Engaging Learners

Sometimes you just have to play

With so many online options for writing, publishing, and archiving, it's difficult to know which tool to use. Don't you sometimes feel you just flit from one tool to another?
But sometimes you have to play.
This morning, based on a post by Michele Martin over at The Bamboo Project, I tried (again) Zoho Office. I like it!
Here a sample of the Notebook, which I might use with my class. I like the way it organizes and embeds everything from websites to videos.
I've been singing Google's praises for some time, but I think I could be talked into switching.
Ah, she's so fickle.

Interesting stats

Anastasia at Ypulse shares some stats from Don Tapscott's New Paradigm about the Net Generation.

• They want the internet
• - In the U.S., 77 percent of Net Geners said they could live without TV. Only 23 percent said they could live without the Internet.
• They are content creators
• - 64 percent of U.S. Net Geners regularly add or change things online...this percentage shot up to 95 percent of Indian Net Geners and 94 percent of Chinese.

more here...

I love reading her stuff, and I recently watched the interview Tapscott did at Google Authors. Now I want to go back to his site and read more.

Google for Teachers

Check this out, and be sure to click on Classroom Activities, too.

What are the students doing?

Wes Fryer pointed to this article and chart from Business Week showing who's doing what online. Take a look at the 12-17-year-old age group! The highest percentage use/join social networking sites (MySpace, Facebook, etc). I hope we can discuss ways to use this interest or at least become aware of what they are doing and how it affects their online experience.

Timeline, anyone?

A really neat app that lets you search for timelines on many topics. Here's one on the history of AIDS epidemic.

PBS for Teachers

Lots of great stuff here

Google Authors

Author Don Tapscott discusses his book "Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything" as part of the Authors@Google series.

Online photo editing made fun

 

clipped from www.picnik.com Online photo editing made fun With Picnik you can quickly edit all your online photos from one place. It's the easiest way on the Web With Picnik you can quickly edit all your online photos from one place. It's the easiest way on the Web to fix underexposed photos, remove red-eye, or apply effects to your photos. It's fast, easy, and fun.

Maps

During the VAIS conference, I watched Will explore Google maps while another presenter was sharing. So cool. Read his review and check out the student example. I can picture all kinds of things our students might do with this.

Have you seen this?