open the door…

Graphic novels seem to be ‘flavour of the month’.

I have just finished reading a very impressive review of ‘Alice in Sunderland’ by Bryan Talbot – Thanks to Joy Lawn

As part of my background research I found a Google book about Bryan. I usually restrict myself to Full View books but even though this one was Limited View (ie the ENTIRE book is not available on-line) this one was so good I added it to my library anyway.

And here it is embedded in this post…

Now I just need to figure out how to stop the script embedding books I have previously featured !

Any suggestions?
Note Added 11/4/09 - this site http://code.google.com/apis/books/docs/preview-wizard.html provides more customized scripts

A recent tweet poll by new twitterer Linda asked users to name their top 3 Web 2.0 applications. Sue Waters has expanded Linda’s initial question into an informative Edublogger blog post: Using Your twitter network for help…

I am currently making use of a lot of the more well known Web 2.0 tools: iGoogle and the rest of the Google suite have simplified the way I work online; flickr, VoiceThread, SlideShare, del.icio.us etc all allow me to access and share resources with fellow educators; and twitter, ning and another nameless social site (beginning with a ‘d’ and ending with an ‘o’ – ask Sue about this) have given me an entry point to a community of like-minded colleagues.

Of course edublogs is one of my favourites too.

But this post is really about some of the lesser-known but really useful tools I have used in the classroom.

Search Crystal

I’ve blogged about Search Crystal previously (on our brand new CMIS Technology Focus blog) and am repeating it here because it’s great.Check out the tour Create an acount for free, explore and learn a new way of searching.

Kayuda Mind Maps

My Year 11 VET English class used this to create collaborative mind maps and collect information from the web for assignments.Here’s the Try it Now SandboxI don’t know how this one has been missed by so many people – it’s worth waiting for the hampster to be bootstrapped!

Kerpoof

Great fun for everyone. No explanations needed. Create an account and get started – your class will love it.

I’m stopping here so you can go and explore – like Sue I will be featuring more of my favourites. Please share some of yours.

You can be the Voice of the Future

Schools across Australia are invited to host a 2020 School Summit during the three weeks commencing March 17th 2008. Teachers are asked to encourage their students to articulate and communicate their feelings and ideas for the future of Australia.

Interested students who are not at a participating school may submit feedback directly through the Summit website.

CMIS will be posting two separate series of VoiceThreads – one for younger students (middle/ upper primary and early adolescence) and one for older students (Late adolescence).

Both series will consist of 10 separate VoiceThreads, each concentrating on one of the 10 Critical Areas identified for discussion at the Australian 2020 Summit.

We will commence posting the VoiceThreads on Monday March 17th and will continue posting one each working day over the next two weeks. The VoiceThreads will remain available for comment until April 3rd (to allow for comments to be collated and submitted to the Australia 2020 site by the April 4th deadline)

Please feel free to use the introductory VoiceThread below to experiment with creating a VoiceThread account and recording comments.

Australian educational bloggers are invited to embed these VoiceThreads into their own blogs (or link to this one) Here is a sneak preview of the first topic (for older students) and the first topic for younger students.

To learn more about VoiceThread visit their excellent tutorial page.

Teachers please note: VoiceThread Terms of Service require users under the age of 13 to have parental permission to create their own accounts.

Check out the CMIS webpages on Student Safety Online for useful information

I blogged about the Horizon Report in an earlier entry. This 2008 report looks at the impact of 6 grassroots technologies on higher education and explores the likelihood of their introduction over three time frames: 1 year or less, two to three years and four to five years.Those of you who were involved in the Flatclassroom Project 2007 will be pleased to see Julie Lindsay and Viki Davis hard at work again with the 2008 Horizon Project

The Horizon Project is a sister to the Flat Classroom Project. The Horizon Project Ning is where teachers and students will connect, communicate and collaborate for the Horizon Project 2008.

Check out the Horizon Project Wiki for more information.