Mr. Walker's Technology Blog

The following website  has 16 live underwater webcams of the Gulf Oil Spill.  It is very interesting to watch. This type of resource would be great to pull up on a smartboard as a discussion starter. It would also have a place in current events lessons.

http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/bp-live-oil-spill-cam.html

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Sweet Search For Me (http://www.sweetsearch4me.com) is a new search engine specifically designed for k-8 students. While there have been many other search engines specifically geared for elementary school students  Sweetsearch4me is taking a more focused approach. Here is an explanation taken directly from their site:

“SweetSearch4Me searches only Web sites that our staff of research experts, librarians and teachers have evaluated and approved as high-quality content appropriate for young users. Only the best sites directed at elementary school students are included, and many of the results on the first page were created exclusively for kids. SweetSearch4Me was released in beta in late June 2010. We plan to spend the summer further evaluating and fine-tuning its results, and will formally release it in September 2010.”

The website seems to be promising. I did some test searches and was happy with the results that I received. The site also uses YOLINK services. This is a very unique approach to Internet searching and research. I was recently introduced to YOLINK. I will be testing it over the next couple of weeks. I hope to share my results in a blog posting shortly.

I would be happy to hear your opinions of this new search engine.

Enjoy!

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YouTube has launched a new video editor.  It allows you to trim videos that you find on YouTube or mix together videos that you have uploaded to YouTube. This could be very useful if you find a video on the site that you want to use in class but you only require particular segments of it. You may also find multiple videos that you would like to merge together as one and then download.

Richard Byrne, a fellow blogger that I follow, has created a very simple tutorial that explains how to use it. You can access that tutorial here http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=df6bwk2v_552gj98kwf9

Enjoy!

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The student’s in Ms. Cullinan’s grade 2 class took part in a very exciting project this school year. They made a connection with a class from Australia and another from South Korea. Ms. Cullinan organized the initial connection with a school in Australia through the EPALS network.

Here is a blurb about Epals taken directly from their site:

“Since 1996, ePals, the leading provider of school-safe collaborative learning products for K-12 students, teachers and parents, has been dedicated to helping learners from around the world connect and interact with each other online in a safe, educational environment. ePals connects teachers, students, parents and educators from around the world, enabling them to communicate and collaborate on academic and cultural projects and establish international friendships.

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I came across this website from a blog that i follow called “free technology for teachers“. The site has a fantastic collection of resources for teaching math. It was created by the National Council of Mathematics Teachers. The content is broken down into categories. You will find activities, lessons and web links. Each is segmented by topic and grade. There are complete lessons and activities for grades K-12. The web links section links to over 700 pre-qualified external activities for math instruction.

http://illuminations.nctm.org/

I found some great lessons and activities on this site. Take a moment to sift through some of the resources available. I welcome your comments and feedback.

Enjoy!

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Have you visited http://www.wallwisher.com yet? It is a Web 2.0 site that is fairly new. Wallwisher allows anyone to create a Wall. Each wall may contain digital post-its. A post-it may contain up to 160 characters of text and links to images, audio or video. The post-its may be organized on the wall anyway the user wishes.

A wall creator may share his or her wall by providing participants with a link. You may also adjust settings to approve all postings before they are published on the wall.  Wallwisher does  require an account to get started. An account is not required to post to a wall. 

There are many uses for Wallwisher in the classroom. Here are a few of my favorite:

1. Students may post what they already know about a topic or what they would like to know. (KWL)

2. Use one to post project links or resources.

3. Provide students with a question and allow them to answer it on a wall.

4. Create a wall to gather feedback regarding an event, reading, project, or trip.

5. Post student book reviews.

6. Add the names and details of veterans that students know for veterans day wall.

7. Create a wall to post “going green” pledges.

8. Use as a suggestion box

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The Louvre is offering virtual tours through the following website link

http://www.louvre.fr/llv/musee/visite_virtuelle.jsp?bmLocale=e.

Click the image to enlarge

Virtual tours are available for the following departments:

	Virtual Tours
		Near Eastern Antiquities
		Egyptian Antiquities
		Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities
		Islamic Art
		Sculptures
		Decorative Arts
		Paintings
		Prints and Drawings
		Architectural Views
		Medieval Louvre

Students can navigate their way through the hallways. By right clicking you can zoom in on a display. This is an amazing opportunity to visit one of the most well-known museums in the world.

Enjoy!

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Have you ever thought about introducing comic strip writing into your classroom? If you haven’t you may change  your mind after you take a look at http://www.makebeliefscomix.com.  Make Beliefs Comix was introduced to me by Dan Papa, MS Social Studies teacher in our district. After spending some time exploring this new resource i felt compelled to share it with you.

Click on Images to Enlarge

This site allows any user to create a multi-strip comic. There are a number of characters, emotions, thought bubbles,speaking balloons and background colors to choose from. Students can organize the characters on each strip and add text. They have some controls with regards to layout of the characters within the strip.

After adding the content to the comic the students have the option to print the final comic or email it. By using the print screen command on the keyboard the students can also paste the comic into word or PowerPoint.

This site has a number of applications for education. The website has a page of resources that lists 21 classroom integration ideas. Some of my favorites are listed below:

• Have students create a comic as a first day back project to discuss their summer.
• Students create a comic that depicts a conversation between characters in a story or historical figures.
• Teachers create comics with various emotions to teach behaviors to special needs students.
• Students create a comic to kick off a creative writing assignment.
• Students create a comic using new vocabulary words that are being taught.
• Students in a world language course may create a comic that contains text written in the language studied.
• Have students create a comic to demonstrate knowledge of life skills such as speaking with a bank teller, ordering at a restaurant, speaking with a doctor or going on an interview

I hope you enjoy this great resource. I would like to thank Mr. Papa for introducing it. If you use this site please let us know how you used it by leaving a comment below.

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MYBYTES is an interactive website sponsored by Microsoft. It contains a free and easy to use Music mixer that allows for the creation of your own music track. The finished track can be downloaded as an MP3 to be used in a digital story. Completed tracks can also be shared on the site for others to listen to or re-mix. The creator of the track must determine the usage rights that her or she will assign to their work.

Click on the images to enlarge

The software is very easy to use.  In order to save and share your work you must create an account. An email address is not required for account creation. That makes it very student friendly. Students can select and mix together various instruments to create their own track. The music can be composed for a digital story project or podcast. By adjusting the instrument choices and tempo students can create a specific mood for their story.

Upon completion on the music track the student is presented with a number of publishing options. He or she must decide on the usage rights that will be applied to the work. This offers an opportunity for a discussion on copyright, digital content and file sharing. The site offers a full curriculum on these topics as well as interviews from subject experts.

The shared tracks can be downloaded or saved as a ring tone. If published for others to download, share or remix, the website will track the number of requests. This provides a very authentic experience for students to learn about file sharing and usage rights.

The use of student created music in digital stories simplifies the publishing options for student stories. We do not have to worry about the presence of copyright protected music.  Students enjoy the process of developing music to fit their stories. This adds a level of excitement as well as depth to the final product.

Enjoy!

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There are two search features that Google offers that I would like to introduce. These features are found in the Google Image Search. We all know that Google is the primary website that our students go to conduct just about all Internet searches. Google Image search is their #1 location for images.  Unfortunately, many of our students do not know the copyright and usage rights associated with images that are found online. We have also found that the images available through Google Image Search are not always appropriate for a school setting or the eyes of a child.

Google has included two search setting located in their advanced image search that can help address these issues.  If you visit http://www.google.com and click on Images on the top left of the screen, you will be directed to Google Image Search. Once there you will see a link titled advanced image search located to the right of the search bar. Clicking on this link will direct you to the advanced search menu.

Within the advanced search menu you will see two settings that are of interest to this topic.

Click on the Image to Enlarge

1. SAFE SEARCH – Students can select to use Strict Search Filtering.  By enabling this setting you are filtering out images that are deemed innapropriate.

2. Usage Rights - The default setting for usage rights is to not filter by license. This  means that all of the images that are returned by a search may be subject to copyright. If you would like to limit the search to images that are free to use (not protected by copyright), you can select”Labeled for Reuse”. This will return only images that are allowed to be used.

3. Once you select these settings you can type your search terms in any of the find results boxes.

It is important that students are aware of these settings. They must be educated on the fact that it is against copyright laws to publish images on the Internet that are copyright protected. Digital Stories and Digital Posters are published online. Students working on these projects must use images with the proper usage rights.

For more information about images, videos and text that are free to use visit http://www.creativecommons.org

Enjoy!

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