Update: Posterous no longer exists!  Twitter purchased Posterous, and no longer supports the service.  Which is one of greatest tech crimes of last 5 years, ok maybe that's a bit exaggerated, but it was seriously awesome!



Originally posted on December 31, 2011


I have 2 rules for using technology in my classroom:

1. send students to as few external sites as possible, and
2. no new usernames and passwords!

That’s why I love embedding so much.  However, what are you supposed to do when you want students to share blog posts and comment?  Surely you must need to have them sign up to a blog service?  No longer!  Posterous steps in and fills this void nicely with a simple, but elegant solution that allows users to manage a blog that others can post to via email.  As a teacher, you can manage what Posterous calls a Space, and invite students via email to post blog entries.  Students simply send an email to a simple email (yourblogtitle@posterous.com).  Students can even include pictures and videos in their posts which will show up on the post.

To get started, head over to Posterous.com, where you will be asked to sign up.

Once you have created a login, you will see the following menu on the left side of the screen.  Select MANAGE SPACES.

This will bring up a list of all of your spaces, and on the right hand side you will see the option to create a new space.  You can choose to create Public Spaces that are open for everyone to see, or Private Spaces.  Private spaces will even allow you to password protect your site should you choose to.

When you create your site you will give it a name, and it will then create a suitable URL.  Your URL will be linked to the email students will use to post, so you may want to keep it as simple and easy to remember as possible.  You can always change the URL later through the setting menu though.

Once you have create a space, you might want to fiddle around with the settings.  If you select manage spaces you should get a screen that allows you to change the basic settings.  There are about 40 different themes to choose from, and you can select the options you want for posting and comments.  If you are setting this up as a student blog, then I suggest that you have CONTRIBUTORS CAN POST, and ANYONE CAN COMMENT selected.  MAKE SURE you have checked the  MANAGE COMMENTS tick box though to prevent spam and any other outside sources commenting on your class blog.

After you have set up your Space, you can invite students, parents, teachers, etc to post to your blog.  Click on the MANAGE MEMBERS tab on the right side of the page.

You will be asked to ADD PEOPLE TO YOUR SITE.  Simply copy/paste in your students emails, and select the CONTRIBUTORS tab.  I might suggest adding parents as FOLLOWERS so that they can see their student’s work, but not interfere in the discussion.

Students will receive an email, and be able to start posting via email immediately!

If you’d like, you can go to my G7 Math blog, where I have a specific post for my students explaining how to post using email.  (NOTE: This site will be up and running Term 2, so currently there are no student posts!  They’ll be there around mid-January if you’d like to check back then).

I have successfully posted from Gmail, my iPhone with a photo attached, and my iPad with a video attached.  My class webpage simply has a link to the blog, so students still only need one website, and one login (their emails).

If your not interested in starting a class blog without logins, but want students to make some simple webpages, you might want to check out my recent post on CHECK THIS.

Originally posted on December 13, 2011
1 Comment

Have you ever wanted to have students create a website, but either a) students did not have accounts on an appropriate hosting site (i.e. wordpress, blogger, google sites, wikispaces, etc), or b) you don’t want students to waste time on complex coding or layout?  If so, then CheckThis.com might be what you’re looking for.

This site is a simple tool for creating websites for quick feedback, but without the hassle of having to log in.  It’s as simple as heading over to CheckThis.com and clicking the Start a page now tab.

You or your students will be directed to a blank slate ready to insert information and links quickly.  Add a title, and then select one of the green tab options to insert text, a link, or a video.  Unfortunately there is no content uploading feature, so images and videos need to be hosted on Flickr or YouTube rather directly on the page.

Once you have inserted your content, then in the top right corner of the page you can select from a few options before publishing.

Selecting the Settings Gear will allow you to mark the page public/private/hidden, as well as how long the page will last.  This second feature is great for concerns of privacy.  Students work can be marked Hidden and to expire in One Week.  This will give you time to assess the information, but greatly reduce the chances of someone maliciously finding your students.  This combined with the anonymous nature of publishing provides parameters for strong protection of students that other publishing platforms cannot provide.

The Paint Drop will bring up various Appearance options such as the background image and basic color selections.  This will allow you to customize your page, but not provide so many distractions for students needing to quickly publish their information.

When the page is completed, selecting the Publish option will allow students to publish their site without a sign-in or opt to use Twitter, Facebook, or Google to save their work.  If work is published without a sign in, a link is given to bookmark for future editing if modifications are needed.

Originally posted on November 28, 2011

I used to love choose your own adventure books as a kid.  I would read them over and over to get the most favorable ending, often skipping ahead to see which way I really wanted to go.  Some might have called it cheating, but really I was curious and couldn’t resist finding out what ‘might have been’ (plus there is some research that suggests spoilers increase enjoyment!).  I imagine many of our students are the same way, and a bit of mystery might be a good thing to get them to delve deeper into an issue.  Choose your own adventure books are actually pretty tough to create and it’s easy to get lost, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to harness videos and the web to make interactive choose your own adventure videos instead?  Well, YouTube makes this possible with a little linking and annotating.

I’ve found a great tutorial from Greg Kulowiec (via Richard Byrne’s FreeTechnology4Teachers.com) on how to make a Choose Your Own Adventure Video using YouTube.  There also is a nice flowchart on Greg’s blog that you should check out.

For me the beauty is that you can create a single shell video to embed into your class page, which will then serve as a portal to a series of other videos, either student, teacher, or 3rd party created.  Student inquiry and presentation can thus become an avenue for other students’ inquiry.  Challenge your students to help others choose to go deeper.

Suggested Uses:

• have your students create and share choose your own adventure reports
• link student videos together into one single embeddable video
• create a video with links to various other YouTube videos for students to explore
• create a single video entry point for your Flipped Classroom videos.  This way ‘distractions’ will be meaningful tangents to learn from.

November 25, 2011
Originally posted on InquireWithin.

How can we create the desire to inquire? That is a hard issue to grapple with (and worthy of much inquiry by educators), but I’m sure that: 1) it’s not grades, and 2) there’s no silver bullet to get students motivated to dig deeper and extend their own learning.  However, I think one great way to create deep motivation for some learners is encouraging them to leave a legacy.

Mathtrain.tv a site “for kids, by kids” is one example of students leaving a legacy.  Teacher Eric Marcos has his students create and upload math tutorial videos to teach other students.

The true beauty of Mathtrain.tv though, is not so much the videos to replace your own teaching, as it is the idea of empowering students to teach their peers.  Alan November’s TEDxNYED Talk (well worth the watch if you haven’t seen it) highlights the importance of students leaving a legacy, and he uses Mathtrain.tv as a great example of this.

If we live in a collaborative world, why do we often wait until the work environment before we learn from others?  Why do teachers fight the system, or more likely just ignore it? Who knows, but I sure think Alan November and Eric Marcos have something worth listening to.  Never underestimate the power of a motivated student.  Personally, I’m committed to tapping into that motivation, even if it means sacrificing my own ideas about how something should be taught.

Originally posted on November 25, 2011

Twitter is by far one of the most useful PD tools I have come across.  I was at first skeptical, and like many thought it was for finding out when celebrities did silly things.  One of my colleagues convinced me to try it out for educational resource sharing, and I haven’t looked back since!

Twitter allows you to follow who you want to follow.  It also allows you to look where you want to find information.  Use hashtags to find relevant information (#edtech, #edchat, #math, #science, #flippedclassroom, #etc).

Personally I use a twitter feed embedded into my class page to send quick updates without having to access the page code.  That allows me to share information with students quickly, without them having to have a Twitter account.  Those that do have accounts can also share with others on the class page.  This in combination with Google Calendars means I don’t really need to edit my main class page all year!

It’s a bit tough if you’re using WordPress to embed a Twitter Widget, but if you use another platform such as Moodle, Google Sites, Blogger, or any program that let’s you embed objects, then you can easily include custom searches or profiles.  


In order to accomplish this you must navigate your way to the WIDGETS setting in Twitter.  This is now almost impossible to find by navigating around the webpage.  I have to google search my way there usually, but you can just go directly to https://twitter.com/about/resources/widgets and if you are already logged in, then it will give you the embed resources for your profile.

ToonDoo.com
Suggestions for Teacher Use:
- Create a toon to illustrate a concept or idea
- Create a comic book to illustrate step-by-step instructions
- Post fun reminders to your webpage
- Find toons that have already been created and embed them into your page

Suggestions for Student Use:
- Create a toon to illustrate understanding of a concept or idea
- Create illustrations to accompany story writing
- Create a comic book for a debate issue that shows a discussion of both sides of an argument

In order get the embed code, visit the Toon you'd like to get on the ToonDoo.com website and at the bottom of the toon look for the embed code ( </> ) and copy it.  There are 3 different options, 2 of them are FLASH based, so avoid them if you want the toons to show up on an iPad or iPhone.  The example below is the Flash Flipbook option.

Originally posted on November 25, 2011

PREZI’s can be embedded for in line presentations in your site! Prezi’s are great for non-linear presentations, and casting off the shackles of PowerPoint.  Your students will love creating them!

When you find a prezi you like, or create one yourself, look for the SHARE button underneath the Prezi.  After clicking it, you will get a pop-up window with the embed code that you can copy/paste into your site.

Embedding Prezi’s on your website is pretty easy if your site allows FLASH to be embedded.  However, if you use WORDPRESS, then it’s going to require some coding, using the gigya short code.  I suggest heading over to the PREZI COMMUNITY site where there is a great post on how to do this (it’s how I got mine to work!)