It's been a while!

Wow - I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted. I have been too busy with "stuff". Anyways, I found a website designed and dedicated to blogging in a classroom environment - what I liked about it is:

• It was designed by a teacher
• It allows the teacher and the students to have blogs
• Seemed pretty easy to use.
• Looks like Internet Safety for students is a major priority.

I haven't had a chance to explore too much, but I liked what I saw. Here's the link if you are interested:

Class Blogmeister

Enjoy!

Other Internet Resources

Some other resources to consider:

- did you know there is a School Tube? www.schooltube.com

- the George Lucas Educational Foundation hosts a website www.edutopia.org and has a podcasting channel in iTunes; lots of information about teachers development, teaching tips and tricks, and other things

- a website with information for Teachers on a variety of topics is www.teachersdomain.com

Podcasts

A podcast is a transmission sent through the internet to be received/played in a computer or portable media player; it got its name because the first systems were developed to broadcast to the iPod. The distinguishing characteristic of a podcast is that you can SUBSCRIBE to it, and then your computer automatically downloads the files as they become available. They can be video or audio.

There are LOTS of podcast feeds out there, and many of them could be used for education: National Geographic, Discovery Channel, Scientific American (to name a few) have podcast transmissions on many different subjects.

As the video posted earlier suggests... why don't we use the iPod to reach our students in a different way?

Posting videos on the blog

Posting a video on the blog can basically be done two different ways:

1) If you find a video that you like on the internet in websites such as YouTube, TeacherTube, etc., you can find a code for embedding into your post in pretty much the same way you can embed a PowerPoint presentation (I discussed that in another post, label "embed").

2) If you have a video in your computer, you can upload directly to blogger by clicking on the "Add Video" icon on the posting window, and then choosing the file you want and click "Upload". The add video box will specify which formats are compatible, but basically they accept AVI, QuickTime and Windows Media formats, max size 100 MB.

A word of caution - a 15MB video I uploaded took a LONG TIME, so don't get discouraged if it seems to take a while.

This video BLEW ME AWAY!!

This is an incredibly THOUGHT PROVOKING video - #1 Most Viewed for 2008 in TeacherTube... about using technology in the classroom.