Thanks Mr. Tooke from Wilkerson Intermediate for sharing this great find: An interactive map with the front pages of newspapers from around the world. See how it works here: http://screencast.com/t/aMBc446Q It's a fast and interactive way to get a cultural view on what makes news where.
Credit for this find must go to Dustin Hornsby who told me about this MONTHS ago. I looked at it and thought "yeah, that is cool," but it wasn't until today when I used it on the big screen with a Mimio* that I FULLY appreciated exactly how COOL Cooliris is. Check out the search engine that "Transforms your browser into a lightning fast, cinematic way to discover the Web."
*What's a Mimio? It's a device that turns any surface into an interactive area when used with a computer and LCD projector. It eliminates the need for bulky, expensive interactive boards like Smart, Numonics, or Promethean (all great products, but who has the $ or space?)
I've spent a lot of time trying to find a program/web 2.0 tool like Photo Story that will work on my Vista OS computer. There are hundreds of great web 2.0 slideshow tools out there, but none of them I've found so far have ALL the elements I love so much about Photo Story 3 for some purposes. So, here's how you can make it work. Enjoy!
Check out this Web 2.0 tool: Capzles (Personal Example). Great educational potential. Reminds me of VoiceThread but with that cool look of SearchMe (and the Ipod Touch, of course).
Remember to check out CISD's Best of the Web to learn about all the best new websites and tools. LOTS of new sites added this weekend!.
For example, check out these new sites and areas:
Scrapblog: (LOVE this Web 2.0--pure fun, no artistic skill required-Looks GREAT! Makes me feel like I spent the weekend "scrapbooking" but really only took about 10 minutes) Personal Example
Drop.io Simple Private Sharing: Solves that "I don't have enough space for this" problem. Actually easy, very slick, clean interface.
Early Childhood Games and Videos I'd love you to email more Early Childhood sites to me. It's hard to find sites that are easily navigable for early readers.
PicApp - Free photos for use on your websites, blogs, etc.
Ubiquitous access to the Internet is the way of the future NOT "one-to-one" computing. We do not believe in the "on-to-one" theory. We believe in access via the Internet to one's files and programs regardless of the device used. One-to-one computing focuses on the computer as the most important component of technological innovation and growth in education, but we believe that the innovation is in all the time, anywhere access regardless of the device used. It is not important to provide a laptop for a child in order to have innovative technological advances; it is important to provide children the opportunity to access the network and learn to navigate it to find the tools they need."One-to-one" thinking is already passé.
Instead of picturing a student with his or her "own laptop" that he or she lugs from classroom to classroom then home, picture children using any computer available to do the same tasks, picking up their documents where they left off in their Web 2.0 tools, accessing the same document or file on the computer at the public library after school then again in the evening at home. He or she might use a Thin Client, then a desktop PC, then a notebook, and so on. The device and its ownership is irrelevant; "the network is everything" (Dr. Scott Barrett).
The Jing Project by TechSmith (one of my favorite software creators, makers of SnagIt, which I don't have any desire to live without), is utterly amazing. Until I found, viewed, and understood it yesterday, it took a long time, a lot of effort, and a significant amount of frustration and disk space to display a short "how-to" video of a process which I might need to "show" users how to do.
NOT ANYMORE.
This is how it works: Go to Jing and download the program (about 5 MBs). Install it and notice the icon that appears in your system tray. Right click that little baby and choose "Capture," drag a box around the area you want to capture--generally, the size of the largest window that you need people to see. To record a video (which is the most amazing thing), just click "Video" and start clicking (and talking if you have a microphone). When you finish, hit the stop button, then choose the "embed" option. After you sign in and wait a few seconds, the embed code will be sent to your computer's clipboard. All you have to do then is paste the html code into your web page. Don't worry a bit if you know nothing about code. It doesn't matter! It will work anyway! Check out this tiny example and imagine the POWER of this tool!
To Jing, in the words of the immortal Shakespeare: "Thanks and Thanks and Ever Thanks."
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