In the spring, I posted information inviting you to join our Exploring Elementary 2.0 self-paced tutorial.  The tutorial uses a constructivist approach to Web 2.0.  Participants visit sites, explore them, then reflect on how those tools might be used in their teaching and learning.

I’m rerunning this tutorial for the staff in my building, and I hope you’ll join us! We are a small building, so your perspectives mean a lot to us.  You can participate as an individual, or you can organize a group and use this for staff development in your district.  Check with your district and see if you can coordinate your staff’s participation so that they can earn PD credit in your district.  You monitor their progress and follow your district’ s reporting procedures, but the work is already done!  No handouts to make, no computer lab to supervise!

It is really fun to watch staff colleagues explore on their own and then chat with me or with each other.  I often learn that they see different uses or work patterns than I do, so even if it’s a tool I know, I gain a new perspective.

We’re rerunning this tutorial from now until the end of August.  (A third round will begin in September as we kick off SLMAM’s 25th anniversary year!)

To learn more, read over the information at http://exploringelementary2.edublogs.org and then email me at slmamblog@gmail.com to let me know that you’d like to participate.

Hope to hear from you!

Kristin

Image source: http://www.tabblo.com/partners/flickr

Last year, my family adopted a “homemade or gifts of time” approach to the holidays. It made the holiday so much more fun! Instead of spending time frustrated in long lines in shopping centers or jockeying for parking spaces at the mall, I spent my time in creativity mode.

I’m realizing that “homemade” can be digital and high-tech, too. For example, few of the second grade boys who work in our school library media center each morning have made podcasting CDs for their families for holiday gifts, complete with hand-drawn labels, and we’ve also wrapped nature poems in ribbons for gifts. I find that the act of preparing a piece of student work to be shared with others often infuses the project with extra energy. (The first time we gave podcasting CDs as gifts, the student and I strategized the number that needed to be burned. But while my back was turned, he popped a few more into the computer! That’s exactly the kind of thing that helps us know we’ve hit a chord in a kid.)

This year, I’ve been following a lot of crafting and quilting blogs to get ideas for my family’s gifts. (This is an amazing online community … something I’ll write about in more depth later.) Today, I found a link to this HP/Flickr toys site, which lets you access your Flickr albums, select favorite images, and drag them into the template. The system generates a PDF, which you print, cut out, and assemble. Wouldn’t these cubes make nifty gift tags, ornaments, or little gift boxes?

The site also lets you make 8.5 x 11″ posters for free, as well as order photo books. I’m looking at the 4″x4″ book for $9.95 … the price is so low that I’m willing to try it out.

Join the Conversation: Educational Uses for Photo Cubes

We can’t overlook the fact that technology motivates people.  So how could we use this free photo cube tool in an educational setting?

One useful tool might be to remember that Flickr accounts can be private and not shared online, whic could help with online student safety.  My own Flickr account is private, but I can authorize some Flickr tools to access those private photos for projects.

Here are some quick thoughts — what can you add?

• Autobiography: Ask students to find and upload five photos that reveal something about their life history.  Share the cube with a partner.
• Biography: Students upload five images about a famous person and share them with a partner.
• Science: Students select five images that represent a particular science concept: mutation, adaptation, symmetry, gravity, parasite/host, etc.
• Social studies: Students select images that represent a core democratic value.
• Creative writing: Students select five images, create the cube, then swap with a partner.  The partner uses the images on the cube as a story starter or basis for a poem.
• Math: Students select images that illustrate Fibonacci’s number.

Image: Amazon

The blogosphere is buzzing about Amazon’s new Kindle device, a new kind of WiFi electronic book-reader.  Instead of earlier eBook devices, its screen depicts reading material that looks like the printed page.  Unlike Palm devices, there is no need to sync with a host computer.  New material can be purchased and downloaded in under a minute, and many books cost around $10.  The site claims that it is lighter in weight than many books.

To quote Amazon’s Kindle information page, here are some of the features:

• Revolutionary electronic-paper display provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper.
• Simple to use: no computer, no cables, no syncing.
• Wireless connectivity enables you to shop the Kindle Store directly from your Kindle—whether you’re in the back of a taxi, at the airport, or in bed.
• Buy a book and it is auto-delivered wirelessly in less than one minute.
• More than 88,000 books available, including 100 of 112 current New York Times® Best Sellers.
• New York Times® Best Sellers and all New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise.
• Free book samples. Download and read first chapters for free before you decide to buy.
• Top U.S. newspapers including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post; top magazines including TIME, Atlantic Monthly, and Forbes—all auto-delivered wirelessly.
• Top international newspapers from France, Germany, and Ireland; Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine, and The Irish Times.
• More than 250 top blogs from the worlds of business, technology, sports, entertainment, and politics, including BoingBoing, Slashdot, TechCrunch, ESPN’s Bill Simmons, The Onion, Michelle Malkin, and The Huffington Post.
• Lighter and thinner than a typical paperback; weighs only 10.3 ounces.
• Holds over 200 titles.
• Long battery life. Leave wireless on and recharge approximately every other day. Turn wireless off and read for a week or more before recharging. Fully recharges in 2 hours.
• Unlike WiFi, Kindle utilizes the same high-speed data network (EVDO) as advanced cell phones—so you never have to locate a hotspot.
• No monthly wireless bills, service plans, or commitments—we take care of the wireless delivery so you can simply click, buy, and read.
• Includes free wireless access to the planet’s most exhaustive and up-to-date encyclopedia—Wikipedia.org.
• Email your Word documents and pictures (.JPG, .GIF, .BMP, .PNG) to Kindle for easy on-the-go viewing.

It will be interesting to see if this $299 device takes off or goes the way of the Segway (cool idea, but not implemented on a large scale).  Oh, and if you happen to read this and work for Amazon, I bet I’m not the only librarian who’d like a chance to take this device for a spin.

Join the Conversation

Has anyone seen this device? Anybody know if Kindle will be on display at Midwinter?

What makes a book a book? Does this device “count”?