Simulating social networking sites for student projects has become a popular strategy for instructors. Here are links to some resources: Facebook Project & Template – A PowerPoint slide template and a Word document with directions and a scoring rubric. My Fake Wall – A site sponsored by Cavi Studio. User registration required. Fakebook – Site sponsored by ClassTools.net

I am prepping for a presentation to middle school girls on the topic of Internet safety next week. Looking through some of my resources, I stumbled upon these videos on YouTube. They might be a resource worth sharing with students and other educators.  

From Edutopia: Want to know your learning style? Take the quiz. There are 24 questions, and it will take less than five minutes to complete. Try not to think too hard — just go with your first thought when describing your daily activities and interests. At the end, you’ll find out more about how you learn. *If you would like to your results saved then please login first. What’s Your Learning Style? | Edutopia Just [...]

Would you like to… Meet new people? Discover new cultures? Connect with classes from around the world? …all without leaving your classroom? Then check out Skype in the Classroom (beta). Setting up an account is easy and should take just a few minutes. To do so you will need to enter a screen name*, e-mail address*, avatar, categories*, location*, description*, website / blog URL, and select student age ranges. Required fields are marked with an [...]

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: [...]

In the January 2011 issue of the Journal, author Bridget McCrea writes about five free professional development resources. One of those five resources is Teachers’ Domain. McCrea writes, “Teachers’ Domain is an online library of more than 1,000 free media resources from public television. Featuring content from Frontline, American Experience, Nova, and other public broadcasting programming, the site is run by the WGBH Educational Foundation, a Boston-based organization that operates the local PBS affiliate, and [...]

Ever want to know what is new at Discovery Education in your subject area and grade level? Well know there is an easy way to find out without logging into the web site and searching. All we have to do is create an RSS feed! Watch the tutorial below to find out how! Please keep in mind that you must have a Discovery Education account, and an RSS reader account. In this example, I will [...]

In a recent post, I demonstrated how to use PowerPoint to create images for use in a blog. Here is another way that you can use the “save as…” image function to create classroom posters. A colleague recently learned that a local Costco would print a poster size product for about half the price of the typical office business stores like OfficeMax and Staples. The first time she tried to upload an image file created [...]

Looking for another way to use a wiki? How about having the students take class notes? I came across the concept from this post: The Salt-Box » Wikified class notes In the post, the author outlines the first attempt at having college students enter class notes on a wiki and then provides the criteria for the second version: Creating a 75-100 word statement of the main idea or unifying theme of the class.  (For a [...]

SimpleBooklet claims to be “The web’s simplest booklet publisher.” Well, I like to consider myself a simple person, so if they made the claim, I was going to test it. And I did. There are several levels of accounts but I, of course, chose the free demo which did not require registration and offered unlimited booklets and up to 20MB content storage. To begin, you enter a name for your booklet and then choose the [...]