The Internet In 60 Seconds

What Happens in 60 Seconds on The Internet

Shut down your Internet for sixty seconds and here's a sampling of what you will miss:

• 1500+ blog posts
• 98,000 new tweets
• 12,000 new ads on Craigslist
• 20,000 new posts on Tumblr
• 600 new videos (25+ hours worth) on YouTube

Gizmodo.com

Microsoft Office What?

Super exciting news came rolling off the Google blog yesterday.  Google is enhancing their Google Docs platform and more specifically Google Presentations.  The main goal of this 'upgrade' is to make it more collaborative.  More than 50 new features were added with many more to come.  Now what teacher wouldn't like that?!?!  Microsoft Office What?

Classroom Guide: Top 10 Tips for Teaching With New Media

Here is a link to a free guide put out by edutopia.org.

Classroom Guide: Top 10 Tips for Teaching With New Media
This guide helps you make the most of the latest technologies and innovative ways to use them during the school year.  Full of practical ways to prepare students for 21st century success, this guide will help you deliver the relevant and meaningful education all students deserve.

Back When I Was A Kid...

Back when I was a kid is the statement we swore we would never say.  I am at the point where, at 31 years old, I see the huge difference from when I was a kid and kids today.  Undoubtedly, most of the change is with technology.  My mothers greatest goal was to get us to watch less television by limiting our viewing hours and always honoring the 'no TV for a week' campaign.  Now, television is not even the issue.  Kids are wired (well more like wireless) everywhere and it is portable and traveling with them everywhere.  Internet, gaming, texting,  portable music, the list goes on and on.

For today's youth, being wired is a way of life.  The average teen sends more than 50 texts a day; younger children spend over 10 hours a week playing video games; and the amount of time all kids spend online daily has tripled in the past 10 years. - PARADE MAGAZINE (October 9, 2011)

Being passionate about educational technology I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing as long as it enhances their lives and experiences.  I tell the technologyphobes at my school all the time that technology should not change what you teach but enhance it.  It should touch all the different learning styles and spark the students curiosity.

Ultimate Guide To Prezi

I love Prezi!  The possibilities are endless.  Here is a great guide for the beginner to the advanced created by thewikiman.

The how to make a great Prezi, Prezi on Prezi

Myths About Online Education

Great (and very true!) article about the myths associated with online education.

Hey, at the very least with online education you save on gas!

How To Tell If Your Students Are Really Who They Say They Are

This is one of the main concerns new online teachers have about their classes.  How do you know if your student is really the one taking the class, writing the papers, taking the exams?  While 'cheating' can happen it can also happen in classroom classes as well.  There will never be a surefire way to stop it.  While in online classes it is a challenge since you don't always 'see' your students.  There are many ways to ensure honesty in your online classroom.  Many CMS systems (Moodle, Blackboard, etc) are also very aware of this and have put tools in to help teachers with this issue.  Many schools also have procedures and protocols in place to help ease this issue.  Here is a good article that has some suggestions.

History of Distance Education

The history of Distance Education might be short for some people but it's been around a long time!  Check out this great article that breaks it down.

The Best Of Both Worlds

Does Higher Education Need To Offer Classes on Digital Literacy?

I stumbled upon an interesting article today called, Universities must rethink their approach to student digital literacy.  It is an interesting read and got me thinking.  How many, if any, high-school through higher education programs offer such classes?  You would think with the changing social media it would be an important and relevant topic to discuss and not something to shove aside or treat negatively.  Students need to understand what what they put online is there for the whole world to see.  If can effect their future job searches and opportunities.  Communication digitally vs. in person is very different.  Wouldn't it be nice to show them all the possibilities and how to communicate appropriately in a digital world.  Not only show them how but how to use that to their advantage to land their dream job or become a leader in their field of interest.

Yay!!

Yay!!! Our proposal to present at the NC3ADL conference in November has been approved.  Time to create an awesome presentation on Edutainment in the Online Classroom: Reaching Today's Online Learners.

It's Not Baby Talk...it's Woices

I found this great little audio tool called Woices a few years back.  Woices provides free user created audio guides from all over the world.  This ranges anywhere from walking tours to historic landmarks.  I checked it out again the other day and was happy to see how much it had grown.  What a great tool to use to enhance any lesson, whether virtual or classroom based.  You can use something already created or make your own!  It has easy embedding options to add it to any platform.

Here is a woice (is that word?) that I created a few years ago to explain the definition of Web2.0.  I typed the audio into voki and then created the woice.