Shorten your URL's

WHY would I want to shorten URL's??

1. Posting a long URL in email can cause it to break when sent. The recipient then has to cut and paste it back together.

2. Are you posting something that you don't want people to know what the URL is because it might give away that it's an affiliate link?

3. Make life easier for yourself and your students by shortening the characters typed in for the URL. Less errors, less time!

4. Join one of these services and manage your URL's. Track how often people are clicking on them.

^TinyURL.com

With TinyURL, you can make a smaller URL that will work for any page on your site. You can customize the name of your URL. You do not need an account.

What is 21st Century Education?

http://www.21stcenturyschools.com/What_is_21st_Century_Education.htm

or

http://tinyurl.com/6y7h9d or http://tinyurl.com/21stcenturyed

bit.ly

With bit.ly shorten, share, and manage your URL's. You have to sign up for this site, but it will keep track of the sites you have shortened and show you how many times your shortened links have been clicked on. You can customize the name of your URL.

What is 21st Century Education?

http://www.21stcenturyschools.com/What_is_21st_Century_Education.htm

or

http://bit.ly/c0bYao or http://bit.ly/21stcenturyed

TiNY

TINY will shorten, share, and manage your URL's. You need to create an account with this service. You can customize, but must write the custom name before you shrink your URL.

What is 21st Century Education?

http://www.21stcenturyschools.com/What_is_21st_Century_Education.htm

or

http://tiny.cc/dul2m or http://tiny.cc/21stcenturyed

Friday - Please respond

Whew...... We have made it three days. Thank you for great discussions and being such amazing learners and soaking up some many of the new technologies and learning we have shared with you. Please respond and let us know if there is anything we haven't covered or heard us mention that you were hoping to get during class. Have a great weekend and relax and enjoy some time away from the technology. Share any other thoughts you may have about technology and your curriculum. Lisa & Joanne

Smart Board

So...I am very excited about seeing how a Smart Board works. I feel that the only way to become proficient with it is to have on e in the classroom! I am going to look for grant writing opportunities/ find monies to purchase one for the classroom.
Besides the multitude of features it offers, I especially like the almost complete elimination for using chart paper or the dusty chalkboard. I also like that you can save what has been written on the board for future references and calling up pages saved to the computer. Wish me luck!

Xtranormal?

So, I attempted to make an Xtranormal animation...The program is free to sign-up and has many options for scenarios including 1 or 2 characters and voice options. You can also customize features like camera angles (though I didn't try), actions, faces, etc. It seems a little complicated to use (multiple steps) for younger kids, but those with advanced tech skills, older students, or those interested in videography might get a kick out it.

I initially thought this would work well to review social situations (problems/issues) that arose in the classroom to present them to the students to analyze in a non-confrontational way. I still think it could work, but it would take some finesse.

Thanks for the birthday wishes yesterday! I had a fun day!
Janet

Organizing our thoughts.....

Hi, Gang!
Decided to be brave and dive into a new program last night....tried bubbl.us and found that it was pretty neat. I tried an example, which I'm going to attempt to share with you in class on Friday. We'll see how it goes... It's free, just need to sign in. It's a pretty straight forward brainstorming format - the advantage is that you can share on-line and post your work. It's open for edits within your friend groups, and I can see that this would be helpful in many possible ways. It could be used to plan projects among students and/or teachers, used to map stories, create stories, and extend overall thinking in just about any subject area. I know that I didn't discover all of the possibilities for this program, and would love to know if anyone else has used it, and how. Have a nice Friday!

:)mb

http://blog.bubbl.us

Article on peer editing/collaboration options

Article on online collaboration/peer editing with discussion of Buzzword, Google Docs, Office Live.