Maureen Tumenas is assembling an ever expanding collection of movies of er class and others working especially with science. These are great examples of how video can be used on a number of levels. The videos are a great reminder for the students in Maureen's class, they enable parents to be involved in what is happening in the classroom, they can be used as a stimulus for other students and teachers can review them as a means of professional learning.

Think Before You Upload is a great new animation from Privacy Victoria which aims to highlight the possible risks for young people of using on-line technologies such as social networking and gaming sites. It explores a number of familiar scenarios in a humorous way to re-inforce the need to consider the consequences of uploading to the interent. The only pity is that it is at present only available in a Flash version without any embed code.

Have you experienced Twitspeak overload? Do you break out into a sweat as the Twit character count goes into the final countdown phase? Then Twitlonger may be just the place for you At Twitlonger you can post to Twitter and not worry about the 140 characters limit. With Twitlonger, you can write what you need and once the 140 character limit is reached the tweet will have a link automatically added to it that will take you to Twitlonger where you can read it all. As the good folk at Twitlonger say, "It's like twitpic for text." Unfortunately to access the full 140+characters you'll have to leave your Twitter client and access the web.

Twitlonger is a way to let you post to Twitter when 140 characters just isn't enough. With Twitlonger, you can write what you need and a link to what you said will automatically be posted to your Twitter account. It's like twitpic for text. Doesn't this go against the whole point of Twitter? Absolutely. Please don't use Twitlonger to get lazy with Twitter. If your tweet runs to 150 characters, you can almost certainly reword it to get it to fit. If, however, you want to make a point that fits in the conversation, or want to explain something technical, then this lets you stay within the Twitterverse without posting a dozen tweets. People that are interested can click on the link and see the full majesty of your wit and wisdom.

A bit like those PowerPoint effects which make you ponder why they are included, the Visible Tweets visualisations are a bit lost on me however some others enjoy the eye candy of seeing tweets performing gyrations on their screen. An interesting concept nonetheless :).

SCAMPER is a strategy that can be used to assist students to generate new or alternative ideas. It is a tool to support creative, divergent thinking. SCAMPER is an acronym for: substitute, combine, adapt, modify/magnify/minify, put to other uses, eliminate, reverse/rearrange. What is its purpose? SCAMPER is a thinking tool that helps students to ask questions about a concept, text, or idea that require them to think beyond the obvious. It can help develop critical thinking skills and creativity and is a useful cooperative learning tool and a great stimulus for role play. In this post from Litemind, Lucciano " ....... presents a complete SCAMPER primer, along with two free creativity-boosting resources: a downloadable reference mind map and an online tool that generates random questions to get you out of a rut whenever you need." In this very comprehensive post Luciano note only explains the terminology associated with SCAMPER but also lists suggested questions as well as "Trigger Words".

Once you've begun working with YouTube for some time you might like to play with the movies that are available. This list from the makeuseof site is a collection of ten interesting hacks associated with YouTube movies. Here you can learn how to view and embed high quality videos, link to the video part way through the clip, hide the search box, embed only the relevant part of a movie, autoplay and loop an embedded movie, disable the related video link, Bypass regional filters and use kickyoutube to download videos.

One of the problems facing many teachers is trying to make students aware of the need to respect copyright and fair use of digital content. Even though students can generally appreciate the principles behind the need to pay due regard to the originators of these artefacts too often they are unable to locate anything other than copyright material. Locating suitable Creative Commons licenced content can be a real nightmare for students and teachers alike. To this end SitePoint has gathered up over 30 of the best resources online for audio, video, images and more for finding just the perfect Creative Commons licensed item for use in your next project. So, have a look around and get inspired!

"Great teachers know that learning doesn't stop as soon as you graduate from college. Teachers learn from their experience, from their colleagues, from their students, and any number of other resources. If you are a teacher looking for ways to expand your knowledge base, here are 100 free lectures you can watch to help facilitate some of that learning." This great collection of some of the best recent lectures has been selected by Heidi Taylor. It contains sections on Creative Learning Environments, Technology, Information for New Teachers, Information for All Teachers, Teaching Specific Subjects, Special Needs, Arts, PE & Health and Lectures From Influential Professors. This is the perfect site for a rainy afternoon.

This highly amusing look at the world of Web 2.0 as viewed through the INTERNET-AGE WRITING SYLLABUS AND COURSE OVERVIEW is a salutary reminder to those of us who have latently become besotted by the wonders of social networking that "All that Twitters is not told". As Mr McSweeney suggests the course is the perfect antidote to those who are worried what to do; "As print takes its place alongside smoke signals, cuneiform, and hollering ......." I 4 1 wll B signing up 4 I cn hz writng skls

This You Tube movie looks at how the US Best Buy chain is using Social Networking tools including wikis and other networking tools and spaces. Note the lack of mention of Office Suites and presentation tools such as PowerPoint. Fabulous evidence to counter arguments that we should be concentrating on teaching about the tools that workplaces use and not social networking.

This is just simply the most amazing collection of easy to make and do activities I have seen. There is so much science here in this huge list of DIY toys and other things from Arvind Gupta. Complete with excellent images this page should be part of every science teacher's kit. Be warned though the page may take a little time to load on slower connections.

This is just simply the most amazing collection of easy to make and do activities I have seen. There is so much science here in this huge list of easy to make DIY toys and other things from Arvind Gupta. Complete with excellent images this page should be part of every science teacher's kit. Be warned though the page may take a little time to load on slower connections.

This Google Doc initiated by Mark Warner is a collection of ideas to use for stimulating writing that includes examples. It draws on a range of online as well as offline activities and applications. Use it to get some great new ideas or even better add and share a couple of ideas of your own.

"Stykz is the first multi-platform stick figure animation program in the world (as far as we know!), and it is COMPLETELY FREE! If you've ever used Pivot StickFigure Animator, you'll feel right at home and will appreciate the extra features that Stykz has to offer! And even if you haven't used Pivot, you'll find Stykz to be a powerful, easy to learn tool for creating great looking stick figure animations quickly and efficiently."

Mr Moses has constructed a compelling argument for embracing the use of social networking tools with students via a series of links and embedded movies on this media wiki page. If you're looking for those reports that you know would back up your case for using these tools then check in here as chances are Mr Moses has a link to them.

Tomaz Lasic presents this really interesting collection of advice, resources, opinions and instructional material in an overview of Twitter and ways of using it in education as aScribd for a group of educators attending Twizza (Twitter & pizza) gathering in Perth, Western Australian on April 8, 2009.

This 2009 report from Education.au looks at the current state of play regarding the use of Web 2.0 services across each of the education authorities in Australia. It aims to identify and suggest ways to overcome barriers associated with current site blocking practices in schools with regards to Web 2.0 services. The report draws on a range of survey and other investigations as well as consultation with key stakeholders. It then sets out a number of recommendations aimed at addressing issues related to current site blocking practices in schools place on teachers looking to use Web 2.0 to improve teaching and learning.

"The 2020 Forecast is a tool for thinking about, preparing for, and shaping the future. It outlines key forces of change that will shape the landscape of learning over the next decade. The forecast does not predict what will happen, but rather serves as a guide to the as-yet-unwritten future. It is designed to help you see connections among things that once seemed unrelated and to help you consider the changes and challenges that you are facing today within the context of wider patterns of change. Ultimately, the 2020 Forecast aims to provoke your own thinking about what role you want to play in creating the future of learning."

This UK site is designed to promote critical evaluation of the use of film in the study of history and history teaching. It includes discussion of some of the issues related to film as evidence, activities that investigate different aspects of film, an archive of original and reconstructions as well as showcasing how film editors work via an online editing tool.

This blog is styled as a site for history teachers and anyone who enjoys reading about history and history education. Though written by an elementary or primary school teacher, the blog has numerous posts and links to information that should be of interest to all teachers of history.

This really interesting presentation by Elizabeth Koh presents a great overview of a range of microblogging tools in both education and in other areas. As Elizabeth says, microblogging: "......is taking the IT world by storm, with Twitter its (in)famous poster boy blazing the way. With the ability to post short messages and broadcast them, microblogging has possibly sparked another mode of computer-mediated communication. Twitter, the company which started it all, is seeing massive growth in the number of subscribers. Both individuals and organizations are taking to microblogging as part of an arsenal of Web 2.0 tools. This technology update will introduce microblogging and provide an overview of such services. It will compare microblogging with similar technologies and present applications for the enterprise and education."