February 4, 2010

A quick guide to interactive YouTube videos

Check out this website I found at classtools.net

I love using videos in class. One of my goals for this semester is start making some more videos myself. I am thinking of using puppets to deal with the issue of privacy and avoid exposing children.
I was really amazed when I found out about interactive you tube videos http://preview.tinyurl.com/mbpo3p. The article I am quoting from classtoos.net not only features some videos but also has a guide teaching you how to make them.
I hope you enjoy it.

Posted via web from Sharing spot

January 31, 2010

Twiducate – socialnetworking for schools

I have really enjoyed using social networking websites with my students. I first started using 21 Classes and had a nice experience with it. It had some limitations, though. One thing was the difficulty to embed other things into the pages. I liked to have all students in one front page from where they could access each other’s blogs and explore the features they were so used to in their out of class social networks.
Next, I discovered ning. This one I have been using till today and I am planning to continue using this year. Ning is social networking at its best. Its features include forums, chat, blogs, photos, videos, integration with  twitter, and some more. It is worth exploring.
Just yesterday I found out about twiducate on twitter (actually I think I had seen it before, but just yesterday I decided to give it a try). It seems simpler than the other ones and a bit more complete than twitter for what I wanted. I will have a group of beginner students and I really did not want to use ning to avoid overwhelming them with so many features. I also did not want to use a blog because it would be very teacher centered. So twiducate seems like a tool that is not the complex and will allow all students to interact in one place.
I posted this screencast to give those who might want to use it an idea of how it works. I hope it is helpful.

Posted via email from Sharing spot

January 21, 2010

Watching TV while surfing the web

I really love multitasking. I guess once you discover the wonders of the Internet, you just cannot help. Something I also like doing is watching TV. I know that web TV is becoming a reality in the US, but some of the services are not available to other countries. I was really happy when I found out about viewmy.tv where you can watch TV programs from many countries around the world (such as this one where a storyteller entertains children with her story),

Posted via email from Sharing spot

January 21, 2010

Watching TV while surfing the web

I really love multitasking. I guess once you discover the wonders of the Internet, you just cannot help. Something I also like doing is watching TV. I know that web TV is becoming a reality in the US, but some of the services are not available to other countries. I was really happy when I found out about viewmy.tv where you can watch TV programs from many countries around the world (such as this one where a storyteller entertains children with her story),

Hope you all like it.
 

Posted via email from Sharing spot

January 20, 2010

The Age of External Knowledge – Idea of the Day Blog

In this article the New York Times calls the Internet age “The Age of External Knowledge.” Just last night in a voice chat with some colleagues (one in Morocco, another in Russia, and me in Brazil) we were discussing how the web has made conversations possible. Not only that, the web has also made us develop filtering skills due to abundance of data it exposes us to. It is worth reading and sharing with friends.

Posted via web from Sharing spot

January 17, 2010

Integration is key

Hi dear blog readers,

I am posting this from Facebook. One thing I love about facebook is the fact that it is always integrating most of the websites and tools I use into its page. I myself have sometimes found it difficult to move around and do the things I want to. However, I still think it is one of the best places to make friends and do lots of other interesting things.
I have lots of friends in Farmville right now. I tried to play it, but just did not find it so interesting. I guess I am not really a game person. On the other hand, I always find myself playing around with its more productive applications. A big hand to social networks and the power they have to connect people.

January 16, 2010

2010-Horizon-Report.pdf (application/pdf Object)

<div>
<div>
<embed height=”400″ name=”plugin” src=”http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2010-Horizon-Report.pdf” type=”application/pdf” width=”500″></embed>
<div>
&lt;html&gt;&lt;
</div>

The Horizon Report is an important report released each year on emerging technologies. It discusses trends and issues related to teaching and learning. It is really worth reading.

Posted via web from Sharing spot

December 24, 2009

Another Christmas Video

One of my contacts in Grouply shared this video card maker with the group. I decided to test it  and found it really interesting. You can record and customize a message for different occasions. A problem I see is that it generates a link only and not an embedding code. I decided to post it to my posterous blog (which is connected other blogs) and see how it works. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Merry Christmas to you all and may 2010 be a happy and successful year.

Posted via email from Sharing spot

December 16, 2009

Season Greetings with Tokbox

<div>

</div>

<a href=”TokBox”>http://www.tokbox.com/”>TokBox – Free Video Chat and Video Messaging</a>

Gone are the days we sent real Christmas&amp;nbsp;cards. I used to send many. I guess I just got too busy or too addicted to the web.&amp;nbsp;Besides that, we&amp;nbsp;also have to save the&amp;nbsp;Amazon, don’t we?&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; I am in favor of lesser and lesser paper and more interaction. So, this is my message for&amp;nbsp;the holidays. Hope you all&amp;nbsp;have a very Merry&amp;nbsp;Christmas and a wonderful New Year

 

Posted via email from Sharing spot

December 13, 2009

How to do almost anything with Posterous (Using Posterous for Quoting)

How to do almost anything with Posterous

By Martin Bryant on August 13, 2009

How to do almost anything with PosterousOnline sharing and blogging service Posterous has been getting a lot of attention recently. The development team is adding features regularly and it’s fast becoming the best way to share content with all your different social services while also keeping it all in one place too. The best bit is you can do it all via email.

With so many ways to use Posterous it can be difficult to keep track of them all. Here we’ll take you through everything you need to know about it and suggest a range of ways you can use it to make your online life easier.

The basics

I have been using posterous for a while and I am really amazed by how simple and useful it is. I have just discovered this blog post written by Martin Bryant talking about how many ways you can use this blog host and decided to quote it using the posterous bookmarking feature. I hope it is useful.

Posted via web from Sharing spot