100 Tools For The Twittering Teacher

As I have said before, Twitter is my favorite Professional Learning Network (PLN). Regular readers (or those just stopping by) have read about my obsession with this service and how I believe it will change education as we know it. But what if you are new to Twitter? Where do you start? Who do you follow? Do you use the web-based service or one of these desktop clients?

Best Colleges Online has created a list of the Top 100 Tools For The Twittering Teacher. While I would not have included all that on are their list (I will let you be the judge of that.) here are my favorites, some I use, some I intend to, from their list, broken down by category:

Managing Twitter
TweetDeck: You can create Twitter groups on TweetDeck, so you can keep your school and personal contacts somewhat separate. (This is what I use. There are lots of Twitter Desktop Clients out there but this one is a favorite of lots of users. Other favs are Sessmic Desktop and twhirl.)

Splitweet: Get multi-account management using Splitweet, so you can separate your educational and personal accounts. (If you are like most educators you wouldn't want your classroom account to turn into you personal account. You can use this client to run them both, but don't get confuses...)

Finding Friends
Twits Like Me: Find other users in education through Twits Like Me.

WeFollow: WeFollow offers a user powered Twitter directory.

Twitter4Teachers: (Not in the list but should be!) This is the best place to find educators that you want to help build your PLN. And remember to add your name and info so others can add you!

Sharing
LiveTwitting: During lectures, events, and more, you can use LiveTwitting instead of liveblogging.

TwitPic: You can share photos on Twitter, or find photos from all around the world using this service.

Twitter Weather: Share daily weather updates with your class by using Twitter Weather.

News And Research
Twiggit: Using Twiggit, you can find news and articles related to your curriculum.

twAnswers: Ask a question, and get an answer from Twitter by using twAnswers. (This one is really cool!)

Twitterers
@weather: You’ll learn about weather news from the Science News Blog from @weather.

@donorschoose: Follow @donorschoose to learn about funding for public schools.

@educationweek: @educationweek shares news about American education.

@digidirections: Check out @digidirections to learn about trends and advice in K-12 technology. (Great for Web 2.0 Info.)

There are other categories like games, productivity, and integration that I did not cover here. But I think you get the idea. There are so many tools out there to really get the most out of Twitter, no matter what you use it for, but especially for education. So head on over to the Best Colleges Online Blog to harness the power of Twitter!

100 Tools For The Twittering Teacher

Post Your Presentations For The World To See

If you haven't been posting documents online then it is time to get with the Web 2.0 Program! Document sharing is all the rage, everyone is doing it! There are sites like Google Docs and Zoho that allow you to create the documents or presentations right on the site and share them with users you designate or open them up to the world. One of the new kids on the block is SlideShare. This site allows you to post your Power Points, Documents and PDF's to share with anyone. Going to a conference? Don't want to print handouts or copies. Give participants your SlideShare address and they can go get your stuff. What is even more cool than Google Docs or Zoho is that if you have a presentation you can narrate it, sync the slides and post it so that when it is viewed it plays like a video. Presentations can also be shared on all the social networking sites and can be embed on blogs and webpages.

Below is a Beginners Guide to Using SlideShare in the Classroom. You can also head over to my SlideShare page to view other presentations like Smartboard 10, Classroom Performance System and more.

The Digital Classroom-Slideshare Basics

View more PDF documents from Steven Anderson.

Summer Reading....It's Not Just For Kids Any More

We are at that point in the traditional school year where students are beginning to receive their summer reading lists. Kids from Kindergarten to college-age students will have required reading over the summer. But they aren't the only ones any more.

Lee Kolbert over at the Geeky Momma's Blog recently asked for readers to submit suggestions for a Teacher's Summer Reading List. The list she has compiled is comprehensive and includes some "classic" education titles and some you may not have thought of. Here are a few highlights from her list:

What Great Teachers Do Differently by Todd Whitaker

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina

The End of Education by Neil Postman

You Haven't Taught Until They Have Learned by Swen Nater and Ronald Gallimore

The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter

Outliers by Malcom Gladwell

The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything by Sir Ken Robinson

This is just a sample from her list. There are over 50 there; enough to keep you busy as you waste away the days on the beach or at the lake or where ever you go on vacation. Whatever you do this summer, take some time, find some books and read and become inspired!

An Educators Summer Reading List

Image Courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons

Planning For Next Year...10 Tips For Technology Leaders

As the school year winds down, those involved with Technology Planning, inevitably turn to thinking about where the program has gone this year and where we want it to go next year. If you are like my district, your school or district has a survey to ask all stakeholders about the current state of the technology program, whether or not goals were met, and what sorts of focus there should be for next year.

As you analyze the current state of your program there are a few things to keep in mind as you plan for next year. Scholastic has come up with a great list of 10 Tips for School Technology Planning. Here are a few highlights;

Keep First Things First- Just because it's a cliché doesn't mean it's not true. The best touchstone in times of uncertainty is your school or district's core mission — whether it's the one framed inside the lobby or the one everyone who works there just knows. Before you add one more computer or one more software license to your stockpile, ask yourself how it fits into the larger picture and meets your goals."How will this help raise test scores in math? How will this improve students' reading levels?" If there's no good answer to the question at hand, skip the initiative or move it down the priority list

Think Open- One of the emerging themes in education technology is the ability of your boxes, wires, and software to work together with any other boxes, wires, or software. From interoperability to true open source, the move is away from proprietary systems that force you to go back to one vendor for every new need. Always be on the lookout for ways to make your technology plan as open and flexible as possible — even if it means having fewer goodies in the short term.

Think Fat- You just can't have too much bandwidth these days, especially as the Internet and intraschool networking become essential parts of day-to-day activities. Upgrading your schools' connection to the Internet, linking your facilities together in a fast WAN, and beefing up your LANs should be near the top of your priority list every year.

Learn From A Kid- As important as it is to have your top staff members involved in the school's technology enterprise, there is no substitute for the student's-eye view. A computer-savvy sixth grader can show you more of what is happening now, and will be happening in the future, than any collection of experts. For best results, do this in the student's home setting where technology is not limited by your school's current plan. It will require courage on your part to admit what you don't know, but it will give you the insight you need to chart a successful course into the future of technology.

So those are just a few tips to keep in mind. For the rest of the list head on over to Scholastic and get planning for a great school year!

10 Tips For School Technology Planning

Image Courtesy Flickr Creative Commons

Changing The World....In 18 Minutes

Recently a friend sent me a link to a presentation by one of my most favorite people. When I was a science teacher I regularly used clips of episodes of Mythbusters in my classroom. The way they approach scientific problems is classic (and the kids love to see stuff blow up!). Adam Savage, one of the hosts of that show has got to be one of the most eccentric men around. Not only is he a talented artist but he is just the kind of guy you could hang out with and talk to endlessly about science. Anyway, back on point. A friend of mine sent me a video of a talk he did about his search for the dodo bird and how it lead him to another obsession. Check it out....



This presentation is part of the TED Series of lectures. (Technology Entertainment Design). Each year in Long Beach the TED group brings together the worlds most "fascinating thinkers and doer's." Each presenter chooses their topic and has 18 minutes to present. From their Mission:

"We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we're building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other."

Over the years they have had 100's of interesting speakers talking about all sorts of topics. From Al Gore talking about climate change to Billy Graham talking about Technology and Religion to the famous Johnny Lee video making an Interactive Whiteboard out of a Wii remote, there are some very interesting, passionate and provocative presentations.

You can search their site by topic and/or presenter for find a video. Or you could use the TED Talks Google Doc to find information also. However you do it, you need to spend some time with the best Thinkers and Doers in the world. Head on over to TED and see how some are changing the world in 18 minutes.

TED Talks-Ideas Worth Spreading

FInd The New and Best Web 2.0 Tools To Use with Go2Web20...

As someone who blogs about Web 2.0 and all the tools associated with this movement I always have my interest piqued when I am able to find a site that has all these resources in one place for me to review.

Go2Web20 is a site that I have known about for a while now that I check out on a regular basis to see what is new an hip out there in the world of Web 2.0. The site is slick in its design and very easy to use. You can sort by the recently added Apps and sites or can narrow your search by using the tags.

Basically, the folks over at Go2Web20 have done the research about each tool/app/site for you. Often we hear about tools and sites from colleagues or see a tweet about them on Twitter. Then its up to you to do the research. Sometimes you have to install something or register for something, only to find out that it was not for you or what you wanted. Go2Web20 has taken care of all that for you.

When you find a tool you want to know more about you click it and you get a great description, links to blogs that have entries related to the tool, the number of times it has been saved on the social bookmarking site Delicious, the Tweets on Twitter about the tool and, if they have one, a link to a Twitter account for you to follow.

They have the ol' stand-by's like Twitter, Evernote, You Tube...you get the idea. But they have tons of others that are really awesome. Here are some of my newly discovered favorites:

Picture Trail- PictureTrail offers several services that enable you to express yourself. Photo sharing, cool photo slideshows, and image hosting will enhance your online community experience. PictureTrail also host personal homepages which enable you to build your own social networking community right here on PT. It supports Myspace layout codes as well as music and web widgets from anywhere on the web.

Tikatok-Tikatok is a community for children to write illustrate and publish a real book. With Tikatok, becoming a published author is easy. Just write a story, illustrate it and order as many copies as you want. Tikatok features a suite of free teacher tools and has seen over 1000 teachers register to run bookmaking projects in their classrooms.

embedit.in- embedit.in is a new service that lets you embed files in your website. just upload your files and click the “Embed It!” button. After a quick login screen that lets you use accounts you already have (no registration required), you’re instantly shown the document or documents along with the code to embed it in your own blog, profile page, or website.

Those are just 3 of hundreds for you to check out. Oh and if you want to know about new sites and apps as they are added just follow G02Web20 on Twitter. So head on over and see what you can discover...

Go2Web20- The Ultimate Web 2.0 Directory

Another WolfRam Alpha Review....

Lately, the "Twitterverse" and the rest of the Internet has been a buzz about a new conceptional search engine called Wolfram Alpha. A quick search of Google reveals several bloggers calling it a "Google Killer." But what does it do? How can you use it in your classroom. Here are a few ways.

First, Wolfram Alpha is not a search engine. You can not enter terms like "Web 2.o" or "whiteboard" and get website results like Google, Yahoo or other search engines. What this site does is bring you "Conceptual Knowledge." From their About page:

"Wolfram|Alpha's long-term goal is to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone. We aim to collect and curate all objective data; implement every known model, method, and algorithm; and make it possible to compute whatever can be computed about anything. Our goal is to build on the achievements of science and other systematizations of knowledge to provide a single source that can be relied on by everyone for definitive answers to factual queries."

So what does it do? If you need scientific calculations or comparisons, especially for students doing research. This is the place to go.

Let say you are having your students investigate nutritional information for local restaurants. Type in "Big Mac Whopper" and you will be presented with the nutritional information (in the typical label format) for comparison.

The site is also great at calculations. Enter "x^2 sin (x)" and the engine will compute the answer for you, no fancy calculator needed.



Enter the name of a city and you will get its current population, location, current weather conditions, time and elevation.

There are a few downfalls. Lets take the search for city. There is one related link to Wikipedia. This is the case for most of what is searched. Also if you don't get the search terms just right the engine will assume, sometimes incorrectly, what you meant and return results for you. For example I used the term "news" and the engine returned stock quotes and business information for News Corp.

Your students doing research on planets? Do you need detailed scientific information on the binterong? The site is great for facts. It should be the first stop for finding factual information on a wide variety of topics. However, it should not be used for general search, and that is not its purpose.

Is it a Google Killer? Probably not. Does it do a better job at calculations, comparisons, and simple facts than Google. Yep! So use it wisely. Oh and if you are looking for something funny, type in 88mph or Where Am I, or Who Are You and see what the engine comes up with....so head on over to Wolfram Alpha and see what you can compute!

Wolfram Alpha Conceptual Knowledge Engine