Del.icio.us is YUMMY! November 5, 2007

What do you think of when you hear “it’s delicious”? I bet you might be thinking about food – unless you know a lot about technology! Well, the first time I heard about “delicious”, I was thinking about a red delicious apple! YUMMY!

In the technology world, del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website in which you can tag ALL of your favorite websites at ANY time and access them ANYWHERE! Sounds like yummy treat! It is!You’ll need to create a user ID and password but it is a free website that keeps all of your favorites for you. As an educator, it is so frustrating when you find an exciting education website that you want to share with your students, only to find out the link is at home. Put the frustration behind you and begin your very own del.icio.us account today.As an educator, student and one who likes to access technology in many places, I always forget the webpage links. After you create your user ID and password, forget anytime because del.icio.us will remember for you. Remember to add memorable names and tags so that you can easily find your bookmark when you want. Oh! There’s an added bonus! Del.icio.us also allows you to access other people’s accounts and add their links to your account…hence the “social” bookmarking! Try it out!A great tutorial has already been created by Michael Baker.

United Streaming November 5, 2007

For my current technology course, one of the objectives includes creating a tutorial for teachers in my school building that can help them with using technology.  For many educators, United Streaming is becoming more and more familiar and was requested the most at my school.  United Streaming is an educational website with many approved videos and lesson plans to make learning about subjects more interesting for the students. 

While proposing the idea of creating a tutorial about United Streaming for staff members in my school, my professor pointed out that they are many and specific tutorials already posted on United Streaming so there’s no use to re-invent the wheel.  There’s a Trainer’s Toolkit and Interactive Training.  The Trainer’s Toolkit includes staff development resources as well as ways to implement and integrate United Streming within your instruction.  The Interactive Training portion of the website includes 4 lessons – features & navigation, integration strategies, differentiated instruction, and teacher training and technical considerations. 

Everyday, our students “listen” to us!  Multiple intelligences are not always reached when students just listen so why not listen to a different voice?  How about watch an educational video?  For example, how would you teach 1st graders how to count backwards?  Well, after exploring United Streaming, I found a great segment about counting animals which leads to how salmon swim back up the stream.  The video shows the salmon jumping out of the water to move up stream to count to 20.  Then, the video is played backwards for the salmon to jump backwards; therefore, counting backwards.  What a creative way to teach counting backwards! 

The exciting part about United Streaming is that you do not have to show the whole video because they are broken down into segments for you.  Just find the segment you’re looking for and save it in your folder.  The benefits of United Streaming just continue!!!  If you have an account with United Streaming, check it out.  If you do not have an account with United Streaming, share the information with your technology coordinator so that you may access the links above.

The Myers Family November 5, 2007

Wow! I never knew putting together pictures from home, school, vacations, etc. could be so much fun! Ok, so have you ever attempted to put together a computerized slideshow of something special and technology fails/failed you? I have attempted to use my Kodak EasyShare program, PowerPoint and without making everything public on the internet, I haven’t felt safe enough to post pictures on the internet. So what do I do? Use Microsoft Photo Story!

I created my first Photo Story in my technology class on Tuesday and it was so much fun! Although it is my first Photo Story slideshow, I wanted to share it because even beginner work can look great because Photo Story is designed to help you step by step! This Photo Story slideshow is about my family but you can easily make an album for your students and current studies, a fieldtrip, teachers in your school for a Back to School Night, end of the year graduation, illustrations for a story and SO MUCH MORE! What are you waiting for, gather your digital pictures and make your very own Photo Story slideshow, using the free download (please read the system requirements before you download).

To see an example…look below at “The Myers Family” below! J