Mini-geekfest_Links_01-09-12

URL for logging into our Mini-geekfest live sessions on Elluminate: ==[] OR [] (both take you to the same place)==

**Blackboard Collaborate recording link for tonight's show if you'd like to watch it again or share it with friends:**

@https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/jwsdetect/playback.jnlp?psid=2012-01-09.1735.D.AC392E6A5156797E29CE85683F65F4.vcr&sid=vclass

**Shortened URL for Blackboard Collaborate Recording:**

@http://hnyctt.me/mini-geekfest-01-09-12

**Chat log from recording: [[file:Miinigeekfest-1-9-12Chat.pdf]]**
**Links and tools shared during the session will be added to this wiki (see below) and the Livebinder.**

**LiveBinder link for tonight's resources:** [] (Click on tab for January 2012)

**Survey link for tonight's webinar: Whether you participate live or view the recording you may complete the survey and request a 1-hour professional development certificate.**

http://hnyctt.me/mini-geekfest-1-7-12

Next show: Monday, February 13, 2012 6:00pmMST/9:00pmEST
media type="custom" key="12266148"

= Peggy's Resources and Links for January 9, 2012 =

** Tip of the Week from Tammy Worcester **
http://www.tammyworcester.com/TipOfWeek/TammyWTechTipOfWeek/Entries/2012/1/3_Tip_109_-_iFake_Text.html

Use the above link for detailed instructions about how to use the tool and to see examples. “iFake Text” is a great example of a simple tool that can allow your students to show what they know in a unique or novel way by emulating a text message conversation on an iPhone.





iFake Text[| http://ifaketext.com] Vocabulary Example:

Mystery State/Country Skyping
If you're studying states or countries, join this wiki to find classes to skype with around the US. It's a year-long project. (Shared by Jan Wells, KS) Grade levels are not limited but it is often in 4th and 5th grade where this falls in the curriculum. http://mysterystate.wikispaces.com/ *Have your students come up with at least 10 great clues about your state ranging from easy to hard. Make sure to stress to your students that the clues need to be fact based and well researched. You want to make sure you include topography. Great beginning clues would be who the Governor is or showing a picture of the state capitol. *Have a student or a group work on a short paper on your state. This informational paper should talk about your state, a little history, topography, favorite destinations, fun facts, famous people, etc. This will be shared when your state is revealed to the other class. *Have student roles during the SKYPE call. Have note takers and if you have more than one computer in your classroom - have student researchers who can start researching during the call. *Make sure everyone has something to do during the call whether it is taking notes, researching on a computer, asking questions. *Remember -your Skype sessions do not have to be long. 15-20 minutes should be all the time you need to hear the clues. *Decide beforehand with the other teacher if you want your students to guess the "Mystery State" before the end of the call, or, take the clues and have a follow-up SKYPE call where each class will get a chance to guess the "Mystery State." *After the call is over and you have your 10 clues, have students research the answer. Some other ideas: have a contest where groups work together to guess the mystery state. Type up the clues and give it as a homework assignment or extra credit. *Have a student or students read your informational essay on your state once the state is revealed. *You can reuse all of this material for your next call, or, anyone who didn't get a chance to contribute this time can contribute their essay or clues for the next call. *Follow up with the teacher you worked with - what a great way to form new classroom collaboration on another project!
 * Would you like to join us on a MYSTERY SEARCH for what state or country you are from?**

These 50 educational technology products and services are the 2012 winners of our Readers' Choice Awards
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2012/01/03/our-readers-top-ed-tech-picks-for-2012/3/? We asked readers to give us their top picks for school hardware, software, websites, and services. Nearly 1,400 readers responded via one of our three websites: eSchoolNews.com, eCampusNews.com, and eClassroomNews.com. In nominating their favorite products, we asked readers to tell us how they’re using these products to improve teaching, learning, or school administration—and to what effect. We then chose the 50 best responses, which appear alphabetically by product name and grouped into two categories: K-12 and higher education. (Recommendations include both commercial products ($) and free products.)

One of the top 50 items was the Echo Livescribe Pen. I am so excited about the power of these pens since we featured them on Classroom 2.0 LIVE. We heard teachers explain and provide examples of how they are using them to support student learning at all grade levels K-Post-Secondary. You can view the recording and even get a discount code to use for a pen from the video or chat log. Tim Fahlberg, creator of MathCasts, shared his tips and suggestions and even offered a discount code to purchase the sound stickers. @http://live.classroom20.com/1/post/2011/12/differentiating-with-livescribe-smartpens.html

LiveBinder Link: http://www.livebinders.com/edit?id=242632 (Note: Click on tab for "Livescribe Smartpens" in the LiveBinder.)

A Quick Guide to Edmodo
If you're thinking about using Edmodo for your own professional growth to connect with other teachers, for your own students, parents, teachers, this is a grat guide to help you get started and also to share with your colleagues to help them get started.

http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1rhw8/EdmodoAguidetoeveryt/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http://wsfcs.edmodo.com/library/v2

AnyMeeting
Free web conferencing tool http://anymeeting.com/

Overview of Online Meeting Features
http://anymeeting.com/Free-Web-Conferencing-Features.aspx#Web-Conferencing-Comparison Compare features with WebEx, GoToWebinar, GoToMeeting To create a recording of a live meeting, click on the **Record** button in the Footer Control module and then click **Start Recording**. This will record everything that an attendee would see in your meeting: =Classroom 2.0 LIVE Reflection Smackdown for 2011= Incredible one-stop shopping for tons of great resources and blog links were shared during this Smackdown. A Smackdown is an opportunity for anyone who wants to share a tool or teaching idea to take the mic for 2 minutes and tell about it. Sometimes they are known as “Speed Demos”—They involve fast and furious presentations by educators touting their fave Web tools. It’s not a tutorial or an in-depth description but like a teaser--they quickly share the name of the tool, what it can do and how you they using it as a professional and in your own classrooms.The blog post with the full recording and related links can be found here: http://live.classroom20.com/1/post/2012/01/2011-reflection-smackdown.html There is also a Livebinder for the show where you will find all of the links including those shared by participants in the chat during the session. The bonus is that we have also included the blog links for all of the fantastic presenters we had on our show throughout 2011 so you can explore and/or follow any of them. Click on the tab for "Reflections Smackdown for 2011" and then click on any of the sub-tabs to view the website. http://www.livebinders.com/edit?id=266490
 * Completely Free
 * 200 Attendees
 * Unlimited Meetings
 * Video Conferencing
 * Screen Sharing
 * Application Sharing
 * Recording
 * Webinar Ticketing
 * VoIP
 * Conference Calling
 * Public Profile
 * Social Media Integration
 * Text Chat
 * Polling
 * Invitations
 * Surveys
 * Reporting
 * No Required Downloads
 * All of your Screen Sharing
 * Public Text Chat
 * Audio and Video Broadcasts
 * Polls

One of the tools shared that I loved was SnackTools. =SnackTools= http://www.snacktools.com/en/ SnackTools is a suite of web applications designed to simplify the way you create and publish rich media widgets. Our goal is to enable you to easily create your own blog and website widgets, in a fun and effortless way. All the SnackTools apps are licensed for free with the option to pay for a few premium publishing options mainly intended for professional use. The apps work with most blog platforms. Tools available: BannerSnack, PhotoSnack, PodSnack, TubeSnack, QuizSnack, FlipSnack, SlideSnack

EdWeb.net
This is an awesome new resource for educators in all roles. They have many online webinars and forums and they are all FREE. This is just one of their upcoming webinars and they are all recorded for later viewing if you can't make the live session. The EdWeb community is free to join and has many groups to choose from to become actively involved. http://www.edweb.net/ If you are ever unable to attend live, the webinar will be recorded and archived here in the Mobile Learning Explorations community so you'll have access to view it at any time. For each webinar you participate in, you will receive a CE certificate.

Wednesday, January 18th - 3pm Eastern Time
 * Resources for Online Tools and Strategies to Support Instruction **

To join the live session, follow this link at the scheduled time: www.instantpresenter.com/edweb13

In This Session With the teacher acting as the facilitator in the classroom, there are optimum conditions that need to be present in order for this to occur. This webinar will present some pedagogical models of teaching and learning that can easily meet these conditions and support the use of online tools.

Online tools are not necessarily Web 2.0 tools in the truest sense. Some of the tools covered in this presentation would be considered Web 2.0 tools with their real-time collaboration aspects and revision histories. Other tools presented will be online utilities to meet a specific need or meet a student’s goal.

During this Webinar, you will be introduced to several tools in each of these categories. Video editors, Audio editors, Image editors, Word processors, Cool stuff,, Web page creators, Podcast creators, Survey makers, Media converters, Mind mappers, Citation makers The discussion will focus on why and when you might use each type and the strengths of the tools will be emphasized.

T here is a fabulous series coming up beginning on January 11th on mobile learning and the kick-off webinar is by Lucy Gray called Leadership for Mobile Learning. http://www.edweb.net/mobile

Leadership for Mobile Learning
Mobile learning is on the forefront of educational technology trends. Join us on January 11th for our community’s first webinar for valuable insight for education leaders who are trying to add mobile learning to their schools and districts. Lucy Gray, a project director for the Consortium for School Networking, will kick off our webinar series with an overview of CoSN’s Leadership for Mobile Learning initiative. Leadership, research and best practices for using mobile learning devices as effective teaching tools will be highlighted along with practical resources to guide school administrators with mobile learning implementations. Lucy will also discuss CoSN’s newest set of case studies on districts pioneering mobile learning. Don’t miss this interactive, one-hour webinar on January 11th for strategies and tools for the successful deployment of mobile learning technologies in school districts. To attend the live webinar, follow this link at the scheduled time: http://www.instantpresenter.com/edwebnet3

Date: Wednesday, January 11, 2012 Starts: 4:00 pm (GMT-5) Eastern Time (US) =SimpleK12 On Demand Webinars= Do you want to learn... * More about basic photo editing tools? * How to record and upload videos? * Creative tools for collaboration and brainstorming? * where to look for FREE web tools to improve your lesson plans?

If you answered yes to any of these... YOU MUST attend this on-demand webinar! =========================================== View the webinar and get your free eBook here: http://simplek12.com/tlc/h07321od/ =========================================== In this webinar, Steven Anderson presents 30 Tools in 50 Minutes! These are creative and interactive tools that you can easily use in your classroom. And the best part is - we're sharing all of these web tools with you for FREE!

PLUS we're giving you a FREE copy of SimpleK12's most popular eBook, "Hidden Webtools: 11 Tools for Your Classroom". Go watch the On-Demand Webinar here: http://simplek12.com/tlc/h07321od/

http://fno.org/jan2012/cov.html
 * FromNowOn: Jamie McKenzie The Art of eReading **

= Kim's Resources and Links for January 9, 2012 =

**Duo Lingo** [] Learn a language and help translate the web. What makes this web site unique is their approach to learning a language. Watch the short video on the home page to get a full explanation of how the site works.

**Virtual Field Trip Resource** [] From the presentation by Jayme Linton at the K12 Online Conference. Be warned, you might end up getting lost, visiting the Sistine Chapel or Taj Mahal! This was my first visit (ok, at least that I can remember!) to a site using Symbaloo and I love it! It is visually easy to read, allowing you to dive right in to find the information you want.

**Little Bird Tales** [] Story building tool. I am not too sure about this one...yet. Liked the fact that you can set-up an educator account to use with your students. Also easy to use. After building a short story I went ahead and purchased it. At $.99 it is risk worth taking. :) Consider checking it out....

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Kideos** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">[] <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Videos for kids, organized by ages. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">From the website - <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> Kideos is the premier destination for kids to safely watch videos online. Each video on Kideos has been screened by our Video Advisory Council before it makes it onto our site. Our goal is to empower parents to feel comfortable allowing their child to spend time on Kideos, while also making sure children have a thoroughly entertaining experience.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Geo Cube** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">[] <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Rubic cube and geography, never thought I would see this kind of combination. Information is organized on a a rubric cube you can manipulate to see the various topics covered. As a visual learner I found this to be an interesting website, worthy of sharing with others.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Digital Vaults from the National Archives** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">[] <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Anything from the National Archives is going to be worth checking out and that is especially true for this site. With just a few minutes of exploring the site, you will be able to manipulate the pictures and information to find information.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Word Hippo** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">[] <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Online dictionary and translator....and...so much more! <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">How they came up with the website name Word Hippo, I will never know. Wait, who cares! It is a unique site that allows you to look up rhyming words, translations, opposites, thesaurus and even sentences that have a particular word in it.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Kim Caise shared Gifgear http://gifgear.com/ (Create gif animation online--and you can add it to the Blackboard Collaborate whiteboard to view it animated) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Kim Caise shared a GoogleLitTrips wiki that provides detailed instructions about how to create your own GoogleLitTrips http://googlelittrips2010.pbworks.com/w/page/27805092/Home <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Lorna Costantini shared ScreenSteps--a fantastic software tool that allows you to create awesome tutorials with step by step screenshots and your own annotations/explanations http://www.bluemangolearning.com/screensteps/ <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Len Horn shared SumoPaint--an excellent online image editing program that has many of the same features as Photoshop but it is free <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">http://www.sumopaint.com/home/ <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Kiim Caise shared InstaBlog<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">-- allows you to create one-time-only blog posts, without logging in or setting up a blog. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">http://www.instablogg.com/
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Links shared by our fantastic participants/supporters in the chat: **