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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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.

I don’t know how frequently this has happened to you, but I often find myself in need of a single piece of graph paper.  To further compound the problem, I sometimes need something other than the standard square grid type.  Thankfully, Web 2.0 has a tool for that, the Free Online Graph Paper/Grid Paper PDF page! (more…)

Web 2.0 Weekly makes its 2010 debut with a review of an extremely useful Web 2.0 tool that can really save the day: Zamzar.  When I was looking over my list of previous topics, I was actually surprised to note I hadn’t previously done a review of this application, because it is so helpful.

Simply put, Zamzar is a free online tool that can convert a file from one format into another.  Their list of supported conversions is just too long to list here, but I’ll note a few that may be of interest.  Zamzar can (more…)

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