Great find by Curt Isakson - ischoolband!

The following was posted by Curt Isakson on his ETC blog - check it out:)


In searching out Web 2.0 site, I stumbled on a company that really hits my sweet spot for functionality, ease of use, has many options for user interface, and also includes social participation somewhat like facebook. The site is called ischoolband.





I am a band director and I have had a website for my band for years. I have news, pictures, resources, videos, and a calendar (shelbybands). It works great and I have a great following locally and even a farther reach that covers the country through relatives of band students. The problem comes is that it is work-intensive and I have to format everything from scratch.

ischoolband is a new Web 2.0 tool that creates a complete environment for my students with less work for me and it has features that I haven’t gotten to or have no idea how to do.
The number one feature it has is a secure entrance. This is great. All students and parents get an opportunity to sign in and be a part of the site and it is password protected and it is also allowed through our school’s network.

This site is so deep it will be difficult to completely describe in this essay. But I will begin in saying you can create a location for each of your ensembles. From there you can add media and documents. This includes ...Read more on Curt's Blog

Thank you for sharing this, Curt!

Creaza

Re-posted from Mike Padilla's blog - great review of a fantastic web 2.0 tool. Check it out!









The web 2.0 tool that I chose for this assignment was Creaza.

This website provides a creative suite of tools that students can use on any ANY computer that has access to the web. Due to the massive amounts of flash and content on this site, a strong internet connection is recommended.

Once I realized all that is involved in this FREE tool, I was blown away! If someone told me when I first got into non linear video editing nearly 10 years ago, that you would be able to edit videos using a website - and store it all in a cloud based system, I would certainly not have believed you - but that is exactly what ... Read more here...

Jacqueline Jones and Virtual Worlds

In July, Jacqueline Jones created a post on her Instructional Design Blog reviewing several virtual worlds including SmallWorlds.com. Her AR project focuses on role-playing in the virtual classroom and in this post she does an excellent job highlighting key features as well as some of the limitations of several virtual worlds. She includes embedded videos and several resources.

Check out her blog and her most recent entry which links you to Mark Krynsky's blog post, Lifestream Blog Reviews SmallWorlds and share your ideas for using virtual worlds in your learning environment.

Gregg Eilers on Diigo Education

Check out this great post written by Gregg Eilers on Diigo Education.



Have you ever wanted to create collaborative groups with your students that could possibly have the option to work collectively in and outside of the classroom? I want to share a Web 2.0 tool called Diigo Education. Now, we are already familiar with Diigo since we will be utilizing this tool for our Action Research Projects, but Diigo Education is a fantastic grouping tool to use with students in and outside of the classroom.

Diigo Education makes it possible to have students create a learning community not only within the classroom walls, but to also extend their collaboration outside of school. This effective tool makes it possible for teachers to create collaborative groups to use during project-based lessons that involve the power of working together towards a common goal. The aspect that I think I like most about this tool is the fact that educators can use it to effectively teach students how to not only collaborate together, but to also understand the purpose and importance of researching a specific topic.

As a teacher, I always strive to impress upon my students the importance of gathering facts and information to support a main idea. This is simple for some, but for the most part, difficult for individual elementary students to grasp. When there is a group involved, not only is there more than one brain at work, the group is enhanced by having the capability to share their findings online through Diigo Educator. This alone creates a safer environment for students that wouldn’t normally share out in class, to be able to give input within this community.

Finally, Diigo Education is free for teachers! To apply for a Diigo Education Account online, follow this link and you can then have access to everything from whole class accounts, email accounts, and pre-set privacy settings so that teachers and students are the only ones allowed in the group. Everything through Diigo Education is filtered and safe, so teachers don’t have to be concerned by what students are viewing in and out of school within Diigo. In fact, my application for Diigo Education was just accepted and I now have my account ready to go for next school year.

I even got this cool Diigo Education Pioneer badge for joining!

diigo education pioneer








All in all, Diigo Education is a fantastic Web 2.0 tool for integrating more effective group collaboration within the classroom.

Students Using Diigo on Computers image by theunquietlibrary used courtesy of Flickr through a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic

Week 4: Motion - Example

This post is a student example of what you might post in your blog for the tool/application you will learn about in week four. Make it your own:)

I started going through Motion tutorials today. I found out that there is a good sized learning curve with this program. Luckily, the have created templates which make it easier. Unfortunately, it wasn't as easy as I thought it might be because I have never used it or anything like it. Thank goodness for great tutorials.

To begin with, this started with an overview, which did not adhere to the best e-learning principles set down by Lisa Smith ( actually set down by Clark and Mayer:), but it was great information. Although the instructor read everything that was on the PowerPoint slides, she did defined several unfamiliar terms, so I learned some extras in addition to operations.

The welcome screen does adhere to good e-learning principles in that it lets you choose a starting point according to your current schema, skip or go back later if you want reinforcement or repetition. The tutorials are broken down into short segments according to tabs and windows, and you can click on your own project in motion while going through the lessons. The clips I want to use need to be split and shortened, so I didn't create anything yet, but I want to use one of the templates which shouldn't be a problem after I finish the last section of lessons tomorrow.





Another thing I learned tonight is why this software is so expensive. Just going through the pre-existing effects and templates that are available in just this one application within the studio is mind boggling. I am very excited!!!

Finally, the last shot is of the tutorials I completed tonight. Gotta go to sleep now. More tomorrow.

Eample of how to link to a comment.

Follow this link to Kathy Kellen's Blog to see an example of how post your links to your comment.

Check out Lindsey's OMM for Storyjumper!