Educational Origami

Want to start a new technology integration project in your classroom? Want to use a cool new web application tool to do the project but don’t know how? Well, does Andrew Churches have the answer for you! Andrew is from Auckland, New Zealand. He is a computer curriculum manager and the organizer of a wiki called educational origami. Educational Origami is one of the best wikis I have seen for incorporating Blooms Taxonomy into lessons using technology. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License, Educational Origami allows teachers to use all the information in the wiki and remix it to fit their curriculums simply by giving Andrew credit.

But not only that, Andrew wants to make it easy for teachers to learn how to use Technology so he has created PDF files that he calls “Starter Sheets” that are just that, sheets that will help you get started with any product you choose. He also has a blog on which he posts videos similar to the “Starter Sheets” that instruct on the use of the most common Web2.0 Applications. This blog post is an instructional video on how to use Voicethread. The blog post even allows you to download the video so that you can share it during staff development time. It downloads as a QuickTime Movie and already has Andrew's name on the opening screen, so it already gives him credit. You also hear his incredible accent.

All in all I am very happy to have come across Andrew Churches wiki. It will be quite helpful to me when I freeze up and decide not to use something with my students because I am afraid I don’t know how. It will give me that little boost of confidence I need to use technology tools when I know it will be a boost to my curriculum. I am also following Andrew on twitter, his twiter name is achurches.

Trying Jing

This is the first time I am trying Jing. I thought I would show my students how to find Accelerated Reader tests in the Arrowhead Library.

Check it out:
http://screencast.com/t/YXoNurbtdtg.

Hope this works!

Free Tutorials…

While trying to catch up on my EdTech list-serve reading I came across a post that told about some free tutorials to learn Microsoft Office. These tutorials come from Bernie Poole who is an Associate Professor of Education and Instructional Technology at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. Did I mention that these tutorials are free and did I mention that Bernie is a member of the EDTech list-serve? Well, it is free and he is, and he has done it again. This time he has put up tutorials for Office 2007. It’s called Essential Microsoft Office 2007: Tutorial for Teachers. Check them out!