Friday Freebies

I am a very keen Pinterester and use this visual content curation site on a daily basis. As a gesture of spreading the good news, here is my sharing of the week's best ideas. I am using another online tool, Clipzine, that integrates seamlessly with Pinterest. Have a read and see if you enjoy discovering new ideas in this way.

Back to Blogging

The focus of a workshop next week for one of the schools I support is blogging in the classroom.

This has renewed my focus on both my personal blogging journey and why blogging is a worthwhile educational activity. In preparation for the workshop I have stumbled across some wonderful blogs and helpful tutorials to support a wide range of users - from the very beginners to the seasoned experts.

I would like to share a few of these in support of the good work that is going into blogging, teacher and student support and general teaching in New Zealand schools. The hope is that you might find something to rekindle your interest here if you have neglected your blog for a while, or to inspire you to have a go yourself or with the group of young people you may have in front of you. Either way, I hope you find some inspiration to give it a go!

Allanah King is a seasoned blogger and I am in the lucky situation to have her as a work colleague too. She has converted her blog Bling 4 yr Blog into a free iBook available from the iTunes store. This will definitely keep you busy on a wintery Sunday afternoon.

Amongst the many things to consider when blogging as a class, is the way to make commenting effective. It is great to see that this matter is given careful consideration by effective bloggers and teachers. I found two sets of guidelines that can be very useful for teaching students (and adults) to support their fellow bloggers with constructive comments. The first one is visually very appealing (thanks to another colleague of mine, Catriona Pene).

Visit Catriona's blog http://inspire-innovate-educate.blogspot.co.nz/2013/04/blogging-101.html

Sue Waters has an extensive section on her blog, Teacherchallenge about commenting. If you would like to share your thoughts on blogging in the classroom and what you have found useful, please leave a comment!

More curated links here: Blogging

To tweet or not to tweet

Twitter has been on the forefront of my social networking radar this past week. I participated in a very interesting social media workshop on Friday with @justadandak (DK), one of the leading gurus in this field and a prolific Twitterer himself (I'm sure he won't mind being mentioned).

There has also been some lively discussions going on about the use of Twitter in an educational context. I am borrowing here from some of the posts on the Virtual Learning Network and thought it could be a good way of summarising the post for easy access.

Pure Magic of Cloud Sourcing
60 Inspiring examples of Twitter in the classroom
Ultimate Twitter guide for Educators
50 Innovative ways to use Twitter more effectively

I use Twitter on a moderate scale compared to some of the people I follow and the amount of information and ideas I can access in this way enrich my own thinking and professional development. It is also a way to make social interaction on the web more personable.

Do you find Twitter useful / interesting / annoying and how do you use it?

Leave some comments and happy tweeting!

Blog revival

It is about time this blog is updated! It has gathered a layer of virtual dust and the world (mine included) has moved on in the mean time.

The focus of the blog will still be on useful tools to make the lives and learning of teachers and students more interesting, but it will have the added flavour of how these technologies can be used in a blended way (both on-line and face-to-face).

So, watch this space for plenty of inspiration to come...

Flipbooks with Flipsnack

Flipsnack converts a PDF file to an online flipbook.

To use FlipSnack, you can register for a free account or log in using your Twitter, Facebook, Google, Yahoo or MySpace account.

Noteflight

I have been exploring online music notation programs and came across Noteflight and its subscription version Crescendo.

Noteflight is social networking for musicians! You have the capacity to create and store 25 scores online. It is great for collaboration and working together on composition projects. Students can make their scores public or private with various sharing options inbetween.

Noteflight is also great for private music tuition, K-12 education as well as tertiary level students. Visit http://www.noteflight.com/

eLearn Magazine: Education and Technology in Perspective

eLearn Magazine: Education and Technology in Perspective