Using QR Codes in the Classroom

Raise your hand if you know what that funny looking black and white thing is on the brick wall above.  That is a QR code. What, you may well ask, are QR codes?  QR = Quick Response.  A bit of an unknown here in the U.S., but they are all over Japan (and have been [...]

Using Diigo to Start a Conversation with Students

A set of Darwin bookmarks on my Diigo page.

I’m becoming increasingly fond of electronic bookmarking services like Delicious and Diigo. Diigo, in particular, has become my bookmarking tool of choice, because of their collaboration tools.  You can highlight, add sticky notes, search, make lists, and create groups. Here’s a 4-minute video showing how the Diigo collaboration tools work.
But [...]

Screenshots – How to Make Them and How to Use Them

Do you know how to take a picture of whatever is happening on your computer screen (known as a “screenshot”) and then play around with it and fancy it up?  If you do, find another entry on my blog to browse.  If you don’t — read on!
Taking a screenshot (and then futzing with it) can [...]

New Literacies: Inside and Outside School

“We are living in the middle of the largest increase in expressive capability in the history of the human race.”   Clay Shirky

I can’t help but notice the startling contrast between the world inside school these days and the world outside of school.  Outside of schools, students are talking about music they’re producing, online communities [...]

Build a Book Online

Here’s an online utility that you might want to consider using for student projects – – online book creation sites.  Sites like Lulu, XLibris, and Bookemon are free utilities that allow you to create a book, using your own assets (text and images).  These sites are well designed, easy and intuitive to use.

In order to [...]

Clever Use of VoiceThread

My friend, Tod Duncan (UC Denver) just sent this VoiceThread link to me.  It will take you to a Voicethread that he created to review the results of a recent exam given in his introductory biology course.  There’s so much to love about this!
First off, I appreciate the tone of he takes in the recording.  [...]

Say What?!

For those of you with weak stomachs, you might want to sit down before you read this one.  Chicago Public Schools have recently approved a district-wide policy that prohibits teachers from contacting students through cellphones, non-CPS email, Facebook, Twitter, blogs or any web site created off the district’s network.  Here is the pdf of the [...]

Chris Lehmann FCC Talk

Here’s a UStream video of a wonderful presentation from Chris Lehmann, Principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA. He gave a talk at the FCC National Broadband Planning Workshop yesterday (8.20.09) in Washington, DC. Here’s his blog entry about the talk (which includes a draft of his notes). Inspiring. [...]

Jaguar Conservation and Google Earth

I just returned from a participatory media workshop that I organized for a group of high school biology teachers at Washington University in St. Louis.  They were there for the summer institute portion of a very special masters degree program called the Life Science for a Global Community, funded by the NSF.  These 30 teachers [...]

Digital Media Student Projects

I’m always looking for good student media project examples from clever teachers and, lucky me, I hit the jackpot this week when I met Larry Schmidt.  Larry is a high school English teacher in Minnesota who teaches online courses for EdVisions High School.  EdVisions sounds like a pretty interesting idea….to quote their web site, it’s [...]