From time to time I’m invited to speak to future teachers about how I use technology in my day-to-day teaching life. In no particular order, here are my top ten technology tools for the English classroom.

1. The teacher blog: (provided by the school)
   I update this daily to keep track of makeup work and assignments, making sure to that most of the work that I pass out in class is a document that can be opened and printed out from the media center or classroom for absent, or absent-minded students.This is also a great tool for those precious days when you are in the computer lab. I sometimes assemble links for the day’s lesson on the “daily agenda” section of the teacher blog so students have easy access to the links I want them to use throughout the activity.
   • My old teacher blog: http://janellmcclure.typepad.com/miller/
   • My current teacher blog: http://mccleskeyms.typepad.com/jmiller/
   • United Streaming: http://www.unitedstreaming.com/
   • Net Trekker: http://www.nettrekker.com/
2. del.icio.us account (free, social bookmarking tool)
   I use this as a networking tool to share great online resources with my colleagues, both within the school where I teach and with other teacher-friends in and around the US. I would love for students to begin using this tool as part of our online research, since this is the way I often use this tool. It also helps me to stay organized and compile links I can pull up quickly in class for a lesson or warmup.
   • My del.icio.us account: http://del.icio.us/jmill123
   • An explanation of social bookmarking: http://blip.tv/file/331587
3. wordpress, edublogs, etc.
   I use weblogs for a variety of purposes, for professional development, conference presentations, personal research, journaling, and maintaining sanity. Over the years, I’ve developed enough self-awareness to realize that I am chronically unorganized, non-linear, and love to procrastinate. So to protect myself from, well, myself, I’ve developed some seemingly obsessive organizational habits that help keep my world on its axis.
   • Professional/personal blog: http://teachmetech.wordpress.com/
   • Teacher-research for 2008 KMWPsi: http://placematters.edublogs.org/
   • Wiki page for 2008 KMWPsi: http://slogfest.wetpaint.com/page/Jess
   • Capstone materials for Masters degree: http://wordsmatter.wordpress.com/
   • Cohort blog (created on request): http://caringcohort.wordpress.com/
4. Quick-links (frequently used online resources)
   Although there are many more resources in my del.icio.us account and here on this blog than I can possibly use in a day, there are a few that I return to frequently.
   • Jim Burke’s Tools for Reading, Writing, and Thinking
   • 4Teachers Family of Tools (free, online-I have used Rubistar with success, but am unfamiliar with many of the other tools found here)
   • Flickr.com I love using images for writing practice or warmup activities when prompts run dry. This is a great way to add variety and visual interest to the daily grind, and is useful when asking students to focus on a particular writing strategy.
   • Zamzar The internet connection where I used to work was unreliable, or blocked videos that I wanted to share with my class, so I often use Zamzar to convert these videos to files I can save to my laptop and show through the projector.
   • Common Craft Show While I don’t access this daily, it’s a great resource for just about any audience when trying to explain some of the more commonly used Internet platforms I use (or want to use) in my class.
5. Students as film-makers
   This is a compendium of online tools that I have found useful in helping students understand the conventions and composition of digital films. By the time my students reach seventh grade most of them have at least some familiarity with PowerPoint so we usually begin with this software as a platform for storyboarding.
   • Digital Directors Guild Provides a rational for using digital film-making in the classroom
     
   • Kids’ Vid: Video Production for Students Guided practice for students
     
   • del.icio.us/digitalstorytelling My bookmarked links for digital storytelling
   • TeacherTube Allows for publishing of student and/or teacher created work
6. Online Writing Communities
   There are many platforms for creating an online classroom or writing community for students these days. Although I have limited personal experience with these environments (primarily due to internet restrictions at the local school) the success and student-interest generated by using them has encouraged me to try again.
   • Think.com — I used this platform with much success in the first half of the school year (before the site became inexplicably and irreparably blocked/dysfunctional with the school server). Free, and compatible with most schools, this platform offers incredible flexibility, ease of use, and a variety of privacy levels.
   • Gaggle.net — Although I don’t have personal experience with this platform, several of my colleagues swear by Gaggle and use it all year long. Free use includes advertisements, but maintains privacy/security.
   • 21 Classes — Free classroom and education blogs. This service is new to me and is something I might try this school year.
7. Reading
   I didn’t really consider myself a reader until I started using some online tools that document your reading habits. I’ve started using these tools to bookmark future reading material and to gain knowledge of books I can recommend to my students. I have also begin integrating professional learning and collaboration with my personal collection.I’ve also developed some new literacy practices along the way, which includes subscribing to various feeds. This helps me to stay current on information that I would otherwise have to hunt for (not that I mind hunting, but I find it wastes a lot of time). This is another tool I use to keep tabs on both personal and professional information.
   • My goodreads.com page Allows users to monitor their own reading habits, share books with others, and keep an ongoing list of future reading material
   • 2008 KMWPsi goodreads.com group
   • Bloglines.com Manages feeds using RSS (an explanation of RSS)
     
   • Georgia Performance Standards
   • National Council for Teachers of English
8. Fun things
   Avatars, logos, etc.
   • Wordle (cool way to create word-walls or post key words)
   • Voki: Get Your Own Free Speaking Avatar
   • WeeMee (Free Avatar Generator)
   • Meez: Avatars. Games, Virtual Worlds
   • Yahoo! Avatars (free with email registration)
   • Cool Text: Free Logo Generator
   • Face of the future–transforms your face
9. Future and current plans
   The pace of technology doesn’t allow for me to integrate every idea that comes across my path, so I often return to sites that I know I can’t use in my current practice, but that help fuel future plans, keeping me excited about the next big thing.
   • teachweb2.0 is a wiki space with constantly evolving resources; teacher generated and reviewed, you could easily become a part of this collaborative community. I plan to try out Gabcast, Voicethread, and Diigo.
10. You!
    My greatest resource is definitely other teachers. Knowing the pitfalls, as well as success, of other professionals in the trenches inspires me to continue working with technology in my own classroom. Without the support (moral/ethical/emotional) of other teachers, using technology in the classroom can sometimes feel like an effort that is wasted. Students love using this stuff, but I have had experiences where this enthusiasm (from my students and myself) created a backlash from teachers that are inclined to reject this trend of technology integration.

http://screencast.com/t/4jsjyNibY0

Just what is a wiki anyway?

More on using wikis in the classroom: http://teachweb2.wikispaces.com/

I was recently awarded a grant for a digital film project that I plan to implement next year with my students. As preparation for the project, I’m trying to compile lessons and Internet resources that I can use for directed and scaffolded learning. Ultimately, I would like students to create a digital portfolio and then have a showcase at the end of the course to present their work to a larger audience.

Digital Directors Guild http://www.ddguild.org/resources.html

Center for Digital Storytelling http://www.storycenter.org/stories/ 

Sound Portraits http://www.soundportraits.org/

Facing History and Ourselves http://www.facing.org/campus/reslib.nsf

http://powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/projects/edtechcentral/VideoEditing/InTheClassroom.htm

Article excerpted from Tzunami Information Works. Read the complete article.

Brainstorming and Mindmapping

Mindmapping software is great for brainstorming, organizing information hierarchically, creating advanced to-do lists, planning and much more. Unfortunately, brainstorming software can also be very expensive, and far less convenient because it can’t easily be shared with other collaborators. By contrast, these webware alternatives are not only free, but also provide the added benefit of being accessible from anywhere.

1. Bubbl.us. Bubbl.us is a basic mindmapping app with an easy to use interface, is multi-lingual, and allows maps to be embedded in web pages.
2. Comapping. Comapping takes mindmapping one step further, allowing simultaneous use by multiple users.
3. Kayuda. Kayuda is a mindmapping-plus app, good for developing “campaigns”. Maps are shareable and serve as navigation. Add text and details to each node.
4. Mind42. Mind42 (“Mind for two”) is another collaborative mindmapping application that is a bit closer to its desktop cousins, and throws in web sticky notes as well.
5. Mindomo. Mindomo might make you forget it’s a webware app in terms of interface and mindmapping functionality. It has non-real time collaborative features.
6. Mindmeister. Mindmeister offers non-real time collaboration and many of the import/ export features of Mindomo. The interface lies between Bubbl.us and Mindomo in feature quantity.

Diagramming

Whether you’re trying to organize a team or just organize your thoughts, diagramming software is probably currently in your list of desktop software essentials. While web-based diagramming tools are not quite yet as sophisticated as their desktop cousins, a few are getting close.

1. Flowchart.com. With Flowchart.com, choose a chart type, then drag and drop nodes, lines and clipart onto the canvas. Share charts or export to PDF or PNG formats.
2. Gliffy. It’s not quite as full-featured MS-Visio but Gliffy offers many of the same types of diagrams in a similar interface.
3. Swivel. Share your data charts and visualizations on Swivel, which is sort of like a Flickr or YouTube for charts. (API currently in invite mode only.)

Entertainment – Audio, Video, Other

Ditch your CD player. Forget about that TV tuner card. Nearly any song, TV show, or full-length movie you want is online or likely will be soon. Download content to your iPod or other MP3/ MP4 devices or enjoy it online.

1. Finetune. Finetune is similar to Pandora (below) in essence and also offers widgets that can be embedded in web pages.
2. Jamglue. Bedroom and garage musicians take note: JamGlue lets you remix tracks online and share them with the community. Though if Rype is ever released, Jamglue will likely be forgotten.
3. LessonBites. LessonBites, like VideoJug (below) focuses on how-to, but with monetization. You pay to upload content but earn when people purchase non-download access.
4. Live365. If you fancy being a net DJ, Live365 lets you broadcast your Internet radio station for US$9.95/mo.
5. MusicMesh. Combine Pandora logic with YouTube content and get MusicMesh. Feed it a song or band name and get a cluster map of CD covers. Pick one, and get a playlist with links to YouTube videos, if any.
6. Pandora. Pandora should get an award for best music recommendation service. It’s currently available only in the U.S. due to user/royalty fees for Internet radio stations. Unlike annoyingly intrusive competitor Last.fm, Pandora does not have a rich suitor (though it does drive Microsoft’s Internet Radio).
7. SplashCast. SplashCast is currently the most innovative media player. Create slideshows manually or from RSS feeds. Use documents, images or videos. Add in audio/ narration for a webcast.
8. Splice. Splice, like JamGlue, offers a means to remix audio from a browser.
9. VideoJug. VideoJug has dedicated itself to how-to videos, both amusing and serious.
10. YourSpins. YourSpins is one more for the audio mixing category. It differs in that you can choose specific artists and songs from a dropdown menu, and tweak volumes and modes of various instruments.
11. YouTube. In addition to a new player with thumbnails, YouTube now offers a video remixer for special effects and resequencing, but only on your own videos. Alternatives: DailyMotion, Metacafe, Revver and many more. Or just visit your local TV station’s website.
12. Tun3r. Imagine the frequency band of a radio. Replace the band with a 2d grid of snapshots of net radio home pages. Move the tuner around to hear live streaming snippets from over 1400 net stations.

Image Stores, Image and Video Editors

If you’ve purchased any clipart CD’s or image editing software in the past or were forced to upgrade your harddrive to accomodate large image and video files, you know that software based image and video applications are lacking. Thankfully, the webware alternatives to traditional desktop image and video related applications are extremely advanced.

1. ColorBlender. Create custom, harmonious color palettes using ColorBlend. Move the RGB sliders around until you’re happy, then save the settings.
2. Cuts. Cuts lets you specify a video URL, then layer special effects, captions and loops over the timeline. More for amusement than anything serious.
3. Eyespot. Mix videos online with Eyespot. Use the timeline to drop in video, audio, and transitions, and the Trimmer for smoother sequences. Use the free media sets to get started.
4. Flickr. Flickr’s image sharing service excels in community-feel, RSS feeds, and a well-used API that’s spawned countless mashups.
5. Fotki. According to Webware 100, Fotki is an image hosting and sharing site, as well as a tool for blogging about your photos. Try out for a photo contest for prizes.
6. Graphita. Have fun adding captions, doodles and clipart objects to your images with Graphita, and share them with other members.
7. Jumpcut. Yahoo-owned Jumpcut is a video mixing service. Use their videos or upload your own, reorder frame sequences, add audio, titles, and effects.
8. Movie Masher. Movie Masher uses an Adobe Flash 8 applet to let you set up video editing tools on your site.
9. Photobucket. According to Mashable, while Flickr use is growing, Photobucket is still the number one image hosting and sharing site.
10. Picnik. Picnik boasts photo-editing features including crop, rotate, and special effects. Upload your own photos or retrieve pics from photo sharing sites.
11. Picture2Life. Picture2Life offers basic photo-editing capabiltiy, as well as collages and animated GIFs. Use your own images or retrieve some from Facebook, Flickr, Webshots, and other sites.
12. XMG Image. Tag, label, crop, rotate and resize your images with XMG Image. Upload full Zip files of images and unzip on their servers.