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What it is: What makes technology SO great is the way that it can make life (and teaching) more productive and fun. Over the years, I have found so many ways that technology can make reading more rewarding for both kids who love to read, and kids who dread reading. Today, I created an "Extreme Speed Booking" website for @michellek107′s class at Anastasis. I created the site quickly using Weebly, an awesome WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) website editor. Drag and drop website building is where it is at! The idea behind the site is to introduce students to a variety of books and form classroom book groups. How does Extreme Speed Booking work? A whole lot like speed dating. :) Students spend a little time with each book and then rate them accordingly with "I want to read more", "Interesting", "Not for me", or "I've already read". Students can also make a note of how interested they are in reading the book (maybe a 1-10 scale)? This process introduces students to a variety of books, genres and authors. Students may come across titles and authors they wouldn't otherwise find. It also helps teachers form classroom book groups that are of high-interest and investment to students because they had input.

"But a new technology allows online instructors to reconnect discussion to the lecture. VoiceThread is a web service that allows users to upload PowerPoint slides, videos, photos, etc. and add voice narration to create a multimedia presentation. But best of all, viewers can add their own comments to the presentation via voice or text. With VoiceThread students can attach questions or thoughts about a lecture directly to the lecture itself when and where they apply. The result is a discussion that is integrated into the lecture itself. "

ach block below represents a sound. Drag the blocks to the blue tray to create a soundscape. Then click the play button to listen to your creation.

"What is a Memory Game? In this interactive memory game the player must find the matching pairs of cards. To do this click on a card in the top row and then click on a card in the bottom row. If the cards match the cards remain face up. If not, the cards will turn back over and you can try again until all pairs have been found. Using the Memory Game Maker, you can build your own interactive memory game. You can specify if you want text, pictures or sounds on each row of cards. You can then type in your own text, attach your own pictures or record your own voice. These will appear on the cards in your finished game. You can also customise some other features of the game such as the look of your game and the sound effects used. When complete, the game is saved on your computer in the location you specify. From here you can copy the game to a disc, memory stick or onto another computer or network to share with others. You can make games in any language. Any script (for example Arabic or Japanese) that can be typed on your computer can be used."

OMG!!! Dan and co this might be for you(or older i just know this looks cool as hell!)

I saw this too and thought HOW FUN!!!

"ItzaBitza"

From the first week of school, the six-year-olds in my classroom begin to create an online presence in the form of a blog and digital portfolio. We use a blogging platform to do this, and include artifacts that show their progress in writing, reading, math, social studies, and science. I am frequently asked why I do this. Even more frequently, I can see in a colleague's eyes that they are thinking "why," even if they don't verbalize their question. The way that those educators have always done portfolios has worked well for them. Their students are learning the things they need to learn and are building a paper portfolio as they do so. Why do I take the extra time to upload those artifacts?

Welcome to the Storyboard Generator. You can choose a script and create a storyboard. Try building your own storyboard using background location photographs. Once done, you can save and share your storyboard video with friends. Remember to register with Generator first if you would like to save your storyboard.

One of the first steps to building a PLN is to join Twitter. But before we do the how, let's have a look at some of the why - 20 Second Twitter Stories I asked people in my PLN to record a short story about something that has happened to them on Twitter, or advice, or why they joined etc. Here is the result -

Design a part human/animal avatar!

The Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS) is an international non-profit training, project development, and research organization dedicated to assisting people in using digital media to tell meaningful stories from their lives. Our focus is on building partnerships with community, educational, and business institutions to develop large-scale initiatives in health, social services, education, historic and cultural preservation, community development, human rights, and environmental justice arenas, using methods and principles adapted from our original Digital Storytelling Workshop.

We're building Storybird in the open, collaborating with artists and enthusiasts to produce fun, simple tools to make short, visual stories. Here are a couple of ways to create a Storybird. We'll be adding more soon.

Cute, simple prompts for daily speed writing (getting your kids building their mileage. simply refresh to get another prompt. Have one per desk group, kids click to see what their group gets!