Twitter can be used in a number of ways in education. When I first started thinking about Twitter and its use in education, collaboration among teachers is what came to my mind. Twitter would be a great resource for teachers to use to communicate about curriculum. In Anne Arundel County we have pacing guides that tell us what to teach on certain days. Teachers could “tweet” each other about what day they are on in the pacing guide. Additionally, teachers could share ideas and websites that match the pacing guide and curriculum. Of course, using Twitter would be for short, quick comments due to the fact that “tweets” can be no more than 140 characters. For longer messages, teachers could post to blogs or email.
Twitter could also be used with students. It is an ideal resource for telecollaborative projects. In Social Studies we study urban, suburban, and rural areas in Anne Arundel County. Currently, we write letters to other schools informing them about our region and, in return, they write letters back to us about their region. The students enjoy hearing from other students about their school and region. The only complaint the students have is the length of time it takes to receive letters. I can only imagine the students excitement if they could sit down at a computer and send and receive real-times messages about different regions. This would give students the ability to ask questions and get immediate feedback. Using Twitter with this project would allow for a more exciting and meaningful lesson for the students.
Check out the Twitter blog for more ideas on using Twitter.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Twitter is a FREE social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send and read others’ updates. These updates are known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Twitter was started as a side project in 2006 and through the years has turned into a real-time short messaging service. Twitter can be used to access breaking world news or get updates from friends.
To get started with Twitter set up a profile. Click here to start your Twitter profile. Using this profile, you can find your friends and your friends can find you. Once you have set up a profile, you can customize the way your Twitter looks. You can add a photo, choose a color scheme, and add a background image. To protect yourself, you can also keep your updates private. You have the option to approve who can follow you and keep your updates out of search results.
Additionally, Twitter allows you to send updates while you’re away from your computer. You can do this via your mobile phone. It’s done through text messaging, also known as SMS, which has become very popular. If you use your phone in the U.S, Canada or India you can also receive updates via text messaging. If you are in an important meeting you text “OFF” to stop receiving your Twitter updates and “ON” when you are ready to start receiving them again.
To learn more about Twitter, check out this TeacherTube video.
Stay tuned for educational uses with Twitter!
To get started with Twitter set up a profile. Click here to start your Twitter profile. Using this profile, you can find your friends and your friends can find you. Once you have set up a profile, you can customize the way your Twitter looks. You can add a photo, choose a color scheme, and add a background image. To protect yourself, you can also keep your updates private. You have the option to approve who can follow you and keep your updates out of search results.
Additionally, Twitter allows you to send updates while you’re away from your computer. You can do this via your mobile phone. It’s done through text messaging, also known as SMS, which has become very popular. If you use your phone in the U.S, Canada or India you can also receive updates via text messaging. If you are in an important meeting you text “OFF” to stop receiving your Twitter updates and “ON” when you are ready to start receiving them again.
To learn more about Twitter, check out this TeacherTube video.
Stay tuned for educational uses with Twitter!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Furl, A Social Bookmarking Site
In my previous blogs, I blogged about portaportal, a web based bookmarking utility. After researching other bookmarking sites, I realized that portaportal doesn’t have as many sharing features as some of the other social bookmarking sites. Therefore, I decided to look at another social bookmarking site, Furl.
Furl is a social bookmarking site that allows you to save, share, and explore your favorite web pages. Like Portaportal, when you save a webpage using Furl, it is automatically downloaded and saved to your own personal library. Then you can view the website at any time.
Unlike Portaportal, Furl makes it easy to share all your great websites with your friends. You can email the links or make the URLs public. If you do not want to share, you simply mark that page private and it is for your eyes only! Furl also allows users to explore. Furl provides a most popular list of bookmarked webpages according to the Furl community. You can look at these links and filter them by topic and/or date. Additionally, you can explore latest headlines and hot topics. Other options include finding a member and joining groups.
Furl can be used in an educational setting, just as Portaportal. For more details on how to use Furl in education see my previous blog, Educational uses and Portaportal.
Click here to watch a TeacherTube video about Furl.
Furl is a social bookmarking site that allows you to save, share, and explore your favorite web pages. Like Portaportal, when you save a webpage using Furl, it is automatically downloaded and saved to your own personal library. Then you can view the website at any time.
Unlike Portaportal, Furl makes it easy to share all your great websites with your friends. You can email the links or make the URLs public. If you do not want to share, you simply mark that page private and it is for your eyes only! Furl also allows users to explore. Furl provides a most popular list of bookmarked webpages according to the Furl community. You can look at these links and filter them by topic and/or date. Additionally, you can explore latest headlines and hot topics. Other options include finding a member and joining groups.
Furl can be used in an educational setting, just as Portaportal. For more details on how to use Furl in education see my previous blog, Educational uses and Portaportal.
Click here to watch a TeacherTube video about Furl.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Educational uses with Portaportal
Portaportal is a great resource to use in the educational setting. It is a convenient method to share websites with colleagues and students.
Portaportal is a quick and easy way to pull up websites during teacher in-services. If you want to share a specific website during an in-service, you can just pull up your portal and click on the website. If a teacher cannot make the in-service, and you still want them to see the website, you could give that teacher your portal username and they could logon as a guest and view the website at their convenience.
Portaportal can also be used with students. On the portaportal home page, a teacher praises portaportal because of its time saving ability. The teacher says with portaportal, “the kids don't get bored while I peck away trying to type in an address.” Portaportal makes it easy for teachers to share numerous websites in the computer lab without having to bookmark the site on every computer in the lab. The teacher can save their portal on the goodies drive and have students access it there. Students can also access the portal from home using the guest access. This would allow the students to complete projects at home using the websites.
Check out the portal I have created to share websites with my colleagues and students.
A few other social bookmarking sites are Delicious, My Book Marks, and Diigo.
Here you can find the Top 30 Web 2.0 Social Bookmarking Sites as of October 2008.
Portaportal is a quick and easy way to pull up websites during teacher in-services. If you want to share a specific website during an in-service, you can just pull up your portal and click on the website. If a teacher cannot make the in-service, and you still want them to see the website, you could give that teacher your portal username and they could logon as a guest and view the website at their convenience.
Portaportal can also be used with students. On the portaportal home page, a teacher praises portaportal because of its time saving ability. The teacher says with portaportal, “the kids don't get bored while I peck away trying to type in an address.” Portaportal makes it easy for teachers to share numerous websites in the computer lab without having to bookmark the site on every computer in the lab. The teacher can save their portal on the goodies drive and have students access it there. Students can also access the portal from home using the guest access. This would allow the students to complete projects at home using the websites.
Check out the portal I have created to share websites with my colleagues and students.
A few other social bookmarking sites are Delicious, My Book Marks, and Diigo.
Here you can find the Top 30 Web 2.0 Social Bookmarking Sites as of October 2008.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Portaportal
What is portaportal? Portaportal is a free bookmarking utility. It allows you to store your favorite website links online, instead of on one machine. I can’t tell you the number of times I found a website at home that I wanted to use with my students, but just bookmarked it at home without saving it to my USB drive for school. With portaportal I don’t have to worry about this ever happening again! I can simply copy the URL, go to portaportal.com, and past the link in my portal. I like portaportal even more now that I know it is not blocked by my county’s filter.
Portaportal has many aspects that make it easy for users. It allows you to organize bookmarks into categories. You can divide your portal by subject, class, or whatever you want. If you don’t like one of your categories, no problem, you can edit it. If you want a more detailed organization method, you can add sub-categories. Once you have established categories you are ready to bookmark your links. To bookmark a link, highlight the URL, click the category where you want to add the link, give the link a title (anything you want), then paste the link. Additionally, portaportal allows you to tailor the detail of your portal to your liking. You can change the layout, colors, greetings, and many to the details. Here is a sample portal from portaportal.com.
Finally, portaportal allows you to share your portal, if you want. If you want to share your portal you simply give others your login name. Once they have your login name they may login using the guest access section. If you do not want to share your portal you can set your portal to deny guest access.
Do you think the name portaportal sounds like port-a-potty? Well, you are not the only one! In fact, it was in the frequently asked questions and the answer was…“it's supposed to be funny.” Check out other frequently asked questions about portaportal.
Portaportal has many aspects that make it easy for users. It allows you to organize bookmarks into categories. You can divide your portal by subject, class, or whatever you want. If you don’t like one of your categories, no problem, you can edit it. If you want a more detailed organization method, you can add sub-categories. Once you have established categories you are ready to bookmark your links. To bookmark a link, highlight the URL, click the category where you want to add the link, give the link a title (anything you want), then paste the link. Additionally, portaportal allows you to tailor the detail of your portal to your liking. You can change the layout, colors, greetings, and many to the details. Here is a sample portal from portaportal.com.
Finally, portaportal allows you to share your portal, if you want. If you want to share your portal you simply give others your login name. Once they have your login name they may login using the guest access section. If you do not want to share your portal you can set your portal to deny guest access.
Do you think the name portaportal sounds like port-a-potty? Well, you are not the only one! In fact, it was in the frequently asked questions and the answer was…“it's supposed to be funny.” Check out other frequently asked questions about portaportal.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Wiki Uses
There are a number of ways you can use wikis. Wikispaces.com offers many suggestions such as keeping a family scrapbook, organizing group activities, sharing passions and “energizing” the classroom.
I was interested in learning more about wikis because I was starting to hear the term used frequently in my county. One goal of the instructional technology department in my county is to have wikis approved and in use by students by the end of the school year. I think this is great because after experimenting with wikis I realize they can be very beneficial in the classroom setting. Wikis provide a great place for students to post their work so that their classmates can edit and discuss their work. This would be very beneficial when working in groups. Check out the wiki I created. This wiki is a culminating group activity for our first Social Studies unit.
Not only do wikis encourage collaboration among students due to the fact that they can post and edit each others work, but they also encourage collaboration between teachers and students. A student can post their work and the teacher can immediately give feedback to that student.
I think we are going to be hearing and seeing alot more about wikis in our school systems! The possibilities are endless. My school currently does an art exchange with a school in China. After experimenting with wikis, I have talked to the art teacher about possibly setting up a wiki where the students could post photographs of their art work. By posting their artwork on a wiki it would allow for more frequent exchanges. Additionally, the students could discuss the artwork. I am very excited for this possibility!
I was interested in learning more about wikis because I was starting to hear the term used frequently in my county. One goal of the instructional technology department in my county is to have wikis approved and in use by students by the end of the school year. I think this is great because after experimenting with wikis I realize they can be very beneficial in the classroom setting. Wikis provide a great place for students to post their work so that their classmates can edit and discuss their work. This would be very beneficial when working in groups. Check out the wiki I created. This wiki is a culminating group activity for our first Social Studies unit.
Not only do wikis encourage collaboration among students due to the fact that they can post and edit each others work, but they also encourage collaboration between teachers and students. A student can post their work and the teacher can immediately give feedback to that student.
I think we are going to be hearing and seeing alot more about wikis in our school systems! The possibilities are endless. My school currently does an art exchange with a school in China. After experimenting with wikis, I have talked to the art teacher about possibly setting up a wiki where the students could post photographs of their art work. By posting their artwork on a wiki it would allow for more frequent exchanges. Additionally, the students could discuss the artwork. I am very excited for this possibility!
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Wikis
Have you heard of Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that allows people all around the world to contribute information to the enclyclopedia? Well, Wikiepedia is a wiki, in fact it is the most famous wiki. So, what is a wiki?
Wikis are pieces of server software that allow users to create and edit webpages. Wikis are unique because they allow a group of people to enter and communally create and edit a webpage. Each participant is able to add to and edit the page when it is convenient for that individual. The participants do not have to be online at the same time. Participants can keep track of what changes have been made, who made the changes, and the date and time of the change. Therefore, if a participant does not like a change made, they can edit it.
Wikis are growing in their popularity due to the fact that they are so easy to create. Wikis do not require the participant to know html codes. Wikis give the user many options when creating their webpage. Users can personalize their page by choosing themes, colors, and adding logos. Additionally, wikis can have more than one page, meaning the user can upload pictures and files.
Public wikis are free. However, private or add-free wikis can cost monthly fees.
Another free wiki site is PBWiki.
To create your free wiki, visit wikispaces. If you still aren’t sure about wikis and want more information, check out this introduction video!
Wikis are pieces of server software that allow users to create and edit webpages. Wikis are unique because they allow a group of people to enter and communally create and edit a webpage. Each participant is able to add to and edit the page when it is convenient for that individual. The participants do not have to be online at the same time. Participants can keep track of what changes have been made, who made the changes, and the date and time of the change. Therefore, if a participant does not like a change made, they can edit it.
Wikis are growing in their popularity due to the fact that they are so easy to create. Wikis do not require the participant to know html codes. Wikis give the user many options when creating their webpage. Users can personalize their page by choosing themes, colors, and adding logos. Additionally, wikis can have more than one page, meaning the user can upload pictures and files.
Public wikis are free. However, private or add-free wikis can cost monthly fees.
Another free wiki site is PBWiki.
To create your free wiki, visit wikispaces. If you still aren’t sure about wikis and want more information, check out this introduction video!
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