Jog The Web

Jog The Web is a cool tool that allows users to assemble tidy packages of web content. For teachers it can be a tool for providing students with easy access to guided learning.

The websites within a Jog are live and can be explored right within the page frame, which solves problems related to students getting lost within multiple windows. Even better, Jog authors can annotate pages within the Jog and also create original pages with unique content.

This appears to be a very promising tool for education because it's user-friendly, engaging and interactive.

View Sample: A Jog for teachers, featuring several Web 2.0 tools
Using Glogster to Construct Knowledge

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Why Glog?

Glogster.edu is a cool tool for creating online multi-media posters that supports flexible learning paths. I created this glog to briefly introduce the concept of glogging to students. It includes a video that says it all, a glog of samples created by students and some simple directions to get you started. 

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Blogger: More Ways to Share

Blogger is always making changes. Recently I've discovered several 
newer options that make sharing your blog easier.  

• Share Buttons:
  You can add share buttons to the bottom of your posts so visitors can quickly share your post on one of their favorite social media sites, like Twitter or Facebook. This is a handy feature, but unfortunately the buttons are small and appear in gray scale. Maybe blogger will work on this. In the meantime, add these buttons by going to Design, then click on the Edit link in the Blog Posts box. Try the buttons for yourself at the bottom of this post.
  
• Follow by Email:
  This is a new gadget that allows visitors to quickly enter an email address into a box in the sidebar to receive automatic blog updates by email. When you add this gadget Blogger will walk you through the steps to get you up and running. See sample in the sidebar
  
• View Options:
  Everyone has a preferred method of viewing, and while I'm going to stick with the traditional web log format, it's nice to know your visitors can choose to view your blog in a variety of ways. To do this, simply add a backslash followed by the word view to your blog address. Modifying the address will take you to a new page with a variety of viewing options. As far as alternate views go, I am fond of the timeslide view. Here is an example:

My blog address: http://d97cooltools.blogspot.com
Alternate viewing options: http://d97cooltools.blogspot.com/view/timeslide
Look in the upper right-hand corner of the new screen to switch views.

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Google Apps Aligned with Bloom's Taxonomy

Kathy Schrock, has aligned Google Apps with Bloom's Taxonomy. Please visit her site to access the amazing interactive map she has assembled, then submit a quick form to add your ideas and justifications for why you might have students use these tools in the respective cognitive areas in which they appear. Thanks Kathy!

Go to Kathy Schrock's Bloom's Revised Taxonomy page:

http://kathyschrock.net/googleblooms/

View live version, courtesy of Kathy Schrock
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide

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Wordle Flashback

Two years ago I was excited enough about Web 2.0 tools to actually start this blog. I started with Wordle, a simple word cloud generator. After all this time, I must admit I am still passionate about using Wordle. I find myself using it regularly in my teaching, even though several new word tag generators have evolved, including Taxedo, Tag Cloud, and the ever-popular WordPress rotating tag cloud.

Still, I love Wordle for it's simplicity. Just go to the Wordle website, type some text into a box, click a button and your text becomes a Word Cloud. Anyone can do it, but the real trick is in how it's used. After all, words that appear more frequently within the text appear larger in size within the word cloud.

Here are my top 3 favorite ways to use Wordle:

1. Copy and paste the text from a few good articles about a specific topic into Wordle to get the main ideas and vocabulary. Use it as a starting point for a lesson to help students construct knowledge.
2. Copy and paste student generated text into Wordle for self-analysis of writing. Words and phrases that are overused will jump out.
3. Wordle a current event topic, then use it to generate a classroom discussion.

My goal this week is to see if we can build on the Wordle ideas we started a long time ago. Please view the list of ideas and contribute ideas of your own.

• View Wordle Ideas
• Contribute Wordle Ideas
• Try Wordle 

This Blog, Wordled

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Qwiki - A Multi-Media Search Engine

Qwiki is a multi-media search engine designed to improve the way people experience information by appealing to users on a human level. A Qwiki search delivers content in the form of a narrated, interactive slideshow that tells a story. Although it's relatively new, there are millions of topics available for searching now.

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Dipity: Create Multimedia Timelines

Dipity is a cool tool for creating multimedia timelines with a variety of viewing options. Click on any event in the timeline to view details and images, or choose to view as a flipbook, list, or map instead.

Civil Rights Hot Spots on Dipity.

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AnswerGarden: A Quick and Easy Feedback Tool

AnswerGarden describes itself as a minimal tool for maximum feedback that can be used for creative brainstorming. It's simple, just create a question and publish it. The answers are immediately displayed as tags in a word cloud, which means responses that appear more frequently appear larger in size. Try it for yourself by answering the question below.  No login is required

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Person-First Language

Two teachers at Brooks Middle School in Oak Park are using VoiceThread to spread the word about Person-First language. Learn more by viewing their VoiceThread, then record a comment to make your pledge on the appropriate page. Please pass this along and spread the word!

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Voki: Animated Talking Avatars

Please press the play button to hear a message.


Try it for yourself at voki.com

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Rag Linen: Teaching History with Historic Newspapers

Rag Linen is an online museum of rare and historic newspapers which serve as "first drafts of history". The creators of this site have certainly done their work to develop an extremely well-organized and powerful collection of resources including

• digital exhibits
• digital collections
• videos 
• links to websites, books, bibliographies and blogs

They've even established an active community of online learners for sharing innovative ways to use this amazing collection as a tool for learning.



Go to RagLinen.com



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YouCube: Create a cube of related videos

YouCube is a cool tool used to create a cube of content-related YouTube videos. Just select six videos, pop each url into the designated spot on the YouCube site, press return, and get a link for sharing. The cube isn't embeddable, but it certainly is a nice way to collect and share themed videos.

Since it's SuperBowl Sunday, my sample is a collection of the best commercials from years past. 

View my YouCube

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