Many of my colleagues who have dismissed YouTube as a dumping ground for “look at what funny stuff my dog can do” have missed out on a fabulous resource. Don’t get me wrong, there are some amusing videos featuring different animals doing lots of unlikely things; however, there also are tons of “how-to” videos. You [...]

Posted in technology

I had some work I needed to get graded today, and since I had my high school students generate multimodal timelines I could not grade them at work. See, the filters in the district block many sites including Youtube.com, and since I don’t have students in the afternoon on Fridays I headed home. Claire is [...]

Posted in laptop, technology

Recently Kids Need to Read blogged an article on the wiki-wire work we did through the high school with the students building the lexicon for The Softwire Series by PJ Haarsma. PJ works closely with Denise & Sherri with Jim Blasingame, but I’m excited from the line that reads “this is what great teaching is [...]

Posted in literature, publications, student2.0, teacher2.0, technology, wiki

Recently I’ve noticed that my gmail had about 4,000 contacts listed and some of my students or family members were listed 4 or 5 different times (with the same name even). Since I have a Blackberry, iPod Touch, MacBook Pro, and Gmail, Gmail wasn’t necessary my contact list of choice albeit this list was out [...]

Posted in Blackberry, google, technology

Earlier today I did a workshop through Mesa Life Options where I taught Twitter and Facebook to Baby Boomers. This was a nonprofit, two hour “workshop” with limited technology. I was invited through some colleagues at Mesa Community College to run this workshop and I was eager to address this generation, since I was use [...]

Posted in conferences, technology

Common Craft Twitter Video. Watch this for a great Twitter overview. Hi, My name is Devon and I have a problem… No seriously though, I’ve been on Twitter for almost two years now, and yes, when I explain it to others, they look at me like I need a padded room and some Cialis. In [...]

Posted in books, comic, culture, gadgets, reviews, technology

Last year my friend Kerri Mathew contacted me regarding finding a way to hook up a science fiction writer, PJ Haarsma, with students eager to read his book, play his online game, and connect in new ways with young adult sci-fi. Having just come off a year project with Kerri working with wikis and fanfiction, [...]

Posted in books, literature, online, presentations, publications, technology

The (CC) image “iTouch” uploaded to Flickr by Américo Nunes was found by searching “iTouch”. In the past I’ve always had a no show policy for electronics in my high school English classrooms. This year that opinion has begun to shift. My syllabus clearly states that all mobile phones will be kept away and if [...]

Posted in gadgets, mac, policy, student2.0, technology

Recently Oprah began twittering and now people roll their eyes. NO ONE knew what Twitter was two years ago when I joined (I can’t believe it’s been that long!), and I truly do not want to explain to every noob why I bother with Twitter and how I am cooler than Oprah. My colleague LizBDavis [...]

Posted in movies, online, technology

Earlier today I got a cryptic message from a student that Google Docs was down and they couldn’t get to their directions for tomorrow’s project. Now mind you, I assigned this over a month ago so why wait until today to go and begin to do your work? Later I got another message from a [...]

Posted in google, google docs, google groups, online, school, student2.0, technology, tutorials