Thursday, February 28, 2013

"Make the Difference - Talk Now"



 Europe's Anti Bullying Campaign  -  A partnership of private organizations in six countries:  Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania present resources for dealing with bullying, in response to research collected from 16,227 students in secondary schools about bullying.

An interactive educational tool created by One Vibe Films with different scenarios and endings has been created to prompt student discussions.  More teacher resources available.   Very powerful - I recommend going through the material first before presenting it to students.

"To This Day"

Anti-Bullying message:  "To This Day" a spoken word poem by Shane Koyczan animated by many.  An amazing collaborative project -- powerful, beautiful and imaginative.
“Shane Koyczan is electrifying. It’s a rare poet who can make his audience laugh and cry; this is a writer who will break your heart then heal it.” – Val McDermid, author of The Grave Tattoo



Lyrics and audio here

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Digital Literacy Roadmap

Anna Otto's poster is a great roadmap to show teachers, students and parents what 21st century learners need to know to meet the standards for digital literacy - the ISTE nets.    I believe it's important to show the positive potential of learning in the online arena, and let students experience this in frequent, simple bursts to broaden their online experiences from "social networking" to authentic "social learning."

Simplify the desktop for kids












Make your Mac desktop kid-friendly is an article by osX daily
with ideas to make it easy for early learners to access apps on
a Mac computer, giving the desktop a "tablet icon" feel.

I would like to add that these basic steps can be followed for Windows
7 users as well.  

Also, I recommend changing the desktop with the seasons, and creating
a custom screensaver with your school name to give your workstations
a professional look.


To teach simple navigation skills, consider having favorite websites bookmarked
so younger students can easily get them.


Finally, if you prefer a clean desktop like I do, try enlarging a few icons and pinning
them to the bottom taskbar, to give a PC running Windows 7 a "Mac" look.   It's
important to keep it simple -  the browser, OpenOffice and a typing program were the
only icons we started with in our bottom taskbar.

Having all the desktops simple and identical in appearance made it easier to maintain
the lab too.   If someone accidentally moved an icon or left work on their desktop unsaved, it
was easy to spot and remedy before the next class came in.



Saturday, February 2, 2013

YouTube video editor



An easy, basic video editor for editing in the cloud.   But remind students to think before uploading your content to make sure your privacy is protected.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Google Search skills

Google Searches - Great exercises for Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced Searches

Lesson plans for:

  • Picking the right search terms
  • Understanding search results
  • Narrowing a search to get the best results
  • Searching for evidence for research tasks
  • Evaluating credibility of sources

Need search ideas?   Try "A Google a Day" questions shown in the video below: