Daily Finds from Pat Sine

Learning about Podcasting

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Wed, 4 Oct 2006 14:12:00 -0400

This week I'm doing a presentation on podcasting. I've created a set of resources for this. I've also got some demo pocasts available at this feed.

Read, Write, Think

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 08:10:00 -0400

This morning at the College School we spent quite a bit of time looking at useful Read, Write, Think tools. This site is always being updated so regular visits will always yield some new, useful items.

Character Trading Cards -- 3rd and up
This would work for comparing two characters in a book. This could be used for capturing information about any character in a book and could be a way to capture insights that might not be identified in more traditional writing tasks.

Get the Reel Scoop: Comparing Books to Movies-- K - 8 max
Although this is listed for grades 3-5, the variety of worksheets and plans can be adapted to support classroom discussions or reports for grades K-8.

How Does My Garden Grow? Writing in Science Field Journals
-- K-2 recommended, could use up to 4th with adaptations
This lesson plan supports the traditional seed-growing activity by providing organizers for science journals. There are good links, including a video of a plant that did grow successfully.

Letter Generator -- 2 - 4
This interactive tool provides a scaffold for students to create letters online. Finished products can only be printed but there is a selection of different stationary. Students must finish the letter in one sitting.

Developing Reading Plans to Support Independent Reading
-- 4 -8 depending on scaffolding
This plan uses the online graphic map to help students and teachers develop reading plans to be used to helps kids choose new books by detecting patterns in what they have enjoyed in the past.

Word Sorts for Beginning and Struggling Readers -- pre- and early struggling readers
This plan includes a variety of on- and off-line activities including a Flash activity for reinforcing word attack skills.

Stapleless Book -- any grade

This tool was deemed NOT GOOD by the reviewers, especially for the early reader/writers who might find this most useful. Even though there are lots of templates to create the book, you can't insert your own pictures. It doesn't print the pictures so students have to deal with words before pictures making it less useful for young students.

There is a Stapleless Book Planning Sheet that might be helpful to use offline.

Notetaker - 2 - 8
This online tool helps kids organize ideas into a formal outline of 5 levels. Includes a tutorial and can be saved for further work by cutting and pasting from the preview or printed.

Guess What's in the Bag activity - K - 2
This lesson plan supports the development of descriptive vocabulary.

Poetry Resources from Read,Write, Think
Finally, here's a quick list of poetry resources.
Shape Poem -- limited because of the limited number of shapes 1-3
Diamante Poems - very good -- any age
Acrostic Poems -- good -- 3rd and up
Letter Poem -- weak -- don't bother with this one.

EDC Feature Articles: Tech-Savvy students Influence Teacher Choices in the Classroom

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Mon, 6 Feb 2006 16:33:00 -0500

EDC Feature Articles: Tech-Savvy students Influence Teacher Choices in the Classroom explains how the most tech-savvy students drive the way teachers teach, as well as the content of the curriculum. They are also positively influencing other students. This comes from a survey of teachers.

Why Rubrics?

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 11:03:00 -0500

I came across this quote in an article from COSN. It's actually from Reinventing Government by David Osborne and Ted Gaebler.

What gets measured, gets done.
If you don't measure results, you can't tell success from failure.
If you can't recognize failure, you can't correct it.
If you can't see success, you can't reward it.
If you can't see success, you can't learn from it.

A Gcast Podcast

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 16:04:00 -0500

Here's something new. I can create account at gcast.com. Then I just call a toll-free number and record my message. Bingo! No software, no hosting and my podcast is all online! Check this out: psine's Podcast: "Dec 14, 2005 Phone call"

More great terms

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 11:15:00 -0500

Continuing from my last post, here's a new one: GoogleWashing.
Prevent Googlewashing From Harming You

Besides that, buried in the article is a quote from a "relevance data analyst for MSN Search." That's got to be high up on the example jobs that are new for the 21st century!

Fun Phrases for the Week

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 14:45:00 -0500

This week I've come across two new memes that should show up more often.

Architectural Inversion -- http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?doc_cd=131689

Mental Multitasking Wetware -- http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2005/10/26.html

These are both just fun to think about!

Sunset from Flickr

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 12:49:00 -0500

Sunset
Originally uploaded by karo.lina.

Here's another photo I liked from flickr. And I added it to my blog by searching at flickr and then clicking "blog this" right above the picture.

Low Tide via Flickr

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 13:06:00 -0400

Low Tide
Originally uploaded by Ally123.

Here's a new site (well, new to me) that I'm exploring today. The site is flickr which allows anyone to post photos. The interesting and new thing about this site is that it also allows "social tagging" so that anyone can tag anyone else's photos. In fact, the photo I'm blogging about right now was found by using the "random photo" tool developed by some other flickr user. I have my blog entered in flickr and I can post it on my own site.

What Wiki should I use?

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 20:16:00 -0400

I'm adding this to my blog today because I've gotten the question three times in the past two days so it seemed like a good time to summarize things.

The first part of the question usually is "Where can I set up a wiki so my students and I can try this out?" My experience has led me to two places where you can do this for free: Seedwiki.com and Xwiki.com Both are free and give you enough room to get a decent sized project going. Both have recently upgraded their offerings as they now also support commercial clients. Another interesting one is WikiSpaces, although I have not tried this one. The other free wiki space that gets a lot of coverage is JotSpot. I've only gotten a site and dabbled a bit, but it is less straightforward and less wiki-like for my tastes.

The second part of the question usually is "We'd like to host our own wikis here. What software should we use?" Over the past year OET has tried out a few different pieces of software. Our criteria included easy editing, representative of the common wiki conventions, relatively simple to install and maintain, and free.

At this point, we are using PMWiki on our IIS server. This also requires Perl and we are using the free version of ActivePerl.

The definitive answer to all of this is really the definition of wiki at Wikipedia. This will also lead you to the WikiBook project and the Wiki Science: How to Start a Wiki book. The beauty of this, of course, is that since these are wikis, the community keeps them up-to-date!

My First Podcast

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Sat, 24 Sep 2005 14:47:00 -0400

I wanted to try out creating and publishing a podcast. I've put the MP3 file on my own server space. And this link should launch the words of wisdom.... Well, you be the judge.

Technology and Multiple Intelligences

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 15:48:00 -0400

These pages by Annette Lamb explain the kinds of tools and strategies to use technology to address multiple intelligences. Each intelligence is explained briefly. Then various technologies and their support for the specific learning style is explained.

This is part of the larger Eduscapes Professional Development site.

Measuring Digital Opportunity for America's Children

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 19:34:00 -0400

The Children's Partnership has released a new report, Measuring Digital Opportunity for America's Children, which looks at the ways the Internet and ICT can improve children's lives across a range of measures. The report also points out an opportunity gap, otherwise known as the digital divide, between different groups of kids.

Digital Storytelling

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 14:59:00 -0400

This site, developed at the University of Houston College of Education, is a course in itself on what digital storytelling is. It also has great stories that can be used as multimedia content for other classes.

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Thu, 9 Jun 2005 20:36:00 -0400

Is this News for 2014?

This is a great take on what news might evolve to by 2014. Take a look at the video created at Georgia Tech. US News has an interesting summary and commentary on the item.

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Tue, 7 Jun 2005 21:08:00 -0400

New Maps for the 21st Century

A great place to find maps these days is Google Maps. These folks have added additional features and built on top of its functionality.

An article from Forbes: Google Maps Make Demographics Come Alive

Examples

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Wed, 4 May 2005 11:27:00 -0400

Campus Technology: Tinker before training

This is a reader response to an earlier article and makes the point that teachers need to be lifelong learners. This is a very articulate examination of just why teachers are not as tech literate as students.

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 15:23:00 -0500

These resources address the question of how to manage computers in the classroom.

Computer Classroom Management from Internet4Classrooms
This collection of links covers everything from one computer in the classroom to a full computer lab.

Managing Technology: Tips from the Experts
From Education World, this website offers 33 tips to make technology-based lessons in your classroom run a bit more smoothly. Includes ways to use red plastic cups, colored dots, and plastic hooks to help manage the student flow.

National Teacher Training Institute’s Managing Students With Computers Online Workshop
This brief workshop offers best practices for helping you and your students get the most out of your computers in the classroom or in the lab. This provices helpful tips on making whole class presentations and on dealing with special issues and challenges.

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Thu, 17 Mar 2005 21:30:00 -0500

EDUCATING THE NET GENERATION

Published by EDUCAUSE, this free book discusses the aptitudes and learning styles of those who have grown up with information technology. The book contains 15 chapters by various writers and is available in HTML and PDF formats. Professional printing options are also available. (Source: UCF-AECT listserv) Related URL: http://www.educause.edu/books/educatingthenetgen/5989

From News for Educators Online Now

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Wed, 1 Dec 2004 15:56:00 -0500

Dr. Kathie Nunley's Layered Curriculum Web Site for Educators

This site presents an attractive way to manage a classroom offering multiple options for students to learn the content via their own path. Units are set up with required and optional activities such that all students must attempt C level work, but there are additional options for B and A level work. Also, within the levels, there are opportunities to attain the grade in several different ways.

Besides all of the background information, there is a rich library of sample units that can be downloaded and adapted. Most units contain technology applications and/or web resources.

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 14:09:00 -0500

Assign-a-Day
http://assignaday.4teachers.org

This FREE tool from HPR*TEC is designed to enhance teacher and student communication through an on-line teacher-managed calendar. Teachers create a calendar for each of their classes and add assignments for the students to view. Students view their teachers’ calendars in order to see assignments for classes they might have missed, or to get an overview of the class.

This is only for school, activity and class calendars and others will be removed. Also, calendars with no entries are deleted within 2 weeks.

Calendars are open to whoever chooses to look at them, no passwords. They can also be seen in a "print" version. You can link right to the calendar from your webpage or send the students and parents to the main page to search by number or teacher name.

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 10:26:00 -0500

SURFING THE NET WITH KIDS
Each week at Barbara Feldman's Surfing the Net with Kids site, she picks a single topic (such as Rainforests, Hubble Space Telescope, Mozart, Dolphins, or Plate Tectonics) and chooses the best sites to explore. The entries are dated so you can tell when each resource list has been updated.
http://www.surfnetkids.com

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 10:08:00 -0400

RED HERRING Wiki wars
Think this year's presidential debates have been rough? Check out Wikipedia

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia Web site that allows community members to edit entries, has turned into the latest battleground between political parties. Disputes over content related to President Bush and Senator Kerry have been growing since August, prompting site administrators to warn users that election-related entries may be the focus of "contention and debate -- possibly diminishing their neutrality." Indeed, the continual tweaking of content on the Bush and Kerry entries has forced administrators to periodically "freeze" the pages, locking out would-be tweakers. Even so, Bush's entry has been edited 3,953 times and Kerry's has been modified 3,230 times. In comparison, the entry on Jesus has been edited only 1,855 times since the site's inception in 2001. Wikipedia creator Jimmy Wales says next year he will begin using editors to review content for accuracy and will allow users to rate the entries for quality. "It's complex because it's a social community and feelings can be hurt," says Wales. (Red Herring 14 Oct 2004) (clipped from NewsScan 10/15/04)

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Fri, 1 Oct 2004 11:27:00 -0400

Digital Divide?Where To Go From Here - Kaiser Family Foundation

This issue brief, “Children, The Digital Divide, and Federal Policy,” includes new research findings and reviews the latest information on wiring the nation’s schools and libraries, including points of access, the speed of connection, and what children are doing online. The report also examines current Federal policies and policy ideas that could address the new digital divide.

noreply@blogger.com (Pat Sine) — Thu, 23 Sep 2004 09:59:00 -0400

Beginner's training for Office 2003

Microsoft provides over 100 self-paced tutorials with tests to help learn each of the Office products. Although these are for Office 2003, many of the skills are very basic and are offered in every version of Office. There are automatic downloads into the target programs so you can practice what they are teaching on your own computer. There are also tests for each item.