A friend introduced me to QIK. It is an easy way to share live streaming with anyone anywhere. I was able to share my son's symphony concert with my family who couldn't make it just by turning on my phone and starting QIK. The live broadcast was available online and participants could participate in chat while watching. It also records it for future viewing. You can download and embed recorded videos as well. This is a great service. Remember that anyone can stream so you should not really let students head to the main site because you never know what will be live at the time. However, you have your own site that carries your streams so you could direct link to your own QIK site. See example below.
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Monday, December 15, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Connecting with Friends and learning new things
Because of the vast array of technology tools out there, we were able to easily connect my daughter's 1st grade class in Alabama with a 1st grade class in Canada! Ms. Cassidy's class in Canada had a Yack Pack on their site which we used to call in and see if they were available. They were, and 5 minutes later we were Skyping and learning about each other. We visited the students' blogs and learned about Pictaps where you can create drawings that will dance. We are studying the human body so it will be fun to try drawing our self portraits and watching them move. Thanks to our friends in Canada for teaching us lots of new things. My daughter made her first Pictap below. You will soon be able to see the Corgill kids' Pictaps and new blogs since we have been inspired by our Canadian friends.
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Monday, June 09, 2008
Fun Web 2.0 Tools in Elementary
There are so many wonderful teachers out there incorporating web 2.0 tools in the classroom to engage students. I have just been looking at Kathy Cassidy's page. She has a Ustream live broadcast of butterflies emerging, a Yackpack where you can connect with her class, and great 1st grader blogs. I learned how to animate a tomato from a student named Brendan. You can see the results below. Visit Kathy's page and learn!
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Sunday, June 08, 2008
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
In Plain English
Someone asked me about Twitter but I can't explain it as well as the folks at Common Craft.
http://www.commoncraft.com/show The Common Craft Show is a series of short explanatory videos. Check the out the video on Google Docs, too. They really do make it easy to understand. So here is the Twitter explanation courtesy of Common Craft: Tweet
http://www.commoncraft.com/show The Common Craft Show is a series of short explanatory videos. Check the out the video on Google Docs, too. They really do make it easy to understand. So here is the Twitter explanation courtesy of Common Craft: Tweet
AHA Film Festival-Bringing it all together
I am attending the 5th Annual AHA Film Festival in Effingham, IL. If you want to see real world application of learning across the curriculum, you need to see this! Read about it here:
http://www.effinghamdailynews.com/local/local_story_060124856.html
I like this quote from the article: “We have guests coming in from all over the country. The film festival is usually sold out. By the end, we have people calling up and saying, ‘You gotta get me a ticket!’” he said. “It’s wonderful that the communities support us and fill up a theater to watch kids’ homework, basically.
Joe Fatheree and co-teacher Craig Lindvahl have prepared these students well. Students also realize that they have a role to play in making this world a better place. Tonight we gathered a local youth center with students from high schools across the nation to discuss the United Nation's 8 millennium goals. These students are talking about how they can use their talents to make a difference.
Media literacy, authentic assessment, service learning---all right here, right now. I hope districts across the country will follow this successful model of making it real and making it count for our students and teachers. I am looking forward tomorrow to a film training workshop taught by the high school students. Then, it will be time to enjoy the festival. Joe Fatheree also has other projects. You can read about his No Barriers project here: http://www.nobarriersproject.com/ We can make a difference and it can start with one person and an idea! Tweet
http://www.effinghamdailynews.com/local/local_story_060124856.html
I like this quote from the article: “We have guests coming in from all over the country. The film festival is usually sold out. By the end, we have people calling up and saying, ‘You gotta get me a ticket!’” he said. “It’s wonderful that the communities support us and fill up a theater to watch kids’ homework, basically.
Joe Fatheree and co-teacher Craig Lindvahl have prepared these students well. Students also realize that they have a role to play in making this world a better place. Tonight we gathered a local youth center with students from high schools across the nation to discuss the United Nation's 8 millennium goals. These students are talking about how they can use their talents to make a difference.
Media literacy, authentic assessment, service learning---all right here, right now. I hope districts across the country will follow this successful model of making it real and making it count for our students and teachers. I am looking forward tomorrow to a film training workshop taught by the high school students. Then, it will be time to enjoy the festival. Joe Fatheree also has other projects. You can read about his No Barriers project here: http://www.nobarriersproject.com/ We can make a difference and it can start with one person and an idea! Tweet
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Video Editing Online-Contest
ITVS has just released a new program that will allow you to edit video via the Internet. You need no additional tools. The people at ITVS are sponsoring a contest for students around the country to help children think about what they eat and what they are made of. The ITVS film, King Corn, is showing in select theaters around the country. Footage from that film and Getty images is available online at the ITVS website for the students to edit. They can also upload footage of their own. The process is very simple and challenges students to use higher order thinking skills for advanced problem solving. Their website can be accessed by going to the following url: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/filmocracy/ The project can be integrated into almost every grade and subject level.
If you are what you eat, what are you made of?
PBS’s Independent Lens invites you to make a statement about the politics of food. Enter to win the Filmocracy mashup contest. It’s easy!
Make a short film using KING CORN clips and footage from Getty Images. You can even upload your own clips and mix it all up with the Eyespot online editing tool. When you're done, check out everyone else's videos and rate your favorites.
The grand prizewinner gets $1,000 and a chance to be screened throughout the country, plus a KING CORN DVD, soundtrack and other fabulous corn-free prizes! The most popular and highest rated videos get cool prizes too.
Want to make the best film you can? Learn how with tips from the pros! Be a corn connoisseur, visit the KING CORN website and get acres of information about the crop.
Mix it up and make your statement about food. Have fun and good luck!
Contest dates: March 7 - May 30, 2008
Find out more at:
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/filmocracy/
KING CORN, a documentary about two friends, one acre of corn and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation, premieres on Independent Lens on PBS, April 15 (check broadcast listings.) KING CORN, by Aaron Woolf, Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney, is a co-production of Mosaic Films Incorporated and the Independent Television Service (ITVS) with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Tweet
If you are what you eat, what are you made of?
PBS’s Independent Lens invites you to make a statement about the politics of food. Enter to win the Filmocracy mashup contest. It’s easy!
Make a short film using KING CORN clips and footage from Getty Images. You can even upload your own clips and mix it all up with the Eyespot online editing tool. When you're done, check out everyone else's videos and rate your favorites.
The grand prizewinner gets $1,000 and a chance to be screened throughout the country, plus a KING CORN DVD, soundtrack and other fabulous corn-free prizes! The most popular and highest rated videos get cool prizes too.
Want to make the best film you can? Learn how with tips from the pros! Be a corn connoisseur, visit the KING CORN website and get acres of information about the crop.
Mix it up and make your statement about food. Have fun and good luck!
Contest dates: March 7 - May 30, 2008
Find out more at:
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/filmocracy/
KING CORN, a documentary about two friends, one acre of corn and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation, premieres on Independent Lens on PBS, April 15 (check broadcast listings.) KING CORN, by Aaron Woolf, Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney, is a co-production of Mosaic Films Incorporated and the Independent Television Service (ITVS) with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Tweet
Friday, February 29, 2008
pdtogo.com : Professional Development For Busy Educators : lessons, files, podcasts
Found this site today. Enjoy learning on the go! The title says it all. It had a great lesson on notetaking and the Smartboard. I'm sure you will find more. Put them on your ipod and be professionally developed anywhere!
pdtogo.com : Professional Development For Busy Educators : lessons, files, podcasts Tweet
pdtogo.com : Professional Development For Busy Educators : lessons, files, podcasts Tweet
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
50 Ways to Tell a digital story
The excellent Discovery Education Network virtual conference I attended Saturday gave me some great ideas. One was this site that shows 50 ways to tell a digital story. I've used a few of the ways with some classes and we have had lots of fun. I will have class samples soon. You can see all of the 50 ideas here:http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools
Some of my favorites are Toon Doo, Voice Thread and Blabberize! :) I can't wait to try more. My 5th graders loved Blabberize and they will soon help our 1st graders make the animal pictures tell all kinds of interesting facts they have learned while researching. 4th graders are storytelling by creating cartoons and I can't wait to use Voicethread for sharing with our younger students. I hope you have as much fun as we have with these cool web 2.0 collaborating tools!
Learn about Voicethread here:
Here is a voicethread I created to try out the video doodling and stop motion video. Cool!
See a sample Toon Doo where you can bring in your own photos. How about creating a book simliar to Knufflebunny with real pictures and cartoons mixed?
And of course, a talking amphibian. Our 5th graders loved making covered wagons and gold talk as they explained what happened during the westward movement. They also made cells talk.
Just remember that anyone can post a blabber so there might be inappropriate creations along with the innocent posts. I had the students use a unique tag so that we could find our blabbers easily.
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Some of my favorites are Toon Doo, Voice Thread and Blabberize! :) I can't wait to try more. My 5th graders loved Blabberize and they will soon help our 1st graders make the animal pictures tell all kinds of interesting facts they have learned while researching. 4th graders are storytelling by creating cartoons and I can't wait to use Voicethread for sharing with our younger students. I hope you have as much fun as we have with these cool web 2.0 collaborating tools!
Learn about Voicethread here:
Here is a voicethread I created to try out the video doodling and stop motion video. Cool!
See a sample Toon Doo where you can bring in your own photos. How about creating a book simliar to Knufflebunny with real pictures and cartoons mixed?
And of course, a talking amphibian. Our 5th graders loved making covered wagons and gold talk as they explained what happened during the westward movement. They also made cells talk.
Just remember that anyone can post a blabber so there might be inappropriate creations along with the innocent posts. I had the students use a unique tag so that we could find our blabbers easily.
Tweet
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Blabberize!
I attended a virtual conference today sponsored by Discovery Education. It was so nice to attend such a worthwhile event without even leaving my house! I found so many new ways to use Web 2.0 tools to engage students and allow meaningful collaboration. If you have used Discovery Education and its many resources, you should give it a try! One of the tools shown today was Blabberize. I can't wait to have my students create all kinds of talking pictures to teach others many new concepts. We tested the site and quickly created a talking dog. However, with more time my 5 year old (the voice) will be able to make the dog tell you all kinds of things about dogs! Enjoy! http://www.blabberize.com/ My 7 year old created the talking hurricane. It would be great for a weather unit. We will add more facts later! See below.
By the way, you can find recorded versions of the Discovery Education seminars at: http://www.discoveryeducation.com/
Go to community and find the archived webinars. You need to be a DEN member I think to see them.
Talking Hurricane:
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By the way, you can find recorded versions of the Discovery Education seminars at: http://www.discoveryeducation.com/
Go to community and find the archived webinars. You need to be a DEN member I think to see them.
Talking Hurricane:
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Thursday, January 10, 2008
Creativity In Education
You might have seen this already but it is worth seeing again.
The video is posted here: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/66
Let's make sure we are not killing creativity, but nurturing it! Tweet
The video is posted here: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/66
Let's make sure we are not killing creativity, but nurturing it! Tweet
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Tiger Creek Map - Discover Skin
Tiger Creek Map - Discover Skin
This is an example of a Digital Photo Map used as a virtual field trip. Videos are linked to each photo. Tweet
This is an example of a Digital Photo Map used as a virtual field trip. Videos are linked to each photo. Tweet
CommunityWalk - make your own map, build interactive maps, create a map with photos, videos, more
CommunityWalk - make your own map, build interactive maps, create a map with photos, videos, more
Another great place to create Digital Photo Maps and Geotag. Tweet
Another great place to create Digital Photo Maps and Geotag. Tweet
Gee Whiz Community
Gee Whiz Community
Learned about this in a great session at NECC 2007. It was called Global Awareness through Geogagging: Creating and Using Digital Photo Maps.
We used Flickr and Tripper Map to create our Digital Photo Maps. Tweet
Learned about this in a great session at NECC 2007. It was called Global Awareness through Geogagging: Creating and Using Digital Photo Maps.
We used Flickr and Tripper Map to create our Digital Photo Maps. Tweet
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Podcasting in 1st Grade using G-cast
A teacher sent me the following e-mail. I was so excited to receive it! She is definately a lifelong learner!
Cameron,
I just have to share my success with you. I joined GCAST and now have my children reading books and saving them as pod casts for us to assess reading fluency! We only have a list of 4 readings so far but the children are excited. And how many times do they actually get to hear what they sound like reading? It is going to be very helpful with reading. But as you already know there is so much that can be done through this site. My mind is spinning with the different pod casts we can make and what we can do with them. If you want to listen to ours, go to podcasts in itunes, go to subscribe to podcasts, go to advanced in the top menu and type in http://www.gcast.com/u/mwiggins/. That should bring up our list.
Secondly, I have successfully transferred cassettes to CDs using Audacity! I use a listening center daily with books on tape or teacher made listening lessons/activities so this was so important to me. All the cassette players around here are breaking. Again there is so much more that can be done with this.
Thank you so much for all the inspiration you give me. It is because of you I can do this and my classes will forever benefit. These are baby steps in the big picture but they are big steps for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Minnette
Now, it isn't because of me, it is because she took what she learned in a professional development and tried something new! Thank YOU Minnette! You can hear her students by going here: http://www.gcast.com/u/mwiggins?nr=1&&s=101733983 Click POSTS to see a list and click the initials of a student to hear.
If you have a success story, please comment on this post! Maybe you will inspire someone to try something new! Thanks! Tweet
Cameron,
I just have to share my success with you. I joined GCAST and now have my children reading books and saving them as pod casts for us to assess reading fluency! We only have a list of 4 readings so far but the children are excited. And how many times do they actually get to hear what they sound like reading? It is going to be very helpful with reading. But as you already know there is so much that can be done through this site. My mind is spinning with the different pod casts we can make and what we can do with them. If you want to listen to ours, go to podcasts in itunes, go to subscribe to podcasts, go to advanced in the top menu and type in http://www.gcast.com/u/mwiggins/. That should bring up our list.
Secondly, I have successfully transferred cassettes to CDs using Audacity! I use a listening center daily with books on tape or teacher made listening lessons/activities so this was so important to me. All the cassette players around here are breaking. Again there is so much more that can be done with this.
Thank you so much for all the inspiration you give me. It is because of you I can do this and my classes will forever benefit. These are baby steps in the big picture but they are big steps for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Minnette
Now, it isn't because of me, it is because she took what she learned in a professional development and tried something new! Thank YOU Minnette! You can hear her students by going here: http://www.gcast.com/u/mwiggins?nr=1&&s=101733983 Click POSTS to see a list and click the initials of a student to hear.
If you have a success story, please comment on this post! Maybe you will inspire someone to try something new! Thanks! Tweet
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Being 2 places at one time with Camtasia
As with most technology specialists there are many times when I need to be two places at one time. I've started using Camtasia Studio to record my lessons. I capture my screen movements and voice when I teach a lesson. I save the file as an avi movie file and teachers can press play and have me with them in the lab teaching via video. The program has lots of features like mouse highlight and click highlight to help focus the viewer on the correct part of the screen. The sound quality is great. I used the built in monitor microphone of our Dell monitors and it picked up my voice and the students' voices. The teachers who used the video lesson later said that students were answering my questions as if I were actually in the room. Camtasia is easy to use and allows for lots of saving formats so you can show lessons over the web or even e-mail them. The funny thing is when people hear my voice coming from both labs and wonder how I can be two places at one time. Now you know!
You can find out more about Camtasia here: http://www.techsmith.com/
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Free Wikis for Educators-no advertising!
Wikispaces.com is offering free, no advertising wiki sites to Educators. Click this link to sign up: http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers100K
I have used this site for a few months now. It is easy to use and provides an excellent collaboration tool for your students. One new feature is concurrent editing. Now, more than one student can edit your wiki page at the same time!
Wikispaces goal is to have 100,000 teachers take advantage of this — so tell your educator friends.
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I have used this site for a few months now. It is easy to use and provides an excellent collaboration tool for your students. One new feature is concurrent editing. Now, more than one student can edit your wiki page at the same time!
Wikispaces goal is to have 100,000 teachers take advantage of this — so tell your educator friends.
Tweet
Sunday, October 15, 2006
New Free Sites everywhere
It seems that everytime I search I find fun and exciting ways to share information online. The great thing about them is, so far, they are all free! I've used http://www.scrapblog.com with 3rd graders who are scrapblogging the year in 3rd grade. The neat thing about this site is that it is a scrapbook and blog all in one. The blogs can be private or public with comments from those who are invited or available to all. http://camruns.scrapblog.com/school/
Another exciting way to share information is through podcasting, though many might think it is too difficult. Not anymore--try www.gcast.com. On this site, you can use your telephone to podcast! How easy is that? We are having students read books for ESL students to listen to online or you can download the file as MP3's or wav files to play on CD players or other music players. You can hear some young children demonstrating how to count and skip count on this sample podcast. Just click the PLAY triangle to hear it. http://www.gcast.com/u/camruns/students You can embed these in your blogs or wikis and parents can subscribe to the podcasts to hear what's going on in your class!
Next, there are some neat photo sharing sites that offer so much more. Try http://www.pickle.com or http://www.bubbleshare.com. You can see my sample bubbleshare of a school fun run below. I used the "bouncy animation" show. The site offers all kinds of ways you can share and you even can include audio. It is as easy as drag and drop. It is lots of fun! So, get out there and learn how to learn---I know you will have some fun along the way!
Tweet
Another exciting way to share information is through podcasting, though many might think it is too difficult. Not anymore--try www.gcast.com. On this site, you can use your telephone to podcast! How easy is that? We are having students read books for ESL students to listen to online or you can download the file as MP3's or wav files to play on CD players or other music players. You can hear some young children demonstrating how to count and skip count on this sample podcast. Just click the PLAY triangle to hear it. http://www.gcast.com/u/camruns/students You can embed these in your blogs or wikis and parents can subscribe to the podcasts to hear what's going on in your class!
Next, there are some neat photo sharing sites that offer so much more. Try http://www.pickle.com or http://www.bubbleshare.com. You can see my sample bubbleshare of a school fun run below. I used the "bouncy animation" show. The site offers all kinds of ways you can share and you even can include audio. It is as easy as drag and drop. It is lots of fun! So, get out there and learn how to learn---I know you will have some fun along the way!
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