: Tech-Treat : MadLibs Game Time

: URL : http://www.madlibs.com/category/funstuff/?g=madlibs

: Description : The MadLibs Official Website offers an interactive word game. Enjoy adding your input to these selections from Madlibs for President and American Idol Madlibs!

Key features include:

• Very easy to use. Students can begin playing right away.
• The full game (versus the widget above) allows students to enter text by clicking on a word or by typing a word into the text field.

Great for Students:

• Fun way to learn and express themselves.
• Develop expressive language skills.
• Encourage creative writing.

: Classroom Integration Ideas : MadLibs Game Time is an online, interactive tool that can be easily integrated into any language and writing curriculum. Engage students in a MadLib creative writing exercise that will facilitate development in expressive language skills and creative writing.

: Tech-Treat Tips & Tricks :

Tip 1: Insert words by typing into the text field or by clicking on one of the “falling” words.

Tip 2: Allow students to print their work to display and/or share with their fellow classmates.

Remember when you were small and your father/mother used to tickle you until it hurt? Well I was so tickled by what Jeff Giddens had to share with his participants in his GaETC workshop that I implored him to continue flooding my brain with new concepts and ideas even though it grew virtually painful to find space to store all of his incredible resources.

Jeff, co-author of the SEGA Tech blog, is an Instructional Technology Consultant with the First District RESA ETTC in Southeast Georgia. Jeff, and his fellow colleagues, helps educators in Southeast Georgia use technology efficiently and effectively to enhance the learning experiences they provide for their students in the classroom.

I attended Jeff’s GaETC workshop entitled, “Seeing is Believing: The Power of Information Visualization“. Jeff has a true passion for science and technology, and therefore it is no surprise that his expertise resides in the integration of technology into middle and high school science classes. Having met and worked with Jeff at previous conferences over the past few years I was confident that he would deliver rich content and offer concrete examples of how technology can enhance student engagement, learning and skills. To say the least, I was not disappointed.

Information Visualization is a powerful means of helping students comprehend complex concepts. Throughout the workshop, Jeff taught us how to make hard-to-grasp ideas more understandable through the use of visual media. He introduced us to a number of free digital resources dedicated to the creation of 3D models, virtual worlds, and other effective instructional graphics. We all walked away with a multitude of new ideas and techniques for making learning more engaging and meaningful.

I could not even begin to catalog the numerous best practices he shared throughout his workshop so I will just pass on one suggestion: Subscribe to his blog SEGA Tech and spend some time reaching into the recent past by reviewing his archival posts. Oh, and one more thing … you may want to have del.icio.us bookmarking tools installed prior to visiting as you will definitely want to save and share the vast number of engaging resources Jeff has highlighted. Be ready to expand your personal set of technology resources exponentially!

: URL : http://www.terraclues.com/

: Description : This interactive web site combines the power of Google Maps with the Google search engine to create truly interest-grabbing Scavenger Hunts called TerraClues. You have access to a multitude of already-made hunts that integrate with your current curriculum, or you can create your own TerraClues scavenger hunt to fit your particular classroom needs. Students learn not only about maps and curriculum content, but they also develop critical research skills by learning how to use a search engine. Additionally, TerraClues For Schools [http://www.terraclues.com/teachers/Default.aspx] has been specifically designed for teachers to use in the classroom as a teaching aid.

Key features include:

• Very easy to use. Students can begin playing right away
• Access hunts geared towards your curriculum requirements
• Create private classrooms and choose what hunts your students can play
• Create your own hunts
• Share the hunts you create with other teachers
• Talk to other teachers in the forums.

Great for Students:

• Fun way to learn.
• Solve problems and teach students how to find information on the internet.
• Search the world and learn about new places.
• Learn about a variety of cultures.

: Classroom Integration Ideas : TerraClues is an online, interactive tool that can be easily integrated into any curriculum area you teach. Create a TerraClues scavenger hunt that will engage students in developing critical research skills while simultaneously learning about historical landmarks, world geography, places in history, literary character (book) trips, explore the locations of rare plants and/or endangered animals, geographic landforms, and much more. The possibilities are only limited by the extent of your imagination and creativity.

: Tech-Treat Tips & Tricks :

Tip 1: Try the Tutorial Hunt to see how TerraClues works and how it might fit into your classroom curriculum needs!

Tip 2: Get your older students to create a hunt for younger students, or have groups of students create hunts based on a curriculum unit to share with the rest of the class as a review.

The K-12 Online Conference 2008 officially starts today. It is two-week conference that hosts four sessions per day. It features remarkable presenters with a wide variety of stimulating topics. And the best part… It is totally FREE!

You can access the sessions according to your own time schedule. Presentations will remain available for at least a year, so if you don’t have time now in the midst of Progress Reports , you can watch them later this year.

K-12 Online Conference 2008

Conference Website: http://k12onlineconference.org/

Full Conference Schedule: http://k12onlineconference.org/docs/k12online2008schedule.html

I’ve highlighted a few of the sessions being featured throughout the conference below: (All sessions can be accessed after the date/time listed for your viewing & learning pleasure.)

Never Too Young
Presenter: Sharon Betts
Date/Time: Wednesday, October 22 @ 8:00 AM EST (12:00 PM GMT)

We Like Our Blogging Buddies: The Write Stuff with Blogging Mentors
Presenters: Kathy Cassidy and Patrick Lewis
Date/Time: Thursday, October 23 @ 8:00 AM EST (12:00 PM GMT)

Web 2.0 Tools to Amplify Elementary Students’ Creativity and Initiative
Presenter: Jackie Gerstein
Date/Time: Friday, October 24 @ 8:00 AM EST (12:00 PM GMT)

Games in Education
Presenter: Sylvia Martinez
Date/Time: Monday, October 27 @ 8:00 AM EST (12:00 PM GMT)

Pushing the Limits: Web 2.0 and 21st Century Learning
Presenter: Aimee Stoffel
Date/Time: Wednesday, October 29 @ 8:00 AM EST (12:00 PM GMT)

Connecting Classrooms Across Continents: Planning and Implementing Globally Collaborative ProjectsPresenters: Kim Cofino and Jen Wagner
Date/Time: Wednesday, October 29 @ 8:00 AM EST (12:00 PM GMT)

Parental Engagement in the 21st Century – Leveraging web 2.0 tools to engage parents in non-traditional ways
Presenters: Lorna Costantini and Matt Montagne
Date/Time: Friday, October 31 @ 8:00 AM EST (12:00 PM GMT)

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The world is rapidly changing and advancing all around us. I can envision a time when we will no longer be able to determine a clear divide between the ‘world of education’ and the ‘world of technology’. We are living in an era where new technologies are emerging, and old technologies are improving, on a minute by minute basis. Today’s children and students have never known a time when they were without technology in their daily lives. Therefore, I feel it is our duty as educators to teach these digital natives, our students of today, and our leaders of tomorrow, in the modality of learning that is most conducive to their technology-enriched learning styles.

As an educator, I want to empower students to learn through the use of technology. I want them to view school as a place where they can explore their curiosities and expand their knowledge, not only through books, but through the use of technology tools that enable them to grow, share and learn with the global classroom, the global community. I strive to instill in my students a life-time love of learning. I believe the only way to accomplish this goal is to show them that education and technology are intertwined; they are not separate entities and to do that we must learn, use and model the appropriate and beneficial uses of technology tools for our students. My goal as an Instructional Technology Specialist is to empower educators to do just that, to implement and integrate the use of emerging technology and web 2.0 tools in their classrooms and with their students.

Podcasting truly is easy, engaging and fun once you have experimented with it a few times. My former students engaged in multimedia recording activities throughout the school year and they loved the experiences. Seeing the pride in their eyes and the happiness through their smile assured me that it truly was a valuable learning experience for them…which only encouraged me to create more podcasting and vodcasting activities aligned with our curriculum goals.

My Ideas for Podcasting in the Elementary Classroom:

• Creative Story-telling – record student narrating an original story; great for very young students who have not yet developed reading and writing skills
• Build Reading Fluency – record student reading a story passage and then allow the student to listen and critique their recording
• Foreign Language Lab – students listen to a prompt recorded in a foreign language and then respond to that prompt in the same language of study
• Author Studies
• Reporter for a Day
• Fieldtrip Reflections
• Historic Radio Shows
• Book Talks
• Poetry Readings
• Short Story audio recordings
• Reader’s Theatre – a great way to incorporate video as well, thus creating a Vodcast
• Research/Book Reports
• Oral Reports/Presentations – great for students who have a hard time speaking in front of an audience (like I did in school)
• How-to Videos/Tutorials
• Vocabulary Development
• Expert Interviews
• Class Discussions
• Debate
• Test Study Guides

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I have been a podcatcher and a podcaster for over three years now. I subscribe to over fifteen different podcast series using iTunes and often listen to them during my daily commute between school and home. The podcasts I find the most interesting and useful are those that help me to stay in touch with emerging trends and technologies.

Conference Connections, produced by Apple Distinguished Educators, delivers some of the most innovative content from the most exciting workshops, forums and discussions at leading technology conferences across the USA and around the world.

David Pogue, The New York Times personal-technology columnist, reports weekly on new technology in the video series Video: Technology | David Pogue. David Pogue Presents a fun, unbiased look at new technology. His reviews openly point out the things that we have all longed for the world to catch on to in a very humorous and clever way. He has a way of transforming a less than exciting topic like streaming or routers into something hilarious and understandable. Many technology reviews that I have come across have placed me into a sleep induced state of activity, it’s great to finally find one that is unique, interesting and humorous.

While I was teaching in the classroom, before coming to Trinity School to assume my role as an Instructional Technology Specialist, I produced a series of podcasts, entitled HighTech2, with my second grade students. I say that I am a “classroom podcaster” as I always produced episodes that involved and focused on the students in my class. Each and every time it was a very rewarding experience not only for myself, but also for my students and their families. My only regret is not having created them more often with my students.

Over the past few weeks, Mrs. Stafford and I have co-produced a series of student created podcasts entitled TrinityMD. The TrinityMD project was originally developed by Mrs. Stafford as part of a technology infused unit in correlation with the sixth grade TabletPC Program. The focus of this year’s project-based learning unit targeted diseases and disorders that affect the human body. We worked together to publish the series of podcast episodes on our school’s Project Source wikispace. I encourage you to visit the TrinityMD wiki and listen to the student’s final projects. You can view the TrinityMD podcast feed and subscribe to the series here.

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LibraryThing is a fantastic place for users to catalog and connect over their personal media libraries. I spent way too many hours exploring the site and starting my own personal library of books. I noticed that it also had a feature where users who utilize the software program Delicious can upload their book list. This will be especially useful for me as I have the program and using my macbook’s webcam as a “scanner” I can import my books more quickly. Maybe that will help me save some time that I so desperately need lately. I also enjoy the social aspect of LibraryThing and how it connects you with readers who share similar interests. It’s almost as if you have your own personal book club with people around the world!  I can see this site being incredibly useful for keeping my classroom library books cataloged, helping me to avoid purchasing duplicates of books I already own but have forgotten that I do. J

Although my LibraryThing catalog is no where even near complete (maybe less than 1% at this point), you can see my catalog of books here: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/dklaus.