Get some simple tips for making your school videos better with this Geeks.com Tech Tips article.  I heartily endorse the first suggestion of using a “stabilization tool” (aka tripod).  My school secretary used to say that if we didn’t get tripods for our broadcast, she was going to need a weekly dose of Dramamine delivered to her!

If you are in need of lightweight, sturdy tripods, you might consider buying them from Geeks.com — we bought ours for less than $7 each, and our elementary kids can transport them easily.  When not in use, they collapse and can be stored in a regular-sized file drawer.

Just a quick note …

A friend asked me for this list … and though my response would normally be, “Well, you start with what your students need, and then you pick the tools,” I got down from my high horse and brainstormed this list:

1&2.  Podcasting - downloading Audacity (pre-installed @ BPS):
http://audacity.sourceforge.net; podcasting from a phone: gcast.com

3.  Videocasting (with caution for student privacy — I’m pretty protective of elementary students’ privacy): teachertube.com

4&5.  Blogs — edublogs.org, wordpress.com

6.  LibraryThing — book recommender, build a personal library or bibliography for a
class project

7.  Online graphic organizer tool:Gliffy.com

8.  iGoogle
9&10.  Social bookmarking: Delicious (http://del.icio.us) & Furl (furl.net)

11.  Wikis: I like pbwiki.com .

12.  Blog/RSS aggregators: bloglines.com, Google Reader — let the information
superhighway come to you

If you’re just getting started with Web 2.0, I recommend starting with some information organizing tools.   I use Delicious to add, annotate, and organize Web content and Bloglines to keep track of RSS feeds.  A lot of people are starting to use iGoogle instead or in combination with Delicious.

What about you?

That’s what Christopher Harris and his rural New York team did, using Drupal’s open source platform to create a very “un-OPAC” system they call Fish4Info.  It even includes a blog and a social bookmarking site.

You can read Michelle Boule’s interview with Chris on the ALA TechSource blog or visit the Fish4Info site here.  You can even download a version of their project.