earthtree.org

This week I’ve been fortunate to attend Alan November’s Building Learning Communities conference (BLC08). The theme of course is that we (earthlings) expand our perspectives by connecting with people from around the planet. Today I heard this message from Alan November, Ewan McIntosh, Clarence Fisher and all of the presenters at epals (FREE!).

I noticed this clip that Ewan McIntosh used during his keynote presentation as coming from Ted.com. If you haven’t seen this clip, take a look. It will only cost you 4 minutes and 25 seconds of time. This is the kind of news about news that will make you want to recycle your television(s) and find alternative sources of information.

Alisa Miller: Why we know less than ever about the world. 

Here’s a great post about Flickr from Creative Commons.

Cameron Parkins, June 20th, 2008

The Smithsonian has joined the Library of Congress, the Powerhouse Museum, and the Brooklyn Museum in releasing numerous (over 850 from the Smithsonian alone) photos from their archives online – free of copyright restrictions – to The Commons on Flickr. There are some absolutely stunning photographs available in high-resolution, ranging from portraits of artists, scientists, and inventors to photos of everyday people and places. Some info on The Commons below:

The key goals of The Commons are to firstly give you a taste of the hidden treasures in the world’s public photography archives, and secondly to show how your input and knowledge can help make these collections even richer. You’re invited to help describe the photographs you discover in The Commons on Flickr, either by adding tags or leaving comments

In similar news, a wonderful new group, Free Use Photos, has been created as a means for Flickr users to posts copyright-free photos. In lieu of a formal way for users to indicate public domain status for their photos, the creators of the group have decided to post information regarding CC0 in conjunction with clear language waving copyright to make clear that all photos posted to the group “are available for use by anyone” with “no need to give credit or to fear rights infringement.”

This evening I was looking through the “talks” on TED talks and found a presentation by Johnny Chung Lee. If you subscribe to this blog, you know he is the master-mind behind turning a Wii Remote into an interactive whiteboard for under $100. If you haven’t heard about this or even if you have, this video is worth checking out. Johnny Chung Lee demonstrates his Wii projects and describes the role www.youtube.com has played in spreading the news. So, if you’ve ever said, “I wish I had one of those interactive whiteboards.” As Johnny states, “You get about 80% of the way there for about 1% of the cost.”(Projector not included)

Alarm clock sounds are a great way to get students’ attention. If you are using activstudio and haven’t taken a look at the clock. Check it out. Using the count down clock, you can make a specific sound alarm at any given time. Activstudio comes with quite a few folders of sounds to choose from. Within each folder are lots of great sounds. Here are the folder’s titles; animals, domestic, Elementary, explosions, music, nature, Spanish, & transportation.

Here’s how to choose different folders or to reconnect to a folder. (see image below)

• Open Activstudio.
• Click on the clock . Or add it from the toolstore (menu> customize>tool store)
• Select “Count Down.”
• Click on the “…”
• Navigate to a folder
• Here is the navigation for the Domestic folder
  • C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersDocumentsActiv SoftwareActivstudio3Shared Sounds

Now that you know how to change sounds, try recording students and using their voice to signal the class to stop an activity or get ready for a transition. It could be a motivating reward for some students. You can use the sound recorder in activstudio to easily record voices. You just need a cheap microphone from radioshack. If you want to edit the audio, use Audacity. It easily allows you to edit the sound… and it’s free!

Did you know that Mondo materials are available on One Place? They are!

There are Mondo Flipcharts, Oral Language Pictures and Transparencies.. Here’s how you can access them.

1. Log in to One Place
2. Click on “Instructional Resources”

3. Click on the “+” to see what resources are available

4. Click on the title of the resource to open the folder.