Betty’s Instructional Technology Blog

Check out this  sample video I made using some pictures about recycling for a student project. It was created using a very cool free web 2.0 tool called Animoto. It has been posted on several “best of” blog posts as a great tool for students. I plan to use it with a group of students who are creating a blog about recycling. They have been doing a lot of research. I’ll be writing more about their project in an upcoming post.

Technology is  the focus of our March Staff Meetings. The following is a link to our presentation: http://www.gtps.k12.nj.us/technology/Tech_Update_Mar08_files/frame.htm

We highlight a few of our newly found resources:

• Atomic Learning, a great site with a wealth of training videos
• Russell Stannard’s Training Videos – including tips for PowerPoint & Word as well as Voicethread and blogs
• Integration is Key – links to lots of lesson templates for integrating technology, designed by Gloucester County Public Schools in Virginia

With state testing around the corner, we are always looking for new resources to help our students learn various skills.

Thanks to one of Galloway’s third grade teachers, Terry Dougherty, for sharing a wonderful site that helps students in grades K-3 with reading.

Other literacy sites for grades K-8 can be found on Galloway’s student home page under literacy.

In my Web 2.0 workshop, the participants moved through stations using various software/web sites. As part of the station, they posted their ideas on how to use the software in their classrooms. Their ideas on using Voicethread are listed below: 

1. Providing examples for students to reference in order to perform mathematical operations. ex- converting fractions from mixed numbers to improper fractions

2. Paired with united streaming, this could be useful to match each video more closely with the curriculum.

3. Have students experiment to get comfortable with more advanced features.

4.  Make a station and /or use as review

5. This could be used with our Young Authors Project.  Students create short books that are illustarted.  The students could read their work and show off their books.  It could also be used as part of a poetry unit where students would write and illustrate poetry and read it to an audience.

6. Good for modeling how to proofread.

7. Good for modeling thought processes and logical thinking (Math/Problem Solving)

This is a sample of a Voicethread:

If you'd like to learn how to embed a Voicethread into edublogs, check out this You Tube Video:

I keep hearing about a great tool for collaboration called Voicethread. I’ve read about it on several blogs and heard about it on one of the Ed Tech Talk podcasts. This site allows you to upload documents (image, pdf file, powerpoints, videos, etc) and then multiple people can comment on what they see. The comments can be recorded or can be written. There is a doodling feature that allows you to draw on the document to “highlight” the area you are speaking about. It seems really easy to use. This version is free.

A relatively new site has been created especially for educators for a fee. This version allows students to have unique logons without having to supply an email address.

The following examples show the potential of what is possible with this product.

Flat Stanley’s travels
http://voicethread.com/#q.b43401.i228312

Math example
http://voicethread.com/#u7020.b8154.i60270

Primary Reading
http://voicethread.com/%23q.b46599.i243401

MLK
http://voicethread.com/#q.b45542.i238192

Student Story
http://voicethread.com/#q.b2680.i24660

This last example is my first attempt at making a voicethread:

http://voicethread.com/share/56457/

I came across an amazing blogger through the Edublogs community newsletter. His name is Larry Ferlazzo. His blog contains hundered of wonderful resources aimed at helping ELL students. However, these sites can definitely be used with all kids. The following link is for his post that shares many “best of” sites in a variety of categories: http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/about/my-best-of-series/. Thanks so much, Larry, for compiling all of these great resources!

Several teachers are working on projects for Black History Month. Some possible projects include:

1. Timelines using Inspiration
2. Photostory/Movie Maker Projects
3.  Blogs & Podcasts

The following websites are resources that can be used for student research:

1. http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/
2. http://sf.factmonster.com/spot/bhm1.html
3. http://www.history.com/minisites/blackhistory/
4. http://www.kidsclick.org/cgi-bin/searchkids.pl?searchtype=all&keywords=african-americans+biography&title=Biography+African-American
5. http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/specials/bhm/0,8805,97217,00.html
6. http://www.cnn.com/EVENTS/black_history/29days.html

Thanks to Kevin Jarrett from Northfield schools for this one. The following site gives lots of great resources for LAL – many sample questions are given: http://rozauer.tripod.com/testprepla.htm

The following is the corresponding site for math: http://rozauer.tripod.com/testprepmath.htm

The site begins with a challenge, describing how difficult it was to build the Jamestown colony and challenges students to do a better job. Check out the link: http://www.historyglobe.com/jamestown/

This site has been around for a while but was recently updated. It has lots of great interactive math tools for various grade levels:

http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/assessments