The magic of Twitter

This post is dedicated to all teachers who are not yet on Twitter or who are currently building their PLN (Personal Learning Network),

While studying my B.Ed, I remember my teachers always saying 'Do not re-invent the wheel'. When I started teaching, to avoid re-inventing the wheel, I would search online for what I was looking for. Unfortunately, I found that sometimes it could take a long time to find exactly what I was looking for (or I didn't find anything and ended up having to create something from scratch). This can become frustrating, if it happens often, since our time is so precious.

Over the years, as I have gained more experience teaching and I have learned that the Internet does have a lot of great resources but so do other teachers. So my conclusion is this, to avoid re-inventing the wheel we don't just rely on Internet searches, but we create and establish our PLN that should include (at least this is what I believe) connections made on Twitter. I strongly believe this because I have found this tool one of the quickest ways in finding an answer or resource.


Here is an image to help display how Twitter works for Educators:

http://blog.lifeisbalance.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/pay-it-forward.jpg

For example, you are looking for a Free Online Tool similar to Microsoft Publisher.

You can either ask your question (using Hashtags to target a certain group),  or direct your question to a few people in your PLN. You can even do both at the same time to increase your audience, however remember you only have 140 characters, so use them wisely.  After you have Twitted, you wait :) Hopefully you will have a response fairly quickly. If you don't get a response, follow up with those you contacted and you can even re-post your Tweet by re-wording it.  The magic of Twitter comes into play when people start to Re-Tweet your question and you get a fairly prompt response!

I have to admit, this may not happen overnight, but the more your become familiar with Twitter and the more your build you PL, the more the magic will happen.

For more tips on learning how to use Twitter as an educator, check out : http://twitterforteachers.wetpaint.com/

For a list of chats to get involved in on Twitter visit:
http://www.cybraryman.com/chats.html

Let the magic begin!

PS. To learn more about creating your PLN visit:
http://onceateacher.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/pln-your-personal-learning-network-made-easy/

Learning with Technology

What a few busy weeks of learning ahead of me!

1) This week I started my level 2 MYP Technology training online, where in addition to getting to know the program, I am meeting lots of great new IB technology teacher to collaborate with. http://www.ibo.org/

2) I am only a few weeks away from completing my Teaching and Learning with Technology course, in addition to 2 other courses, and am already very excited to see what January has in store for me.

3) Today I attended an amazing workshop : Friends For Life, http://www.friendsinfo.net/ca.htm, where I couldn't avoid sharing my two sense in using technology to help our students communicate with their peers, teachers and parents.

4) I plan to complete Google's certification to become a Google certified educator, over the holidays!!! So excited!!! http://www.google.com/educators/gtc.html

I just love learning, working with and exploring new technologies!

My quote for today:
"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you."
- B.B. King

Have a great weekend everyone!

Opps...Almost forgot about report cards and parent teacher interviews coming up!

Screencast-o-matic

My lessons just haven't been the same since I found out about this great computer screen recording tool, Screencast-o-matic: http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/screen_recorder

This tool is really easy to use!

You can save or upload your video into YouTube, you can embed your video into your webpage, blog or wiki and share with your students and other teachers.

Check out some of the PowerPoint presentations my students created and shared with their classmates, using screencast-o-matic.





Not only can your student record their presentations, but teachers can record their lessons for student to refer back to them later on!

Ever have students constantly asking questions about how to do something on the computers? By providing your students with a step by step video, they can watch it as many times as they need to in order to understand what they need to do!

Any online teachers out there??? What a great tool for students to use to be able to share their projects with peers in their virtual classroom.

Ready, set, record!

Tools for using YouTube safely in class!

For me, YouTube has become one of the first places I look to get a great "hook" to catch my students attention at the beginning of a new unit (and throughout). When I'm in the drivers seat, I can control what my students see.  However,  more and more my students are driving and this year I am offering an online course to my students,  therefore, I have been paying a lot more attention to the content on YouTube. Whether it be the comments at the bottom of the video, the video's that are available in the sidebar, the video's that show up after the video chosen is done, etc,  I am much more conscious of the video links I share with my students....until now!!!


After attending another fabulous Webinar organized by SimpleK12 (http://simplek12.com/tlc/webinars/),  I was introduced to some amazing tools that let you chop and purify those great videos!


1)  TubeChop allows you to easily chop a section from any YouTube video and share it. (You can also embed your chopped video into your website, wiki, blog, etc.)

http://www.tubechop.com/

2) Safe Viewing

• Safeshare: http://Safeshare.tv - Generate a link without the comments and related videos. (Ability to share the video via Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

• QuietTube http://quietube.com/ - This provides you with a button to put on your toolbar. When you open YouTube or other video sites, click on the button, and your video will be displayed without any ads, comments, etc.

• ViewPure http://viewpure.com/ - Very similar to QuietTube, however has a few more options.

Now I can share video's with my students without having to worry if something inappropriate or offensive will show up while they are viewing the video's links I have shared with them.

Did you also know that YouTube has a section for educators?

Check out : www.youtube.com/education

As well, for all the history teachers out there, this is really neat: YouTubeTimeMachine - http://yttm.tv - Where you can get videos from any year. Your students might really enjoy searching and watching video's of a certain time period!

For other additional resources visit: http://livebinders.com/play/present?id=172921 which also includes a list of YouTube alternatives.

Enjoy!