Google buys Jotspot

It seems Google just acquired jotspot. I had never heard of jotspot before. After a little searching it seems to be a pretty powerful wiki, much more than pbwiki. Of course they closed the registration, but you can put in your email address to be notified when it opens back up. I also found a link to a video tour of the site from google's cache, look at the bottom of the page. I must say I am impressed.

Some of the features are sharing documents, group calendars, and spreadsheets. If you have gmail, you already have 2+ GB of storage space. Could this shape up to be the interface or front end of Google's office suite or Gdrive.

google

Back to School with the Class of Web 2.0

While I was doing some reading over the weekend I ran into this blog. This is the most comprehensive list of web 2.0 tools for education I have seen. It is actually a three part series. Part one focuses on organizing, grade books, resume building, and research. The focus is not just teachers, student web 2.0 strategies are also mentioned.

Part two looks at online office applications including word processing, presentations, diagrams, spreadsheets, and calendars.

The third and final part focuses on "real world" educational scenarios in blogging, photo/video sharing, podcasting, and wiki's.

Be sure to check out the comments too; lots of good links in there.

Image from http://www.francispisani.net/

web2.0 education k12

Science Podcasts - Gotta Minute

So you want to use podcasts to help your students learn science. But don't have time to listen through all the podcasts to see if they are worth while? Check out Scientific American Magazine. They offer a daily podcast called 60-Second Science. These are quick reports and commentary from the world of science. It only takes a minute!

These would be great for warm ups/bellringers or as a catalyst to journal writing. They are high interest as well, at least IMHO. The most recent (10/27) 60-Second Science podcast discusses vampires of New England.

You can listen to these podcast from their homepage or subscribe to them in iTunes (iTS link). Also published is a weekly Science Talk podcast (iTS link), where scientists and journalist discuss the latest developments is science and technology The homepage also features a blog, videos, and a place at ask a scientist a question.

science podcasts education k12

Scary Stories

"To be buried while alive is, beyond question, the most terrific of these extremes which has ever fallen to the lot of mere mortality." From The Premature Burial by Edgar Allen Poe

Google's Book Search has made a collection of some of the greatest classic scary stories. You can find them at www.google.com/scarystories. The Legend of Sleepy Hallow, Dracula, and Frankenstein are just a few of the stories you will find. Because this is Google, you can search every word in each story. Plus, some of these books are in the public domain; look for the download button to save and print.

Tech Tags: google reading

Persuasion Map

The website Read Write Think offers a ton of free online student materials to support literacy learning. A cool one is The Persuasion Map, an interactive graphic organizer that lets students map out their arguments for a persuasive essay or debate. Student can do this on a computer and print it out. My only advise, make sure it printed before they close it; you cannot save these to work on later.

Principal Blogging Project

If you know of any principals interested in blogging please share this link--- http://principalblogs.jot.com/WikiHome
Original post here.

Technorati Tags: principal blogging

David Warlick's Keynote is Online Now!

The Keynote for the k12OnlineConference is online now!
http://k12onlineconference.org/

Technorati Tags: k12online06 k12online

Links from Newsletter Oct. 13th

Google for Educators
http://www.google.com/educators/index.html This is a wonderful resource! There are teacher guides to 12 Google products, examples of how educators are using them, and lesson ideas. You can also subscribe to the Google Teachers’ Newsletter on this page.

Web 2.0 Applications
Back to school with the class of Web 2.0 Part 1 Compilation of Web 2.0 applications. Red arrows indicate ones particularly suited for education.

Resume Tool
http://www.emurse.com/ Create resumes online or upload an existing one. Provides distributing tools and will keep track of who has seen it. You can also make your resume password protected or choose not to show personal information.

Color Palette Generator Tool
http://www.degraeve.com/color-palette/ Enter the url of an image and get the color palette (the 6 digit number beside the color is the Hex Value – this can be entered in Frontpage when you go to More Colors – you will see the top field asks for a hex value – type in the 6 digits and you will have that color!).

Just for Fun
http://www.sr.se/P1/src/sing/#

Links from Newsletter Oct. 6th

Learn something
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/on-line.htm Technology tutorials.

Up and Coming
http://k12onlineconference.org/ Online free conference Oct. 23-27 and Oct. 30-Nov. 3

Subject Areas
http://arcademic.altec.org/ Online games for basic math, language arts, vocabulary and thinking skills.
http://medtropolis.com/VBody.asp Virtual Body (English and Spanish versions).
http://www.goodcharacter.com/ Lots of information on character education.

Blogs
http://www.lifehacker.com/ “Lifehacker recommends the software downloads and web sites that actually save time.”
http://www.parenthacks.com/ "a collaborative weblog of practical parenting wisdom”.

Just for Fun
http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

K12Online 2006 Conference

Spread the word! Download a flyer here.