iLearn Ezine

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on iLearn Ezine4775 views

I have been working on a special project the last few months.  Introducing iLearn ezine.  This is an online education magazine for Mac users.  The magazine is 26 pages, full color and includes articles about Mac OS Leopard in education, time saving tips, a lesson plan, iPods in education, and more.  The ezine cost $1.00 and includes 3 templates to accompany the lesson plan.  You can purchase the ezine at my new online store .  But wait, there is more!  If you are one of the first 10 to send me a request email, I will send you the iLearn ezine for free!  Just send the request to ktenkely@chcc.org.  Happy reading 🙂

Ed.VoiceThread

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Ed.VoiceThread4678 views


What it is: I have posted about Voice Thread in the past, but Voice Thread has added a new education community that has some pretty incredible features. Ed.VoiceThread is a secure collaborative network designed specifically for the k-12 school environment. Teachers and students can collaborate around almost any type of media including voice, text, webcam, and drawing commentary in a secure environment. Access is restricted to k-12 educators, students, and administrators to ensure safe classroom collaboration. Ed.VoiceThread is an accountable environment, which means that all users are responsible for their content and behavior. Some added features that you will find on Ed.VoiceThread are, students have individual accounts that are easily viewable to educators, students can create, edit, and manage their own portfolio, students cannot add contacts or send invitations to any users outside of the Ed.Voice Thread community, and they cannot view any content that is not created by an Ed.Voice Thread member. Teachers can quickly view and access all students’ Voice Threads. Voice Threads can be made private or public depending on the assignment and requirements. Ed.VoiceThread comes in two packages one free and the other, called Pro, for $60/year. Free users can only create 3 VoiceThreads, have 75 MB of storage, no uploading of MP3 comments, 30 min of webcam commenting, advertising will be present, single file size limit of 25 MB, and no downloads of the media. In the Pro version, students can create an unlimited number of Voice Threads, get 10GB of storage, can upload MP3 comments, have unlimited webcam commenting, 30 archival movie exports, no advertising, single file size limit of 100MB and allows downloads of media.

How to integrate Ed.VoiceThread into the classroom: Ed.VoiceThread is the ideal place for students and teachers to collaborate and interact with digital media. The added functionality for schools with Ed.VoiceThread is very useful. Students can use Ed.VoiceThread to create digital stories, documentaries, practice and document language skills, explore geography and culture, solve math problems, and much more. As a teacher, I like VoiceThread as a place to teach. Because everything is web-based, you can upload a days lessons to Ed.VoiceThread for students to refer to and collaborate with while doing homework. I well remember the days when I would sit in math class learning the days equations. Everything made perfect sense to me while I was sitting in the classroom watching problems being worked. But at home, with no guide homework seemed impossible. Ed.VoiceThread makes you your students personal tutor. The self paced learning is amazing! I love giving students tools that allow them to be in charge of their own learning. Is there any better lesson in life than knowing how to learn?

Tips: Try out the free Ed.VoiceThread account and see how it could work for your classroom. If you are like me, it becomes addicting and 3 VoiceThreads won’t be enough!

Leave a comment and share how you are using Ed.VoiceThread in your classroom.

Letter to the future president

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Letter to the future president2766 views

I learned about this petition last night on Twitter.  If you don’t follow me yet I am at http://twitter.com/ktenkely

The Ed Tech Action Network has created a petition to the future president regarding educational technology.  Obviously, this one is near and dear to my heart as I think that in the 21st century, an education void of technology, can’t really be called an education.  Take 2 minutes to read the letter to the candidates and sign the petition.  

Tech Chick Tips

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Tech Chick Tips2432 views

So, here I am listening to a podcast of Tech Chick Tips in iTunes while I update my blog with Mapness and what should I hear but a shout out for iLearn Technology!!  So much fun to know that I have a hand in (sort of) creating episodes of Tech Chick Tips!  If you haven’t subscribed to Tech Chicks yet, it is a great blog/podcasts all about technology in education.  Episode 45 is the one that mentions iLearn Technology.  Check it out 🙂

Mapness

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What it is: Mapness is a site, still in beta, that students can use to make interactive, virtual travel journals.  First students add points of interest to a map, then they can add descriptions, photos, and videos right on top of the map.  As virtual travelers visit the map, they are led on a virtual tour depicted on the map.  This is really neat!  

How to integrate Mapness into the classroom: Mapness is perfect for integrating into the geography classroom.  As students study different parts of the world, they can create their own virtual tour of that place by collecting photos and videos during their online research and embedding them into maps.  Split students into several groups, each group can be assigned a different place to create a tour for.  When the tours are finished, hold a vacation day where students can visit each other’s assigned places.  This would be an ideal day to reserve the computer lab!  Students can also create literary tours.  As they read a book or learn about an author or genre, they can pinpoint places on the map and add descriptions and pictures.  This would also be a wonderful opportunity to map out historical events.  Bring events to life for your students and weave in some map reading skills while you are at it!  Mapness sure beats the maps I completed as a kid, labeling places on a 8 1/2 x 11 photo copy that always looked sloppy after trying to fit in all of the requirements.

Tips: After students create an account, they can add several map tours to their account making it a nice place to save up work throughout the year.  Mapness does require a working email address to activate the account.  If your students don’t have an email address they can create a temporary email address at a site like Mailinator.  (As a side note, if you regularly give out your email address on websites a Mailinator account would save you from a lifetime of spam.)  

Check out my Mapness map of my recent vacation to California.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Mapness in your classroom.

Flowlight

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Flowlight2855 views

Well, it is taking me longer than expected to blog my recent vacation to California where I visited Apple, Google, Exploratorium, The Tech Museum, and Napa. Sorting through 800+ photos and embedding them in a virtual tour is taking FOREVER! So, in the meantime I thought I would give you a glimpse into the future. Meet the Flowlight, essentially a blackboard with lasers. I read about this concept on Gizmodo last week and I have to say, I think this ‘blackboard’ could hold students attention. Basically, “a base station would focus a laser beam 100 times a second into a point in space, creating small plasma points that glow in mid air. Users could then use the pen to draw and write, making doodles look like some sort of fantastic light show.” While I don’t think this will be in your classrooms in the forseeable future, it may be a glimpse into classrooms to come.

Updated Websites

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Updated Websites2891 views

Over the past week I have been re-vamping my websites.  Tenkely.org is a site that I created for my students to use.  I have pages for first through fifth grade with links to all of the sites that we use in class throughout the year.  I also have a page for parents about how my classroom runs and tips for keeping kids safe online.   The teacher site for tenkely.org  has also been completely re-done.  I added TONS of new goodies for teachers.  Obviously, I created these sites with my students and colleagues in mind but I hope that they are a source of inspiration for you too!  I am already keeping tally of links that aren’t working right so if you run across any, leave a comment so I can get them fixed up.

Capzles

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Capzles3810 views


What it is: Capzles is another interactive timeline maker. I really love all the little extras that Capzles has! With Capzles teachers and students can add photos, videos, audio, and text to their timeline. Themes, colors, backgrounds, and background music can be added to the timeline making it unique and personalized. Capzles also provides options when sharing your Capzle, it can be private with a specific list of who can view the Capzle or made public for the world to see.

How to integrate Capzles into the classroom: Obviously Capzles is a great way for students to create timelines about any subject. The web 2.0 collaborative aspect of Capzles makes it very appealing to students. I think Capzles could also be very valuable in the primary classroom. Students probably won’t be creating their own timelines in Capzles at this age, parent helpers paired with students to create simple timelines would be appropriate. Becasue Capzles has the capability of adding audio, photos, and text, it would be the perfect place to record students reading throughout the year. As you assess student reading through reading records, record the students using a program such as Gabcast, Gcast, Audacity, or Garageband. Take a digital picture of the student reading. Througout the year, you can make a Capzle for each student. This is an excellent motivator for students, especially your struggling readers. Students can see their growth throughout the year in pictures, and hear their reading progress made throughout the year. You can share the Capzle with parents (they will go crazy for this keepsake!) and with the students future teacher. How much would you love getting a timeline of your students from the previous year? You would have a jump start on their struggles and strengths in reading as you quickly flip through their timelines. Cool huh?!

Tips: When assigning students to create a timeline, direct them to concentrate on the “meat” of the timeline first. Then they can go back and design their timeline with themes, colors, and backgrounds. If you don’t specify they will spend all of their time tweaking the look and run out of time to add the content.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Capzles in your classroom.