I have been so engrossed in SecondLife lately that I have neglected to write about free tools to use in education. VoiceThread is wonderful tool allowing the mix of images and audio, it also allows people to leave audio or text comments. It is well worth a look. I hope to spend some time experimenting once school.
I have finally gotten around to adding AnswerTips to the blog. Double click on any word and you will get a pop up definition and a link for audio. Please give it a try.
I am currently teaching a graduate course – Differentiating Instruction with Technology. The participants are very creative and enthusiastic. I have just been reviewing the first set of projects and I am very impressed. I hope at the end of the course to share some of the projects, activities, lessons and learning resources they have created on the district website and my resource wiki. In the mean time I wanted to share two tools that are making their ways around…
I while back my district along with many others in MA participated in a CAST grant to look at UDL (Universal Design for Learning) One of the principle tools we used was book builder, CAST has now placed this on-line for others to use. I really recommend a look. Related to that is a collaborative Internet project focusing on UDL. The Ladybug project by Susan Silverman is looking for participants. Please stop by and see if you might be interested….
I am creating my first video for TeacherTube, on how to embed the clips in PMWiki. I would like to blur out or block a piece of information. I know I have seen this in screencasts before, either the addition of the black box or blurred area. In fact I have even done this myself at one time but for the life of me can not think how to do it now. I am working on a Mac using Snapz…
I am a Mac user, though I work in a PC district, and who knows the way things are going I may soon be playing with linux. But when you are fighting an up hill battle to maintain the status quo it is hard to move forward let alone change direction, but I digress I am a Mac user, and sometimes I bring my Mac to work to use some of the productivity programs I have installed. A colleague asked…
I am currently putting together 2 courses for teachers in our district. One of the courses is called Differentiating Instruction with Technology. The purpose of this course is to help teachers focus on the needs of our ELL, Special Ed and Title 1 students, and to use the resources currently available to them to develop learning activities and resources that support these kids. Essentially we will look at what these kids need; clear expectations and objectives, opportunities for repetition, and…