While browsing through tweets from my PLN the other day, I discovered a link to a site of free teacher training videos created by Russell Stannard.

21st Century education has be characterized by an explosion of new technologies ripe for use in the classroom.  However, the rate at which these technologies are introduced and increased demands on time and budget often mean that training for these tools is scanty or non-existent.  Teacher adoption of new technologies can be severely hindered by inadequate training, so finding a site dedicated to (more…)

Wouldn’t it be great if there were a free, easy-to-use tool that would allow you to create an online schedule of assignments for your students, serve as a turn-in point for those assignments, and let you have discussions with your classes?  Guess what!  There is.  Nicenet’s Internet Classroom Assistant (ICA) site does all of that and a bit more.  The ICA has been around for 10 years now, and provides many features commonly seen in expensive commercial packages.

A teacher is able to create an online presence for each of their classes and create an assignment calendar (with reminders) for their students.  These assignments can then be turned in via the ICA.  The ICA also gives the (more…)

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For this week’s Web 2.0 Weekly feature, I’m going to recommend that all of our readers, followers, and friends attend the 2nd Annual Online Conference on 21st Century Lutheran Education being held by Concordia University, Wisconsin.  The conference is Thursday, February 25th and Friday, February 26th from 9AM to 6PM CST each day.

Three of the Guild’s authors will be presenting this year:

02/25/10 – 4:00-5:00pm
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Recently, I was reading a journal article written by Jay Pfaffman for my graduate class in Instructional Design.  In this article, Pfaffman (2008) asserted that Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) applications can meet many of the needs of a high school science classroom (p. 25).

Pfaffman (2008) stated that the FOSS movement began with Richard Stallman writing the GNU Manifesto.  The purpose of FOSS is to provide software that is based on the principle of freedom, not just cost.  This freedom comes from being given access to the software’s source code, the files used to create it.  Doing so allows users to not only use the program, but also to study it, change it, and even improve it (p. 26).

Pfaffman (2008) also argued that “FOSS promotes social justice in that it provides free software to end users and an efficient means to develop software for programmers” (p. 26).  Since FOSS is freely (more…)

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For this week’s Web 2.0 Weekly feature, we’re taking a walk on the wild side.  I’m sure all of use have heard of National Geographic, most likely through their magazine, maps, and maybe their television programming.  However, National Geographic also has a very rich online presence.

Part of that online experience is a tool called Wildlife Filmmaker.  This online tool allows the user to create a short wildlife film using provided video clips, sounds, and music.  The user can also create and add their (more…)

This week’s Web 2.0 Weekly feature isn’t the typical sort of Web 2.0 application, but it is a very helpful and easy classroom tool.  This week we are looking at PocketMod, a free tool to create a pocket-sized organizer from a single piece of paper.

The PocketMod site provides a Flash-based tool to create and print a custom layout for your 8-page PocketMod.  Options for each page include a calendar, three different grids, ruled lines, personal organizers, and more.  Once you’ve chosen your 8 pages, you can print it out, make the required cuts, and fold up your new (more…)

As I was looking through the followers’ list of one of the Guild’s Twitter followers (and after doing some searching of my own), I came to the conclusion that many of our Lutheran schools are missing out on some great opportunities to spread the word about their ministries online.  I’ve spend several hours over the last months scouring Twitter for Lutheran schools with little success in locating very many.  Of the ones I have found, several have tweeted a handful (more…)

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A brief announcement before getting started with this week’s article.  Web 2.0 Weekly is moving from Mondays to Wednesdays.

This week’s focus is Pixlr.com.  Pixlr.com is not just one tool, but an entire suite of image editing and sharing tools.  (more…)

As I’m sure must of you are aware, Apple today announced the pending releasing of its long-awaited tablet solution, the iPad.  This was an announcement that I had been waiting to see literally for years.

Way back in 1989, Apple released another revolutionary device, the Newton Message Pad.  The Newton was a part of Apple’s lineup until 1998.  The Newton (and its cousin, the eMate 300) had an amazing set of features including built-in faxing, infrared beaming, ethernet, dialup networking, cellular access, and, most importantly, a (more…)

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This week’s Web 2.0 Weekly will focus on the (likely?) announcement of the Apple Tablet (or Slate or Pad) on Wednesday, January 27th.  If some of the rumors surrounding this device are correct, this may be of epic consequence for the classroom.  Stay tuned.