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 [...]

Beth Kanter: The Networked Nonprofit (NMC Symposium Keynote)

Beth Kanter, International Social Media expert, gave the second keynote talk at the New Media Consortium’s Symposium for the Future today.  It was a wonderful session on the use of social media by non-profits, chock-full of great stories and examples.
She started off her session with a bang, by arriving in a Jetson’s-style vehicle, to the [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Twenty of My Favorite Things

Recently, a colleague asked me what ideas I might have for interesting student projects that would take advantage of these new, participatory media tools.  I thought about it and started to make a list.  I came up with about 30 ideas but some of them were a little weak…. so I whittled the list down [...]

Teaching and Learning with Wikipedia

Every once and awhile we see a new flurry of educational outrage over the idea of students using Wikipedia as a resource for their essays or projects.  Each time the kerfuffle flares up, I’m amazed all over again that teachers have this reaction.  If I understand the concerns correctly, they are 1) that Wikipedia is [...]

Vlogging

You may have already started a blog but here’s another idea to consider – a vlog.  As you can guess from the squished-together way these new technology terms are formed, a “vlog” is a “video blog”.  That is, a form of blogging in which the medium is video.
As a teacher, you might set up a [...]