Useful Links (weekly)

Perspectives

• educational-origami – Starter Sheets Variety of handouts on tools, these starter sheets are resources for the classroom teacher. The intention of each sheet is to introduce a tool, technology or activity that could be easily adapted for use in the classroom. Each sheet is created to a template design and should have the following features: * must be two pages * must have pictures that illustrate process and outcomes * process must be straight forward * must be simple to read and understand * must have clear benefits for the teacher in the classroom, the exemplar should be easy to adapt to a variety of classroom settings * must have an alternative – web based or application * must be linked to Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy and Sensory learning styles using VARK 

• iRubric: Home of free rubric tools: RCampus.com This online rubric maker has lots of premade rubrics by a variety of content areas and grade levels. While I wouldn’t use them as is, they can be a good place to start as you develop rubrics for a specific project.

• Clay Shirky: How Twitter can make history | Video on TED.com Clay Shirky shows how Facebook, Twitter and TXTs help citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news, bypassing censors (however briefly) re:The news from Iran. The end of top-down control of news is changing the nature of politics. A good overall presentation on how web 2.0 technology is revolutionizing the media landscape

• TheBrain – Mind Mapping Software, Brainstorming, GTD and Visual KM Software Mind Mapping Software. Simply type in your ideas. Drag and drop files and web pages. Any idea can be linked to anything else. Using your digital Brain is like cruising through a Web of your thinking. See new relationships. Discover connections. Go from the big picture of everything to a specific detail in seconds.  

• Diigo in Writing Class « What Else? 1DR Class collaboration 

• Welcome | Wordnik An ongoing project devoted to discovering all the words and everything about them. Wordnik wants to be a place for all the words, and everything known about them

• Wired for Books: poems, stories, plays, essays, lectures, and interviews for children and adults 

• Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free | Open Culture Download free MP3’s of great works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Authors include Twain, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Nietzsche, Asimov, HG Wells, Jules Verne, etc. Also see link to free audio and video downloads of university/college lectures on many different topics

• Modern Art 4 Kids tInteresting blog on all things art for students

• TAGmirror: An Educator’s Overview of Diigo [Geeky, Diigo] 

• The Philosophical Significance of Twitter: Consciousness Outfolding | techPresident In the larger picture, the most intriguing thing about Twitter is not how it is different from other online communication mechanisms, but how it is the same: one more technological innovation enabling the outfolding of consciousness – the collective turning-outward of human thought. 

• Wired Campus: Religion 101, in 140 Characters – Chronicle.com Stephen Prothero is helping world religions make their way onto Twitter this summer, one 140-character tweet at a time. The Boston University professor of religion is treating his account, sprothero, like a microcourse, posting several tweets on each of what he identifies as the eight major world religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Daoism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Yoruba tradition, which Mr. Prothero calls the “neglected world religion” from West Africa

• Simon & Schuster Launches Teen Networking Site – 6/17/2009 12:40:00 PM – Publishers Weekly Offers those who join up a subcription to some of their ebooks

• The Book Seer A very easy to use book suggestions website – enter the title and author of a book you enjoyed, and it will suggest similar books 

• June 4 Webinar: “Engaging the Digital Generation: Insights from Kids, Teachers, and Parents” | Edutopia This page offers the useful links talked about in the webinar  

• Digital Youth Network: Empowering Youth Through Media “Digital Youth Network gives students tools to be engaged, articulate, critical and collaborative. Facilitate the ability to become creators – designers, builders & innovators”

• The Digital Generation Project | Edutopia Keep track of the way digital learning is influencing the future of education.Today’s students are born into a media-rich, networked world of infinite possibilities. Their digital lifestyle is about more than just cool gadgets; it’s about engagement, self-directed learning, creativity, and empowerment. The Digital Generation Project tells their stories so that educators and parents can understand how kids learn, communicate, and socialize in very different ways than any previous generation. 

• SparkleBox – 1000s FREE printable Early Years and KS1 resources – phonics, posters, labels, signs, activities and more! The site offers a great many printables, posters, banners for classroom use Force unit it science 

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.