Build your own Vocab Quiz

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is get a person to study. For some, staring at a book or notes just won't work. Flashcards can be helpful, but what if you could create a vocab quiz online and share it amongst students and staff? Well, you can.

http://quizlet.com/

On this site, all you have to do is create a user (takes about 30 seconds), create a set (adding as much info as you want) and then take the quiz and see how you do.

This is another example of how technology can be used to reach the students that don't necessarily excel in the traditional methods of learning.

James

Be your own tv station

Recently, I was told about a website where you can save videos and create a tv station of your own.
Visit http://www.worldtv.com to see it in action. To see some of the videos that I'm using go to:

http://worldtv.com/blogging_tech/


I will be adding videos as I go. For now, it will start with Did You Know v. 2.0 (http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2007/06/did-you-know-20.html). You can click the "next" or "previous" buttons to flip through the three videos that I have loaded so far.

One of the huge advantages of this is that a person (student, teacher, parent, etc.) can add dozens of videos to their "station," order the videos as they see fit and them have them to present as needed (or to be viewed at one's leisure). This is a truly innovative way to store and share videos. Check it out.

http://www.worldtv.com

James

Storing data online

One of the innovative set of tools to arrive in the last couple of years is online data storage and online applications. One of the major players in this movement is Google. Google started as a simple search engine (only a few years ago) and now has a enormous presence on the web. Google now offers a variety of online applications that can be accessed from anywhere with nearly any device that is connected to the web. For instance, you can go to Google, setup a user and get a Gmail account (email), and use Google docs to created and edit documents, spreadsheets and digital presentations. Also Google also offers a online calendar, Google reader and the ability to personalize the Google.com page to your wishes. Google has other offerings on top of those for the web surfer.

Google
http://www.google.com

To try iGoogle
http://www.google.com/ig?hl=en&source=iglk

The bigger picture with all of this is that many different groups, companies and websites are beginning to offer services in this manner. The idea is simple, if your data and applications to access that data is online, then it doesn't matter where you are or what device that you use to access it. With the Internet becoming ever more ubiquitous the ability to access data from everywhere is going to come to the forefront.

When you tie this into the proliferation of cell phones, the possibilities to have your office with you where ever you go is very achievable.

James

University of New Hampshire Study on Online Predators

The University of New Hampshire release a study that calls into question many of the perceptions of how online predators behave while using sites like MySpace or FaceBook.

The study can be found at:

http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/amp632111.pdf

A couple of notes from the study are:

• Internet offenders pretended to be teenagers in only 5 percent of the crimes studied by researchers.
• Nearly 75 percent of victims who met offenders face-to-face did so more than once.
• Online sex offenders are seldom violent, and cases involving stalking or abduction are very rare.

The study does not dismiss the concerns that we all have about these types of sites, but works to help us better understand the risks.

James

NSBA on Social Networking Sites

The National School Board Association recently released a study that calls into question how dangerous that social networking sites really are.

http://www.nsba.org/SecondaryMenu/TLN/CreatingandConnecting.aspx

The study found that there are only a very few reported incidents of cyberstalking or cyberbullying. Furthermore, the NSBA goes on to encourage school districts to use Social Network sites as another tool in for teaching a learning.

James

New Language -- TEXTING

We are constantly bombarded by commercials for cell phones that offer nearly free and unlimited texting. Many commercials show kids and young adults busy punching the keys on their phones to communicate.....I can remember when you used a phone to just talk to someone....I guess I'm just getting obsolete. :)

What exactly are those kids in the commercials doing anyway... They are "texting" their friends, family, etc. To understand what texting is, you need to first know that texting is a new language in and of itself and our kids are fluent in this language.

Texting simply is a method to communicate where common phrases and words are replaced with a ever complex and growing list of acronyms and abbreviations. Now that I have you COMPLETELY lost, here's an example:

Instead of writing something like "That was funny," the text language might be LOL (short for Laughing Out Loud). Another common one is IMHO or "In My Humble Opinion."

Generally, this developed as a way to send a quick note and now is a robust language that most kids and young adults are VERY adept at using. To see some of the common phrases in texting, visit:

Webopedia
Texting Quick Reference Guide

As a side note, in texting:

POS means Parents Over Shoulder
P911 means Parents Coming into Room alert
PAW means Parents Are Watching


Regardless of its use, texting is here to stay for now. It's a good idea to become familiar with it and gain a basic understanding of some of the language.

James

Web 2.0

One of the new terms in the Internet world is Web 2.0. So what is Web 2.o? The easiest way to think of Web 2.0 is to look at it as the next step in the Internet's/Websites' evolution. In the past, websites were fairly one dimensional in the sense that the content was controlled by the person in charge of the site. With Web 2.o, websites are much more interactive and collaborative. The idea being that the owner can post information to webpage and others can come in and contribute to it.

As examples of Web 2.o sites/applications, one only has to look at this site itself. A blog is considered a Web 2.0 site. Wikispaces, mashups, blogs, etc. are all considered a Web 2.0 application/site because Internet users can contribute to it and help add value to the site. Sites like MySpace, Facebook, Blogger, Youtube, and Linkedin are all major players as Web 2.o sites.

To read more about Web 2.o (including some of the really geeky stuff), try the following links:

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2

O'Reilly
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html

James