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Spaaze is a website that allows for the simple creation of a virtual cork board. It is extremely dynamic and easy to use. You can add video, images, files, titles, and notes all in one spot so your students can have easy access to unit material. The canvass size of Spaaze is huge so you can add quite a few units to one canvass.

Use PrimaryWall to create a virtual cork board/sticky note website that can be used for student interaction with a lesson. Easy to use and taylored to the K-8 teacher's classroom.

As more and more students learn in a virtual classroom, teachers need more facilitation skills that work in an online learning environment. This article provides teachers with some practical online facilitating strategies and how to use many features to keep students engaged in learning.

This article showcases a virtual cultural exchange program between a school in New York and China. The students use web 2.0 tools to collabaroate and learn from each other in what could be a new wave of cultural exchange programs.

Our school was part of the NetGeneration of Youth program and we had a cultural exchange with two sister schools, one in LA and the other in Uganda. The students communicated over Ning and Skype and they collaborated during two celebrations "parties with a purpose" which allowed for a sharing of menus, music, and stories. The culminating project was a student/teacher exchange for three weeks in each country.

What Is a "Hangout?" A Hangout is a web-based tool created by Google for communicating through video. Up to ten people can "hang out" at one time in a virtual "room." A Hangout can be as simple or as complex as needed. It can be used simply to converse or, through the use of extra apps and add-ons that Google provides, a Hangout can become a virtual meeting space.

This is an academic paper examining the reasons why an online learning group should 'move ... from cohort to community.' (abstract), and how students resources and strategies may be managed to accomplish this. The paper asserts that students in a distance learning situation are isolated from each other and the teacher, therefore it is of vital importance that the cohort needs to create a sense of community rather than simply exist alone in the virtual learning room. The article quotes Vygotsky's social development theory of 1978, Selznik's seven elements of community: history, identity, mutuality, plurality, autonomy, participation, and integration (1996), and how the author's of the article modified the characteristics to conform more with current online learning theory. I found this article particularly relevant to the current situation I find myself in. Even though I am happy in my own space and don't need the close interaction with others, I can see that it is important to push myself forward in the sense of gleaning the most benefit from the course and those many intelligent people out there. This is difficult for me because I find the time necessary to maintain so many contacts, and actually have something worthwhile to say and share goes against my slow, ponderous thinking and non-gregarious nature!

eSchool News presents the dilemma with the growing trends in online learning. Communication is key in the classroom and online/virtual teachers must possess the special skills necessary to enhance the learning process in the virtual environment.

Very interesting article. I think a lot of teachers diving into online teaching are not prepared for, or are surprised at, the intense level of communication required. Frequent concise feedback to students is the key. This article does a solid job at communicating this. Thanks for sharing it.

EJ690980 - Preparing Teachers for the "Schools that Technology Built": Evaluation of a Program to Train Teachers for Virtual Schooling.

Many educational sites to check out this summer. There is a site of web 2.0 tools that can be accessed in "two clicks." Also a nice live binder link for how to use the web 2.0 tools. this site will take you to his recommendations for webinars, lesson plans and all sorts of internet sites. Updated regularly.

A virtual tour and history behind the Anne Frank house and the family that hid there. This site is information rich and highly engaging, It would make a wonderful supplement to the study of this period in history.

museums. All of that information in one place? It's amazing! Museum Box provides you with the tools to showcase descriptions of an event, person, historical period of time, or anything you can imagine into a virtual box!

Looks like this is a good tool for students to showcase information in any subject.

This was an interesting article and I found it pertinent since I am getting certified as an online teacher. Public universities are moving toward offering more virtual degrees to lower tuition costs. Some of the courses will be traditional but others blended. This will help students obtain college degrees in non traditional ways.

Activities & practices for online instruction.

The days of the traditional cover letters and resumes sent through the mail are over. Today, people/students find jobs through social media sites -- Linkedin, FB, even Twitter. As we talk about digital communication, this is a "real world" application in how students need to know these tools as well as how to present themselves in a digital forum. This is the type of situation where all the writing skills and presentation skills taught in high school count, and we need to be sure our students can do this in a virtual environment.

This is a useful article! Gone are the hard copy resumes printed on nice, heavy weight paper with matching envelopes. Thanks, Christine.

This is a great site for collaborative tools categorized under: "Collaborative Documents", "Collaborative Spaces", "Collaborative Videos", "Collaborative Notepads and Graphs", "Transferring Files", "Blogs, Wikis, and Social Networks", "Templates for Blogs", "Virtual Meetings and Chat Rooms", "Collaborative Tools", "Collaborative Annotations and Highlighters", "Collaborative Drawing Boards", and "Multimedia Posters and Pages".

I absolutely love this site! Great find Sister! I am going to write a blog entry about it. Check it out!

the above url provides a link to a website called: http://edu.critiqueit.com/ Here you can post articles and invite people to read them and give input. sounds like a great resource for virtually any high school class.

1. Digital Delivery 2. Interest Driven 3. 21st Century Skills Thin article, but good conversation starter. Ideal for use in a text-based protocol.

In my opinion, participating in the webinar discourages students from surfing the Internet, playing games and Facebooking, which is rampant and distracting in regular classes."