain tools. This video asks the simple question of if we are paying attention to the way our students learn. Besides being a visual, spatial or audio learner, most students fall under the category of "digital learners." With fascinating facts like the 10,000 hours college graduates have spent playing video games and the 70% of our nation's 4-6 year olds that have used a computer; it is no wonder why students are being classified as digital learners. The video also asks if we as teachers are reaching our students. Are we engaging them? The technologies that students are using so much in their everyday lives should be infused into the classrooms so that we do reach our students and so that we do engage them. Blogs, wikis, podcasts, virtual tours. These are just a few of the dozens of items presented in the video that offer a new way to use technology with our students. It brings up a great point that since our students already know how to use these technologies, we should be using them to teach. Even recent graduates who are no longer in school encourage the idea of using technology to engage students, not enrage them. Podcasts are another great option to teaching. With thousands available in almost any subject, you can teach students without having to stand up and lecture them. This video offers great advice and inspiration for engaging digital learners today."

"Kevin Honeycutt watched as a group of students at the Turning Point Learning Center, a K-8 charter school in Emporia, KS, took turns with an iPad, rocking out on a virtual guitar as they rehearsed for an upcoming spring concert."

The Blue Ridge Virtual Governor's School will create a collaborative learning community for academically motivated high school students that emphasizes service, leadership and the development of skills necessary for success in the 21st century, with an instructional focus on Math, Science and Technology.

Why? Because tomorrow will take students to places - real and virtual - we've never been. Because tomorrow they will perform jobs that don't exist today. Because tomorrow belongs to them. Iowa must look ahead to provide what's best for students, not back at how things used to be. That is why Iowa Future is promoting the need for innovation in education, sharing ideas from across the state and nation, and highlighting the work underway to prepare for the future, to help all students realize success and possess the knowledge and skills to be ready for tomorrow, not yesterday.

Scholastic, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and DonorsChoose.org bring you the Teacher Wall - a virtual teacher town square where America's educators can share their stories, knowledge, and ideas on our nation's schools. The Teacher Wall provides teachers with an opportunity to talk about what's important to them. From challenges to A-ha! moments, from professional development to job satisfaction, from curriculum to parent engagement - the topics tackled on the Wall showcase a wide range of voices and provide teachers with a chance to interact, share, and learn from one another, all while contributing to the conversation on American education.

Educators are encouraged to use this site allowing for students to take on the role of an engineer and develop their own virtual city.

This virtual interactive 3D figure of the human body blows away Google's creation.  It is a must see!

"Quest2Teach is a series of game-infused 3D virtual learning curricula designed for teacher education that is unified by a social-professional network. These immersive experiences provide authentic and individualized practice for future teachers that bridges theory and practice. Quest2Teach is the first of its kind in teacher education and was created at ASU's Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College through a unique collaboration between our Center for Games & Impact and partner game-design studio, E-Line Media."

Discover exhibits and collections from museums and archives all around the world. Explore cultural treasures in extraordinary detail, from hidden gems to masterpieces.

Get your students blogging. Create a virtual classroom and BlogPortal. Instant use, hosted, free. Great for teachers * Host and manage blogs for your students * Use a Class Homepage to communicate with students * Reviewing capabilities of entries * Advanced privacy see all features Ideal for students * Fully featured blogs to upload text, photos, or insert videos * Fun learning experience * Customizable visibility and comment settings * No e-mail address required see all features

VERY, VERY Cool. And Fun

Planet Quest Alien Safari is a great interactive site for kids. It lets you go on an adventure by exploring different "life zones" around the world. By visiting these, you will find all different types of organisms that are living on our planet. Students get to learn about what the organisms reveal about finding life in space. So, they will learn which can survive without sunlight, which have a high radiation dose, the most acidic and the ones that live the furthest underground, for example. By clicking on a life zone on the 3D Earth, you can watch a video introduction to that organism. This website is a great classroom and research tool. You can use it to simply explore all the things around you, or use it as a starter for deeper learning and researching on a specific subject or topic. Students can really get creative by writing stories and other works of writing based on the subjects and organisms they have been learning about. This site is a great tool to use in the classroom on an interactive whiteboard. With the music and interactive nature of the site, the whole class can get involved with learning about the various organisms. Go on a safari without leaving the room!