Web 2.0 Call for Lesson Plans Proposal

Call for Proposals: Web 2.0 Lesson Plans
Deadline for Submission: March 1, 2009

Based on the success of Lesson Plans for Creating Media-Rich Classrooms, a 2007 publication of the National Council of Teachers of English, a proposal is being developed for a second book of lesson plans that would offer a range of practical activities for high school and middle school teachers to integrate Web 2.0 skills into existing English language arts curricula. These lesson plans will be connected by introductory material that defines the concepts of multimodal literacies and the emergence of Web 2.0 skills as essential to developing a fully literate student in a media saturated, technology-rich world. These lessons can, and will, range from basic entry-level activities to ones that require more advanced and mastery-level skills.

Refer to a copy of Lesson Plans for Creating Media-Rich Classrooms, edited by Mary T. Christel and Scott Sullivan, for examples of the lesson plan format.
[See http://www1.ncte.org/library/files/Store/Books/Sample/30483Chap19_x.pdf ]

Click here for lesson plan details and link for downloading a form for submission.

Documenting a historic day....

Just in case you wanted to document this historic day....
From Popular Science comes this amazing photo of today's festivities in D.C.
http://www.popsci.com/content/inauguration-day

And for a closer view (on the ground), at this moment, nearly 3,000 Flickr users have uploaded more than 7,400 photos to the Flickr "Inauguration" group, http://www.flickr.com/groups/inauguration2009/

Hulu will be streaming Inaugural ... have a look..

Some things you might not realize about Google searching

In this 7+ minute video, Google Engineer Matt Cutts shares some of the "little-known" features of Google searching. Did you know that Google can track your delivery items, convert currency, define words, besides restricting your searches to certain file types or websites? Learn when to use quotes, dashes and asterisks to narrow your results.



Thanks to Scott Weidig for sharing this on his blog.

Google Releases Picasa Desktop Version for Mac!

Reprinted from http://www.macworld.com/article/137912/2009/01/picasa_mac.html
by Jonathan Seff, Macworld.com

Google on Monday afternoon released a public beta of its Picasa for Mac desktop software for organizing, editing, and uploading photos. The software, which runs on Intel Macs with OS X 10.4 or later, marks the first time that Picasa has been offered for the Mac (it joins the Windows and Linux versions already available).

The free Picasa software is designed to help you organize your photos, regardless of where they reside on your computer. It imports (without moving or copying) photos from your iPhoto library and other folders on your Mac, including external hard drives if so desired (it's designed not to affect your iPhoto library, duplicating files as needed). It also includes many editing tools, such as those for straightening, text generation, create collages, and removing red eye, as well as Photoshop-like effects and adjustments.

I think the best feature of the Picasa software is the fact that my picture files get to stay where they are (since I have so many photos, and I do not keep all of them in iPhoto... I only add my favorites, or those that I will be using in presentations, slideshows, or movies.) And, Picasa scans and displays the photos in your 'iPhoto Library' as read-only files. If you try to edit or move these photos, Picasa will ask your permission to create a new editable copy. Learn more about how Picasa handles your iPhoto Library.

The editing features include the ability to add text and captions to images, as well as "combine your photos, videos, and music into a movie or use the editing room to trim your existing movies."

The "collage" tool provides slick rotating, zooming, background color and text options that make it easy to create a page for your digital scrapbooks, and Picassa automatically saves the file in a folder named "Collages" which resides in your "House > Pictures > Picasa"folder.

There is also a very "Photo-story-ish" movie maker, that will create slides (including title slides) set to music or just automatically moving through the images, complete with transition effects.

There are "easy-buttons" on the bottom of the editor to send your completed masterpiece(s) to your blog, email client, a folder, or to upload to the free online Picasa web gallery:

Download Picasa for your Mac at: http://picasa.google.com/mac/

Teaching and Guiding Networked Students Requires a Commitment to Learning

Wendy Drexler's video about the "Networked Student" illustrates not only the changing role of the student, but also the changing role of educators in 21st Century classrooms.


About this video: "The Networked Student was inspired by CCK08, a Connectivism course offered by George Siemens and Stephen Downes during fall 2008. It depicts an actual project completed by Wendy Drexler's high school students. The Networked Student concept map was inspired by Alec Couros' Networked Teacher. I hope that teachers will use it to help their colleagues, parents, and students understand networked learning in the 21st century."


21st Century educators need to make a commitment to continuous learning, and become networked teachers, so that our students will be prepared to handle the vast amount of information available to them, and be able to share their learning in meaningful ways. How can you be a learning concierge, a modeler, a network sherpa, change agent, or synthesizer of information for your students? Consider joining the conversations in an online community such as Classroom 2.0, a social network for educators, where you will find an abundance of resources, discussion forums and learning opportunities, such as live (and archived) web meetings.