Popplet is a new web app that is like Wallwisher on steroids. You can make an online "bulletin-board" with virtual "post-its" (called "popplets), just like in Wallwisher. And, except for the fact you have to register to use it, Popplet is just as easy and, in some ways, easier to use with a lot more functionality. With Popplet, you search for images and videos on the Web directly within the "popplet" instead of copying and pasting the url address (as you need to do in Wallwisher). You can draw within the "popplet" and it doesn't appear to have an limit on the number of characters you can use. You can connect the "popplets." You can also embed the whole thing.
The Blogs O' Persuasion are a set of blogs devoted to 6th grade student viewpoints on a variety of controversial topics. We are using blogging as the platform for students to share their persuasive writing with other students, teachers, and the world! We would welcome any comments for the students' posts, so please let them know what you think. The skills and knowledge that we are addressing through this project are:
Evaluating websites and other online resources to gather research and data to support their persuasive position on a topic
Collaborating with others and sharing research sources - we used a Google Form to gather sources and posted all the useful links in the Link Library of each blog
Writing persuasively!
Writing in a digital space. We taught the students how to use hypertext as linktribution and as a means of enriching the readers' experience. Some students also learned how to add CC licensed images to their posts and give proper attribution.
Being good digital citizens. We taught the students about using comments appropriately to communicate with their peers about their posts.
Some very cool goals done in an authentic and
in an interesting way.
With that in mind, this is a list of authors who offer free 20-minute Q and A sessions with classes and book clubs that have finished reading one of their books. As an author, I offer free Skype chats for the following titles:
Let me know what you think!
This year, we would like to find even more primary sources in every country that our learners choose to investigate. Rather than a formal class structure, it would be great to see them in small groups talking via Skype to as many people as possible. We'd love to have them engaging with students in other countries and continuing to connect with them after the initial interviews. It would be great to see them work collaboratively on Google Maps to which they add photos, information, questions and new learning. Hopefully they will use their class blogs to reflect on what they learn and to record their wonderings, so that people 'out there' can respond.