Social networking can take many forms.    It began with the sharing of information, and this information was primarily on a personal level.   When looking at items from Facebook or from MySpace, the trend was to make connections virtually that you may have previously made through social interactions on college campuses.   As the need to define who a person is became more important, information including what school they attended, where they worked, and who they knew were included ...

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                 Podcasts play an important role in technology in the classroom both currently and in the past.   Podcasts are a form of digital media that can consist of audio and visual information.    Normally they are recorded and then shared with others.   Originally a podcast could be part of a series, very similar in concept to chapters in a book.   Authors would produce new podcasts on different subjects, but ...

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I was first introduced to Mightybell a few months ago while working with an international project connecting the schools in Ridgefield, CT with schools in Africa. This project, called The Global Learning Network, was a new initiative for this group, which had originally used the NING platform for collaboration, and was now investigating this platform as a possible alternative. I do not see the two tools as the same type of ... << MORE >>

Although wikis are valuable in k-12 education, they are often misunderstood tools that many teachers find difficult to implement. When I first started attempting to integrate technology into the curriculum, I found it difficult to integrate wikis into many areas. They seemed to perform the same functions as blogs but were more complicated to manage.

Now I realize that both blogs and wikis have a place in education. I find that the place of wikis ...

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Accessibility Options

Many questions have been coming up lately regarding accessibility options for persons with disabilities.   Here are some resources.   There are few different options here and I will work on gathering more resources in the future.

Accessibility options within Windows – www.microsoft.com/enable

Accessibility options with Mac OS – www.apple.com/accessibility

Using the internal options that are part of the OS can be a very powerful tool for students now and in the future.   If students learn how ...

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Internet Safety

I attended a workshop on Internet safety and Social Networking.   It was very well done and had a number of great resources.   The presentation was by Gregory Dandio of the Trifection Group.    They will be a great resource to education.   Some of the resources they shared are:

www.internetsfety101.org

www.p12.nysed.gov/technology/internet_safety/teacher.html

www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/01/11-resources-for-teaching-learning-web.html

www.simplek12.com/internetsafety

www.netsmartz.org/educators

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One of the questions that come up most often is how to distribute information that you find only.  I have often struggled with this.  There are many options available.  Email is the easiest but can often get lost in someone's Inbox.  Twitter is another option but that also can sometimes be hard to follow and I am careful to not mix my personal life with my professional life. I am now using Scoop.it for this purpose.  It easily integrates into my browser and lets me place information on themed pages that I manage.  This will let me create a ...<< MORE >>

Educational blogs can be used to supplement K-12 education in many ways. They can serve as excellent tools for curriculum development as well for communication with parents and the public. I have used blogs for both curriculum development and communication over the past years with great success. Using blogs as a communication tool with parents and the public can be part of an excellent outreach program. One struggle faced by most school districts is determining how to communicate information effectively to parents and the community. I have promoted the use of blogs for this function by encouraging both school ...<< MORE >>

Accessibility Options

Many questions have been coming up lately regarding accessibility options for persons with disabilities.   Here are some resources.   There are few different options here and I will work on gathering more resources in the future.

Accessibility options within Windows – www.microsoft.com/enable

Accessibility options with Mac OS – www.apple.com/accessibility

Using the internal options that are part of the OS can be a very powerful tool for students now and in the future.   If students learn how ...

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