Qwiki: The Information Experience

Qwiki is a multimedia website that synchronizes information drawn from Wikipedia articles and other sources on the Internet. Text and images are summarized on the screen like a moving slideshow with a digital voice narrating the information. This website offers visitors free access, although you can sign up for an account to receive more information access.

Qwiki at TechCrunch Disrupt from Qwiki on Vimeo.

Blog This, Read That

It is always insightful and refreshing to read new blog postings from interesting Twiter PLN colleagues. There is never a shortage of new, good blog postings. Actually, I can't keep up with the amount of blog postings I would like to read vs. the number of postings I have a chance to read each week. I have found an abundance of educational blogs that combine professional perspectives, personal insights, exciting educational initiatives, new Web 2.0 tools...and the list goes on. Here are three unique, and different postings that recently found their way to my blog reading this week. Great postings, check them out!

What do we really need to focus on? from Technology: Figuring out how the pieces fit.

So The Journey Begins: The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators from Teacher Reboot Camp.

Thoughts on Combining Technology Integration for Educators with Primary Research from the Social Constructivist.

Tweets Worth Mentioning

As always, Twitter provides me with an endless supply of rich professional resources, websites, tools and networking opportunities. The past two weeks have been no exception. Here are a couple highlights from my Twitter PLN that I thought were worth passing along.

How to Solve Tough EdTech Problems: 5 Articles to Start Your Week

Google Docs Updates; Now Supports Drag and Drop File Uploading

The 35 Best Web 2.0 Classroom Tools Chosen By You

8 Ways Technology is Improving Education

Powerful Ingredients for Blended Learning Wiki

28 Education and Technology Keywords or Hashtags to Follow on Twitter

K12 Online Conference 2010

Another K12 Online Conference is here! This fantastic online event is a free conference organized by educational volunteers from around the world interested in promoting, sharing and improving innovative ways Web 2.0 technologies can enhance student engagement and learning. Join the Ning, participate in fireside chats, follow communication via Twitter, download podcasts from iTunes or access archived events.

K12 Online Blog

K12 Online Conference Ning

K12 Online Wiki

Student Blogging

More and more teachers are introducing the blogosphere to their classrooms, whether it be through a school blog, class blog or student blogging. For the first time I have taken on a project with grade 7 students to introduce them to the blogging world as content creators. We will be using the ultra easy blogging tool from kidblog.org as individual students can blog without email addresses. While searching for a blogging tool that was appropriate for student blogging in my school, I came across a number of useful websites dedicated to blogging resources, tools and information.

50 Useful Blogging Tools for Teachers

Blogging in Education

Bud the Teacher’s Wiki on Blogging

What You Wanted to KNOW About Student Blogging

No More Pencils, No More Books…Back-to-School Shopping Can Be High-Tech

Back to school means that students are going to be immersed in a high- tech learning environment full of mobile devices, wireless laptops/notebooks, interactive whiteboards, and much, much more. The three C’s - connectivity, creativity and collaboration are linking students to a global learning community like never before. High-tech learning can mean exciting shopping for technologies that can enhance anywhere, anytime learning for students. Many students are now opting to use their own personal technology devices at school. So, how does a back-to-school shopping list read in the 21st century? The back-to-school shopping list has morphed into items that could include personal laptops, USB memory sticks, Smartphones, iPads, iPods, tablets, and netbooks. Back-to-school during my formal years included shopping for three ring binders, duotangs, coil scribblers, lined paper, HB pencils, highlighters, pens and so forth. Today’s student learning identity is redefined in ways, one being as simple as a back-to-school shopping list.

Teaching Students to be ‘Tech-Skeptical’

Teaching Students to be ‘Tech-Skeptical’
Inside Higher Ed published an article this month titled Technologically Illiterate Students. Once upon a time the educational technology landscape used to consist of expectations for students to handle straightforward word processors which would navigate simple search engines and straightforward software. The technological divide used to be about hardware haves and have-nots. Today’s technology goes far beyond those simple times and technologically literate students need to be much more sophisticated. Today’s technology goes far beyond those simple times. Almost everyone has access to hardware and software. The 21st century focuses on access to information in a Web 2.0 sharing, collaborative environment. Students today are digitally savvy natives; students know how to handle hardware and software. What they need is to be taught is how to be ‘tech-skeptical’, that is “the critical capacity to glean the implications, and limitations, of technologies as they emerge and become woven into the students’ lives” (Kolowich, 2010). Even students in this digital age aren’t inherently equipped with the skills associated with tech literacy. Educators can help prepare students through K-12 and post-secondary education by:
• weaving digital literacy into existing curriculums
• encouraging students to draw on real-world examples
• leading discussions on the ethical use of technology
• teaching students how to scrutinize and filter information

The future should be information friendly.

Kolowich, S. (2010). Technologically Illiterate Students. Retrieved from http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/07/16/techliteracy