Tools and Links

I plan on using this section to post information about tools I am trying, articles I am reading, and web pages I am exploring.


If This Then That - I have quickly come to realize that managing all of my social networking spaces can be a lot of work.  I have attempted to try to manage this by using If This Then That.  I have heard a number of people speak of this tool, but I have never tried it for myself.  I have two current "recipes".  The first one is set to send a tweet through Twitter every time I publish a new post in Blogger.  The second recipe is designed to send a tweet through Twitter every time I add a public bookmark in Delicious.  I look forward to discovering new uses for this tool over the weeks ahead.

TodaysMeet - I have used this tool sporadically in the past.  This year I plan to utilize it as a backchannel during most of my presentations as an additional way for participants to interact with myself and others.




Free Technology for Teachers - One of my absolute favourite educational technology blogs is Free Technology for Teachers, written by Richard Byrne.  You can follow him on Twitter as well @rmbyrne .  I have been following him for more than a year and have retweeted dozens of his posts.  This week I decided to add a brief comment along with my retweet.  Within twenty minutes he had added me as one of his followers.  I guess providing my own personal voice to retweets really does make a difference.

Lisa Nielsen: The innovative Educator - Shannon Sanchuck shared this link.  It provides information about developing a personal learning network.  To establish baseline data for this class I took the "How strong is your personal learning network? quiz.  My current score is a 27, which indicates I am making connections and moving in the right direction.  I am hoping to raise this score over the course of the semester.

LiveBinders - a Web2.0 tool I have used in the past and plan on using again for this class is LiveBinders.  This tool allows you to collect and organize documents and images in a virtual 3-ring binder.  However, unlike a real binder, LiveBinders allows you to insert media like sound and video files, and hyperlinks to websites.  Another great LiveBinder feature is that binders can be publicly shared and searched, so they can also be a great source of information for a variety of topics.

FlatClassroom: A Week in the Life - I have been given the opportunity to work with our Social Studies consultant and a primary classroom teacher and students as they participate in the Flat Classroom Project this fall.  As stated on the website, "The aim of the project is to join Elementary School classrooms globally with a view to exploring what life is like in each country through discussion, sharing and collecting multimedia to create final products together."  I am anticipating this project will proved my with plenty of reflection opportunities.
 

Jigsaw Planet - I am using this tool as part of the Flat Classroom project.  This site allows you to upload a picture and convert it into a virtual puzzle.  The puzzle can then be shared with others or embedded into a blog or wiki.

Looking for Tools?  The Teaching with Technology site Leanne Forrest and I created identifies a number of tools based on effective teaching strategies they help to support.