Technology for the Adult Education Instructor

Promising grammar site

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (Patti Huelsman) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:18:00 +0000

I found what seems like a good, comprehensive grammar site: http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar
It's a German site.

Reading for Adults

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:25:00 +0000

Reading for adults 2

View more presentations from Judith Sotir

Teach Collaborative Revision with Google Docs

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 15:46:00 +0000

http://www.google.com/educators/weeklyreader.html

Below is a cut/paste from the site...excellent information

"Revision is a critical piece of the writing process—and of your classroom curriculum. Now, Google Docs has partnered with Weekly Reader’s Writing for Teens magazine to help you teach it in a meaningful and practical way.

The sharing features of Google Docs enable you and your students to decide exactly who can access and edit documents. You’ll find that Google Docs helps promote group work and peer editing skills, and that it helps to fulfill the stated goal of The National Council of Teachers of English, which espouses writing as a process and encourages multiple revisions and peer editing.

On this page, you will find several reproducible PDF articles from Writing magazine filled with student-friendly tips and techniques for revision. You'll also find a teacher’s guide that provides you with ideas for how to use these materials with Google Docs to create innovative lesson plans about revision for your classroom.

Getting Started

1) Download a step-by-step tutorial [pdf] for Google Docs.
2) Learn about the comments and revision features of Google Docs [pdf].

3) Download, print, and share the following articles [pdf] with your students:

With a Little Help From My Friends: The Gifts of a Writing Buddy
Writing's Top 10 Tips for Revision
Collaborative Revision Checklist
Individual Revision Checklist
4) Download our Educators Guide: Teaching Revision with Google Docs

After reviewing our activity ideas and Google Docs tutorials, you may develop your own lesson plans and ideas. We want to hear from you! We invite you to share your curriculum ideas with the Google Educators community through our Google for Educators Discussion Group."

Higher Education Information Website

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:56:00 +0000

http://www.collegeatlas.org/

The above website (College Atlas) has some good information on higher education options and opportunities that can be used by yourself, or for your children. It gives useful information on types of schools, where to find loans, jump starting college planning etc. There are tabs for four year institutions, community colleges, international schools and even a listing of colleges by major. This is an excellent tool to help you through the sometimes confusing maze of information. Click on the address above to access the site.

Help a Good Program get the Funding it Needs!

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Mon, 03 May 2010 16:51:00 +0000

Vote everyday until the end of May. Every VOTE counts! Just click on the VOTE bar under the message. You'll need to register the first time, and after just remember to click on VOTE daily. Let's make something good happen for our community.

Judith

Tech Education: Where's the Money?

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:23:00 +0000

If there is one thing that you can count on, it's that new technology costs money. Whether it's the new iPad (wonderful, but where's the FLASH!?) or a wireless anything, the issue for education is great, but about the cost...
Yes, schools at all levels and across the country are struggling to pay for instructors and programs, so tech funding often comes in as an also-ran in dwindling budgets. Instructors are told to 'use what you have'. Fortunately, there are many Websites and educational social networks that can come to the rescue.
Personally, I love the Internet. The new social network options for instruction are amazing. Obviously blogs and wikis and nings etc. can create new communities that focus in on the topics instructors want to share. Other sharing sites such as Google docs make communication across the district or across the world not only possible but easy. Sure, there are lessons to be taught to students regarding what they post and where they post. But these are the same concerns as schools have had to teach for years (as in Stranger Danger...)
But having the tools available is not the same as knowing they are available.
It's time for instructors to start using the share apps, both for classroom instruction and professional development. If everyone has to make do with limited funds, then share the tools that can make that happen. More importantly, bring the STUDENTS into the fold, and let them help design their own lessons. The end result is a win/win for everyone.

Here is a start...Classroom 2.0:
http://www.classroom20.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

Wow, What a Summer

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:18:00 +0000

All I can say is 'Wow, what a summer!' The weather has hardly been summer-like, but that aside, it has been a long hot season for education. Funding issues and concerns top the list. Whether funding is provided by state, federal or private grants, the economic drought extended to education in a big way. We needed to cancel our summer scheduled classes, and were faced with up to a 50% cut in classes for the fall. Fortunately the fall funding cuts were less dire than the original predictions, but still, at a time when the demand for ESL and GED classes is at the highest we've seen in years, we have had to cut back on offerings, making for many disappointed students.
I run two programs, one a college-based Adult Education Learning Center (AELC) and the second a Digital Divide CTC named the Aurora Community Technology Center (ACTC). Both programs are grant funded and technology-based.
The AELC works with students to enhance the skills they learn in the ESL and GED classroom. We cross-correlate the classroom skills with academic software and websites. Students come into the AELC with nothing more than their class levels, and we place them on the appropriate applications. In addition, instructors also work one-on-one with the students. Classes begin again this coming Monday, but I have been receiving calls non-stop from students for weeks. High demand, with limited ability to provide the services at levels to meet that demand.

The ACTC is housed off-campus, and provides community residents with technology training, from Basic Computers through MS Office and Quick Books. Courses also include topics such as Job Preparation, Resume Writing, and Using Social Networking sites in Business. A few additional courses are also interspersed, such as Web Page Development, Publishing and Digital Photography. These courses started July 20, and have been very popular. Another aspect of the ACTC is a drop-in site for the Microsoft Elevate America vouchers. In two weeks I've dispersed over 100 vouchers, and answer calls daily for additional vouchers.
The limits of the economic condition have made continued education no longer a luxury but a necessity. I've talked with dozens of people who have been trying to get a new job for nearly a year, without success. Qualified, talented people are being cut out of the workforce. The MS vouchers for Business Workers (Office products and certification), and IT Professionals are being snapped up by those who will try any means to keep their resumes current. Community colleges have seen a surge in enrollment, due to both the affordable cost and the need to update skills. Our 13.2% increase last fall has almost doubled this fall. Financial Aid has also doubled their requests. Technology programs are filling fast, as people search for any means to make them more employable. And of course, our funding has either been cut or remained stagnant from last year, giving us little flexibility to provide more offerings. We all need to work together to provide the kind of services that meet the needs of this changing world. And for those of us in positions that offer these services, the long hours of summer will likely continue well into fall.

Write4net: Publish without blogs

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:47:00 +0000

http://write4.net/en

Publish full articles without needing a blog or site. There's no setup or login. Just write your text and Write4net will publish it using your Twitter account. That's it. So easy. And free!

Publish now! You can format your text with several features, including pictures and YouTube, Vimeo and DailyMotion videos. Your text will be published and instantly tweeted. Plus you get a personal page, blog style, where everybody can find all your articles (it even has RSS!).

Timing is Everything

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:56:00 +0000

You just never know. A few weeks ago I attended a webcast from Classroom 2.0. As the webinar was winding down, I glanced over at the chat area and saw some comments that I agreed with, and said so. As luck would have it, the webinar ended and I thought, well, that ends that. Much to my surprise, minutes later I received an email from another webinar attendee...James N Shimabukuru, University of Hawai`i - Kai`olani CC with the message:

"I'm wondering if you're the same "jsotir" who participated in the Elluminate webcast that ended about a half hour ago. I was intrigued by your text messages re the need to develop online programs from the ground up instead of as extensions of existing traditional F2F models. I believe we share the same view. "jpatten," who also participated in the session, also seems to share this view. I haven't been able to "find" him via a google search.
I'm wondering if you (and jpatten if we can contact him) and I could further discuss these ideas in email exchanges -- with an eye toward publishing the results in a blog article"

Intriguing.

Then this message:

Mr. John Patten,
I'm wondering if you're the same "jpatten" who participated in the Elluminate webcast that ended a little over an hour ago.
I was intrigued by your text message exchanges with Ms. Judith Sotir re the need to develop online programs from the ground up instead of as extensions of existing traditional F2F models.
I believe the three of us share similar views.
I'm wondering if we could further discuss these ideas in email exchanges -- with an eye toward publishing the results in a blog article.
I've contacted Ms. Sotir, and she expressed an interest in participating in this email discussion. I hope you'll be able to join us. If yes, then I'll email the two of you a brief intro to serve as a rough starting point.

John Patten, director of technology for the Sylvan Union School District in Modesto, also agreed. Now we had a team, and even a team name...JJJForum. And although the content of our group discussion is still evolving, I decided to write about the formation of this team. I'm old enough, to still find the ability to create such a project in what was literally minutes from a casual chat in a sidebar of a webinar nothing short of magical. Three people, hundreds of miles apart, were able to start sharing thoughts and ideas as if we were sitting next to each other in a regular seminar. Jim, who is also the editor of ETC Journal did a simple Google search and found John and me. Emails sent to us confirmed that we were both in the webinar chat, and that we were interested.
Whatever comes from the article itself is another topic. The interesting aspect for me was that it is a perfect example of where technology and education will likely lead us. Web 2.0 vehicles such as blogs and wikis, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter make communication instantaneous, and the world a tiny place. Education must mutate into this virtual reality, which is rapidly becoming a part of our lives. Arguments can be made that Facebook posts are usually vapid and uncessary. Perhaps, but only to the degree that conversations with the same individuals is likewise. My own family blog has migrated to Facebook. I know that my nephew has landed a summer job (which makes my brother happy), or see pics of new babies with their proud parents. I can comiserate with a friend who has a never-ending cold, and support another who has lost a treasured pet. Perhaps none of these qualify as earth-shattering announcements, but they keep us in touch with each other. They are a form of communication. As educators, we must accept these changing forms of communication and use them to help us relate to our students. Our students will change, and we must change with them to remain relevant. It's just a question of time.

Student Hotlists

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:10:00 +0000

The AELC will not be running classes this summer, but this cartoon explains to students how to use the Student Hotlists in the right column of this Blog to find approved academic Websites to study until classes resume in the fall.

Dvolver movie, and another simple but effective tool for teaching students to begin using Web 2.0

GED Math website

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Wed, 06 May 2009 17:43:00 +0000

'There is a good website for GED math students. It has very good visual aids. It is http://www.gedmathgraphics.net/ Check it out!' (posted by Kristy on the AELC Blog).

Since the above post, several other AELC instructors have tried this site with students, and they like the visual aspect of the site. Kudos to Howard Myers for recognizing and filling a need, and I'll update this post as more comments come in. Currently, a student is also trying out the Spanish version, and he'll comment when he is done. This is an excellent tool for students who are having problems with the math portion of the test, and works well for those who tested in the 3-8th grade level for math.

Contact – Howard Myers, Ed.D. HowardMy@aol.com

Waubonsee College AEHS Induction

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:05:00 +0000

Created using ANIMOTO. The simplicity and elegance of Animoto makes a strong statement for the use of Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom.

UDUTU: Online Course Authoring

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:18:00 +0000

http://udutu.com/ My UDUTU is an online course authoring site. The main advantage is the ability to add rich media (the kind that takes up bandwidth) and having it resized for optimization automatically. There are good tutorials onsite, not only for developing the product but also for developing a strong academic structure as well. It includes some uses of Bloom's Taxonomy, development of learning outcomes you wish to achieve and design of the course itself. .

From UDUTU: "Adding rich media to course in myUdutu is made simple because the compression and resizing to make it play on the web is all done for you automatically.

When you upload images or movies or sound files from your computer to a screen in your myUdutu course they are automatically resized and optimized for bandwidth efficiency on the web. They will also become a part of your personal learning object repository for future use. At any time you can publish the course onto our web server, and let your interested parties view it, or you can zip it and save it to your own computer, ready to be deployed wherever you prefer."

From the Blog Computer Methods and Applications by THX2: this is the info on an online course authoring site called UDUTU:
" Udutu.com is a website that provides online course authoring software. If you want to make online courses, eLearning modules or training programs, then Udutu.com can offer you a good answer to your needs. Udutu.com’s main product offering is myUdutu™. It is an easy-to-use online authoring software that can be used by anyone. With this software, you would no longer need to rely on programmers to produce for you good quality online modules. myUdutu™ enables any user to create interactive courses rich with visual media which greatly improves training opportunities for students and employees alike. It can be used in all fields and professions providing human resource managers, trainers, professionals, teachers, etc., the edge in making such courses. With its WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) feature, myUdutu™ attracts more users...
...Another breakthrough that the site offers is that it ties up with social networking sites such as Facebook to build up a learning network in which productive individuals can work together...
...Its simplicity and its customization is also one of its values. You only have to access udutu.com from the internet, build your course by importing PowerPoint presentations, customize your learning windows, and add videos and audios, and then publish it using the site’s server, and you’re done!
...The experts can either upload their courses through their own server or use the Udutu server for a measly fee of $1."

ESL Flashcards

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:45:00 +0000

I had a request for finding free ESL flashcards with pictures. I have 3 sites that cover that category (all are also listed in the side column under Recommended Web 2.0 Sites):

http://www.eslhq.com/ requires a free registration. Has many different emotions, body parts etc.
http://www.eslflashcards.com/ requires a free registration, has choice of color or BW pictures, and can include the term or not.
http://quizlet.com/ requires a free registration, can also register with Facebook account, and quizzes can be accessed from that account. Some are prepared, or you can make your won.

Easy Wikis: Jottit

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:33:00 +0000

http://jottit.com/

For those of you who really want to create your own blogs or wikis, but need an easy site to help you grow your expertise, I suggest both Blogger (http://blogger.com/) and Jottit (http://jottit.com/), create by Camtasia Studio 4. I tried the Jottit site out yesterday, and would think it easy enough for most beginners to master in a very short time. My sample wiki is at http://wccaelc.jottit.com/, and is just a practice site for me to try new techniques. I've used other wiki sites, such as Wetpaint (http://wetpaint.com/) and until recently, was concerned about the ads (it is free, after all). However, you can now apply as an education site which eliminates most of the ad content, solving that dilemma,
Jottit is a no nonsense site developed for educational uses. It isn't as robust as say the Wetpaint site, but you quickly learn how to adapt to a wiki format. A very useful tool in the edit mode, where you will be creating your content, is in the top right corner, and it is called 'formatting help', This gives you some simple coding tools to create things such as italics or links. You can create as many pages as you like, and you can edit them as you need to. Like most wikis, it also gives you a history of your edits. If you are new to the world of wikis, this is a great starter site. Check out the screencast on Demo Girl if you need more instruction: http://demogirl.com/2007/11/02/build-a-website-on-the-fly-with-jottit/.

Custom You Tube Video Players

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:30:00 +0000

To create a You Tube Video Viewer, go into your You Tube account. Go to More.;Custom Video Players.
Create customized video players for publishing to websites or blogs. You can change the colors and contents of a player at any time, and all instances of that player will automatically update to the new settings. Be sure you have saved some videos to a Playlist or as Favorites. You can choose the type of player and which Playlist to use. You Tube will then generate an embeddable code for your blog or wiki. To use on a Blogger account, make sure you choose the Edit HTML tab before pasting in code.
Clicking on the left and right tabs above with allow you to see which videos I've chosen for this play list. Click on the video of choice to view on this player.

UPDATE: 5/6/09: I've seen the error message on this player for a couple of days now. I tried re-doing the custom video player and reinstalling the code, but to no avail. I will think this through and see if I can find a resolution. Has anyone else had problems with this app?

My Favorite MI/Web 2.0 Tools

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:35:00 +0000

I personally love Web 2.0. I'm also aware that my own staff, although they all try, may not embrace these tools as fondly as I do. That said, I decided to create a short list of my very favorite Web 2.0 tools for MI. If you don't know what MI is, see the post immediately below this one...

Actually, there are quite a few more, which I've listed as 'Web 2.0 Tech Tools Recommended' in the right hand column of this blog. However, I wanted to give you a flavor of what you can do with Web 2.0. Please make note of the fact that I have little patience, so therefore all of these tools have an intuitive quality to them that makes using them quite easy. Click and check out these samples, then scroll down for even more. When you find those you like you can just come back to this site (and remember only ONE URL) to access them when you need them. And here's an old school tip from an old-schooler...I have a Rolodex in my office where I make a card for each of these sites, with the date joined and any passwords or user names that I need to use them. On the back of the card I put a short description, and then file them by what they do, and then the title. These passwords are not going to help anyone who is seeking to steal my identity (word to the wise), but since they are all unique, I need to keep track of them somehow.

MI: the 'New' Buzzword

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:37:00 +0000

One of the latest 'buzzwords' in education is the theory, first espoused in 1983 by Howard Gardner, regarding Multiple Intelligences, or MIs. This concept plays well into the social fabric of the technological revolution, as it shows the need for educators to examine more extensively the 'how' of learning as well as the 'why'. So much of the way students learn today is wrapped in this theory, either by design or default. Once computers moved from 'media' (although admittedly this was short-lived) to 'multimedia', so did society. With the advent of personal computers in the early 90s, and cell phones and the WWW hitting the general population in the mid-1990's, life as we know it changed dramatically. It seems as if almost overnight everyone had a phone attached to their ears for most of their waking hours. Households were figuring out how to include the very expensive computer into the family budget.

In schools, computers started trickling into classrooms, then curricula. Suddenly the world was awash in tech terms. Unfortunately, in many instances, instructors were trying to fit this new square peg into the old round hole, and despite a lot of banging on that square peg, it never fit snugly into the hole. But to their credit, many tried to make things work. Of course, there was also the problem of fitting the fat square tech peg into the skinny round hole of the available curriculum budget. Once the WWW came into play, we had the additional learning curve that using these interactive websites incurred. Web 2.0 brought on even more problems for the classroom instructor. Suddenly (or so it seemed) we were inundated with potential websites and tools, and classroom instructors, already weary from all the accountability issues, started to lose interest just as their students found it.

Email was cool, but then blogs and wikis came into the picture. Students were involved in text-messaging (TMs), instant messaging (IMs), social network sites (think Twitter, Facebook, My Space, Jaiku etc), and Second Life, which isn't real at all, but students sometimes think it is. Schools were now outfitted with computers and peripherals, but their use was spotty, even among the best instructors. So it was inevitable that the concept of MI which was developed prior to the personal computer wave would find a home in the post Web 2.0 phase. And yes, we are well into Web 3.0, and 4.0 and...trust me, we can .0 to infinity and beyond.

What does this mean for the average, tech-challenged classroom instructor? Well, the good news is that Web 2.0 doesn't always require a lot of tech savvy. As a matter of fact, you can turn that part over to the students, who are usually quite capable of incorporating it into their work. In the latest issue of Edutopia (April/May 2009, Edutopia.org), there is question that was asked in the Sage Advice column last month: "How do you address multiple intelligences in your classroom?" The responses are great, and show that instructors are indeed trying to creatively inspire all of most of the multiple intelligences that their students possess.

My favorite was from seventh grade science and math teacher Carol Craig in Trinidad, West Indies: "Right now my students are working on 'Rock Concerts'. They are divided into groups of 4, with 2 rocks assigned to each group.
They research their rocks, write a song using the facts, design a t-shirt that they wear at their performance, and perform the song in front of their classmates. They also create a poster, a model and a presentation for the perfomance. They can add a dance if they like."

I personally love this assignment. It's an extension of the theories from old tv shows like Schoolhouse Rock. Give the students a somewhat boring assignment (my apologies to earth science instructors but rocks are not usually not the most engaging subject), and make it into a project that they can all use their varying MI skills to achieve. Creating a song using their research is a wonderful way to remember the information (remember: "Conjunction Junction, what's your function?"), and allows for collaborative learning (yet another current buzzword, or is it buzz phrase?) with real learning goals (bzzzzzzz, bzzzzz).

Instructors have always had aspects of MI in their classes (field trips, movies, film strips) but now the goal is toward using the available tools for project-based environments that are heavily into socializing. This is the new educational curriculum. Be there or -be square...

Information on Howard Gardner and Multiple Intelligences:

"Howard Gardner claims that all human beings have multiple intelligences. These multiple intelligences can be nurtured and strengthened, or ignored and weakened. He believes each individual has nine intelligences:

Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence -- well-developed verbal skills and sensitivity to the sounds, meanings and rhythms of words

Mathematical-Logical Intelligence -- ability to think conceptually and abstractly, and capacity to discern logical or numerical patterns

Musical Intelligence -- ability to produce and appreciate rhythm, pitch and timber

Visual-Spatial Intelligence -- capacity to think in images and pictures, to visualize accurately and abstractly

Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence -- ability to control one's body movements and to handle objects skillfully

Interpersonal Intelligence -- capacity to detect and respond appropriately to the moods, motivations and desires of others.

Intrapersonal Intelligence -- capacity to be self-aware and in tune with inner feelings, values, beliefs and thinking processes

Naturalist Intelligence -- ability to recognize and categorize plants, animals and other objects in nature

Existential Intelligence -- sensitivity and capacity to tackle deep questions about human existence, such as the meaning of life, why do we die, and how did we get here.

Howard Gardner1 defined the first seven intelligences in FRAMES OF MIND (1983). He added the last two in INTELLIGENCE REFRAMED (1999). Gardner is a psychologist and Professor at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education, as well as Co-Director of Harvard Project Zero.

Based on his study of many people from many different walks of life in everyday circumstances and professions, Gardner developed the theory of multiple intelligences. He performed interviews with and brain research on hundreds of people, including stroke victims, prodigies, autistic individuals, and so-called "idiot savants."

According to Gardner,

All human beings possess all nine intelligences in varying amounts.
Each person has a different intellectual composition.
We can improve education by addressing the multiple intelligences of our students.
These intelligences are located in different areas of the brain and can either work independently or together.
These intelligences may define the human species."

above information comes from: http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/mi/index.html

Concept to Classroom

Sites from Edutopia

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:35:00 +0000

If you've never seen Edutopia magazine (published by the George Lucas Foundation) I suggest you add it to your 'must read' list. It has a lot of useful ideas and thoughtful articles defining what works in public education. One column is 'Head of Class>Hot Stuff' which has great new websites to explore:

Woogi World: http://www.woogiworld.com/ Free for kids; $7 per month for "Honors Program"

Combining a virtual game with school standards, the world of the Woogi teaches children in grades K-6 responsible uses of the Internet while also promoting cooperative behavior offline and encouraging students to enhance their reading capabilities. Educational online games reinforce other classroom skills, while offline activities promote community involvement and family time.

Europeana: http://www.europeana.eu/portal/
Free

Coming soon to a laptop near you: Vast treasures from more than 1,000 manuscripts, as well as museums, libraries, archives, and film and sound materials from 27 European nations. From the Magna Carta to music scores by Mozart, Europeana seems to be the European Commission's answer to Google's ambitious venture (along with the Library of Congress) to create a World Digital library. The site offers multilingual searching and plans to have ten million items by 2010. A prototype version with two million items went live last November, got swamped by users, promptly crashed, and is now up and running again with quadruple the server capacity. Stay tuned for the full-blown site.

Poe Revealed 1809-2009 http://www.poe200th.com/
Free

Celebrate the master of the macabre's 200th birthday with help from this site. Students can watch an animated version of The Tell Tale Heart, solve the mystery of how Poe died, read an overview of his life, take a fact-or-fiction quiz, and compete in a writing competition (deadline May 8). The site also offers teachers information about Poe's life and writing technique, suggested readings, and a classroom-activity packet.

Classroom Earth http://www.classroomearth.org/
Free

Delivering activities and resources for six high school subject areas and 14 topics, this online resource from the National Environmental Education Foundation in partnership with the Weather Channel helps teachers incorporate environmental content into lesson plans for language arts, math, science, social studies, and more. Educators can also learn about professional-development opportunities and find relevant grant information.

This article was also published in the April 2009 issue of Edutopia magazine under the headline "Hot Stuff".

Voice Thread

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:59:00 +0000

I previously reviewed this site, but it's worth a re-run. http://voicethread.com/ It can be used for distance learning, collaborative, asynchronous VoiceThread discussions, meetings, lectures and more. There is a purchase price, but it's quite reasonable. You can try it out free by signing up, which will give you 3 free voice threads. Go into 'My Voice' to see some video tutorials of how the site works.

"A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to leave comments in 5 ways - using voice (with a mic or phone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too.
Users can doodle while commenting, use multiple identities and pick which comments are shown through moderation. VoiceThreads can even be embedded on web sites and exported to MP3 players or DVDs as archival movies.
With VoiceThread, group conversations are collected and shared in one place from anywhere in the world. All with no software to install."

Quizlet Online Flashcards

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:14:00 +0000

http://quizlet.com/

Study vocabulary or almost anything
Create your own flashcards - sign up free
Share flashcards with your friends
View the quick guide or watch the video tour

This site has a lot of prepared flash cards ready to use with your students, or you can create your own. Areas include languages and vocabulary, standardized tests, general curriculum and professions and trades.

Education Today and Tomorrow: You Tube Video

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:45:00 +0000

This is a thought-provoking video on what challenges face educators today. Highly recommended!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnh9q_cQcUE&feature=player_embedded

From: Infinite Thinking Machine

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:47:00 +0000

Here's a list from http://infinitethinkingmachine.org/ that if you haven't seen, may be useful to your classes:
(and if you don't have their Blog on your list, you should consider adding it)
"This week, I'd like to share some powerful web resources that have the power to engage students using digital tools and the desire today's youth have to express themselves, all while using the increasing amount of primary source materials available online.

As an educator who believes that teaching students to honor intellectual property, I'm always looking for sites that include materials students can use to create multimedia. Fair use guidelines gives us some flexibility in using multimedia inside our classroom. But in the world of Web 2.0, the audience for these media projects has expanded outside our classroom, with more and more interest to authentic global audiences. All one has to do is look at the popularity of You Tube and other video sharing sites to know that young people are highly motivated to express themselves to audiences outside our classroom. Thanks to the Creative Commons license, more and more materials are available online that students can use to create and publish their multimedia productions for a global audience.

But this week, I'd like to share 5 sites that go one step further than Creative Commons materials. These sites host primary source materials and encourage young people to use them to produce and publish their own creations. Some even include online tools to help students with the process."

http://www.remixamerica.org/
This site was created by a voter registration organization who wanted to keep the young people they registered involved and engaged. To do this, they provided them with free online tools and raw materials through “America Now” and “America Then” playlists. Remix America encourages students to draw parallels between the present and the past. They hope that viewing seminal speeches and events from American History will inspire young people to express themselves and take action on the issues that matter to them.

Teachers around America have stumbled upon the software and incorporated into their classroom. One teacher asked her students to take a quote from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and apply it to the 2008 election. Another asked her students to create PSAs on the issues that matter most to them – censorship, war, civil rights. You can browse through “Favorite Remixes” section to see some of these great remixes!

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/diypodcast/

NASA has done something similar to engage students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The NASA's Do-It-Yourself Podcast activity provides students with audio clips, video, and photos related to space. Students can use the NASA materials produce their own audio or video productions.

http://www.primaryaccess.org/

PrimaryAccess is a web-based tool that offers teachers and students access to digital images and other materials that enable them to construct movies using tools provided by the web site.

Althought many of the primary source materials are photograph and still images, the tools provided on the website allows students to add motions to create a movie effect. I fist learned about Primary Access while listening to Glen Bull's presentation during the 2008 K-12 online conference.

http://take2videos.org/

This project is slightly different in that it not only provides the raw materials for students to produce a video, but also complete an advocacy event. The project requires schools to register and the topic is more focused. According to the project web site “Each year, Take 2 shoots 2-3 months of high definition footage in a different conflict region and creates extensive supporting and background documentation then licenses the package free of charge to qualified educational institutions. Participating schools will complete one small task to help grow Take 2’s infrastructure and undertake at least one advocacy event upon completion of their projects

http://www.kitzu.com/

This website is not yet populated with lots of materials, but has promise in offering students free, educational, copyright-friendly media resources. According to the project website “Students and teachers around the world can access pre-made collections, or "kits," of various digital assets - still images, background music, narratives, video and text. Each kit is built around a common theme, or curricular topic. For students, this becomes the construction paper of the 21st century --allowing them to create reports and projects filled with rich, immersive media for communicating their vision of whatever subjects they chose. AS they master the technology, they will progress from building projects with supplied materials to projects where they find or create their own resources -- a strategy that results in truly authentic assessment as measured by the projects produced."

Signs for ESL Civics

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:27:00 +0000

For those of you looking to supplement the Ventures curriculum with signs, there are a number of web sites available for you to use as resources. I’ve listed a small sampling below.

http://www.trafficsign.us/
http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/publications/rules_of_the_road/rr_chap09.html
http://www.manythings.org/signs/
http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/enseign/anglais/Henry/panneau.htm

NEW ESL Civics Hotlist

jsotir@waubonsee.edu (J Sotir) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:58:00 +0000

There's a new addition to the Student Hotlists: ESL Civics. Check it out by going into the list, choosing ESL Civics and clicking on it to enter the hotlist. As with all the hotlists, new additions will be added as I find them. Anyone who has sites to add can add a comment to this post, and I will review the site and add it if it is academically sound.