I have been helping educators manage their own classroom blogs for a few years now. Most of them use the software to post announcements, assignments, reminders, etc. But a few are now engaging students in public responses to their blog posts, and a few more are exploring ways to engage students in writing the blog. In case you are in a similar situation, this resource might help you decide how to run a group-authored blog: [...]

Browsing the web recently I happened across a post in the Chronicle of Higher Education which offered a suggested evaluation rubric for blog posts. I thought if of value and wanted to share: Rating Characteristics: 4 – Exceptional. The blog post is focused and coherently integrates examples with explanations or analysis. The post demonstrates awareness of its own limitations or implications, and it considers multiple perspectives when appropriate. The entry reflects in-depth engagement with the [...]

I spoke to a colleague this morning about setting up a blog, and during the conversation he mentioned that he was currently using Twitter to keep parents/guardians updated about what is happening in his classroom. That comment prompted me to look for a WordPress plugin that would send a tweet each time there was a new blog post, thus saving the teacher from having to create two entries – one for his blog and one [...]

Doug Johnson, author of The Blue Skunk Blog, posted his list of educational technology resources that are not going to go away. He calls it his “short list” but there are more than a dozen items in his list such as cellphones / smartphones, gaming in education, online classes / schools, and open source software. After reviewing his list, what other resources would you add?

I don’t remember exactly how I came across Dr. Scott McLeod‘s name, but I am so glad I did. I have enjoyed subscribing to his blog, dangerously irrelevant for a long time. Recently, he has started another blog, Mind Dump that I have also added to my blogroll. Both are worth your time and subscription.

Having created a video Playlist, now we need to share it. The first step will be to create a custom video player to display your Playlist. To begin, login to your YouTube account. Click on your username and select Account from the drop down list Look for the More column and click on the Custom Video Players link On this page, we create a new video player and customize its appearance. Click on the Create [...]

If you don’t belong to ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development), you might have missed this article, Learning with Blogs and Wikis, in the February 2009 issue. Bill Ferriter makes a convincing case for educators to use technology to further professional development. Definately worth a few minutes to read. There are tips to get started with reading blogs, links to educational blogs that he follows, links to blog sites if you want to get [...]

I spoke to a colleague this morning about setting up a WordPress blog. During the conversation, he mentioned the he is currently using Twitter to keep parents/guardians updated about what is happening in his classroom. That prompted me to look for a WordPress plugin that would send a tweet each time there was a new blog post, thus saving the teacher having to create two entries – one for his blog and one for Twitter. [...]

In her April 19th post on The Edurati Review, Kelli Hines reminds us that education is not about the technology. She lists four things that teachers must recognize to impact students in this generation: Teachers must be learners. Learning and Teaching are not the same thing. Technology is useless without good teaching. Be a 21st Century Teacher without the technology. Take a few minutes to read her post. I think it is worth the time. [...]

There are times when I want to share information on a web page with my colleagues. I know their time is valuable so to get them to view the part I want them to see, I often use “kwout” to highlight the section. Tool: http://kwout.com What Is “kwout”? kwout allows you to quote all or part of a web page as an image. By adding a bookmarklet to your favorite browser, you can select portions [...]