MACUL Space

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March 2008 Blog Posts (28)

MACUL Grant Advice

I want to write a MACUL grant this year and would appreciate any advice from those who have won the grant in the past. I would love to read any funded grants. I couldn't find any links on the MACUL site with the winning grants. I did attend one of the MAUL sessions on grant writing and found it helpful.

Added by Patti Harju on March 30, 2008 at 1:56pm — 4 Comments

Flip Video Camera In Schools

I commented on this earlier in Dave Bast's YouTube thread, but I thought that it might deserve its own entry. I love video, and I think that it is becoming ubiquitous on the internet and in everyday life. We have tried some projects at our school with video, and students regularly produce video for the announcements at the beginning of the school day. The video portion of the announcements is the only part that… Continue

Added by Jay Woods on March 30, 2008 at 12:30pm — 1 Comment

www.tinyurl.com

I have been on twitter for a week or two and noticing the tinyurl links. I found the source and site. Go to www.tinyurl.com.
When including a long link in an email, blog post, website, discussion, this site lets you shrink it.

Also there is an twitter educator group on del.icio.us.
http://del.icio.us/network/Twitter_EdTech
Lots of great links recommended by educators.

Added by Patti Harju on March 29, 2008 at 11:52am — No Comments

Geocaching

I am interested in beginning geocaching with my students. I think it would really fit in
during our river study. I am wondering how many others use geocaching with students.

I am wondering if it is popular at camps these days as well???

Added by Laura Amatulli on March 26, 2008 at 2:26pm — 2 Comments

21st Century Learning Skills

21st Century Learning Skills

by: Kelley

In my Humble Opinion

I am struck by how business and our way of life has changed so dramatically over the past 10 years. Grocery Stores, Banks and most business are almost unrecognizable from the way they looked . A quick view shows total technology integration, team meetings, and collaborative projects. Yet walking into my school building each day I still see classrooms that look remarkably unchanged from the way they looked 10 years… Continue

Added by kirish on March 25, 2008 at 11:01am — 7 Comments

Reaching Digital Natives

My feeling is that the debate over whether or not kids should have cell phones, MySpace accounts, and internet acess is over- They already do. If we want to teach our students we must acknowledge reality-they are digital natives. If we ant to teach them we have to reach them. The classrooms of today still look too much like the classrooms in the 50's. This can not be said for any other part of our society. We need to teach smarter-use the tools the kids are used to and comfortable with.

Added by kirish on March 24, 2008 at 11:30am — 7 Comments

Too much great stuff!!

I have been here at MACUL Spaces for a couple weeks now and am so intrigued by all the great things going on here. There is so much information to take in, but it's all good. I am beginning to do a lot of interesting tech stuff in m classroom, including starting a Wiki. I have also began using a lot of he free Web 2.0 sites as a way of integrating my students' work into their lives at home and at school. This just extends my teaching in a way I never thought possible. My eyes have been opened… Continue

Added by Lisa Williams on March 23, 2008 at 11:46pm — 3 Comments

Humor 2.0

So I have been tracking an interesting blog titled, “Indexed,” maintained by Jessica Hagy. I even bought her book.

Then I ran across Hagy’s 3/17 post.

My title has 8 words if I use a comma ...

I think I'm in love:… Continue

Added by Bruce Umpstead on March 23, 2008 at 5:19pm — 3 Comments

http://del.icio.us

Just set up my del.icio.us account. Great way to keep track of book marks. Thanks again to Steve Dembo and his MACUL presentation.

Added by Patti Harju on March 22, 2008 at 10:41am — No Comments

My First Moodle experience

I just spent a few hours preparing two Moodle pages. One for my French classes and one for my Spanish classes.

I used Hot Potatoes to create flashcards and a practice activity. The flashcards are great. I love how it shows the picture, then they click next to see the word. Then it goes on to another picture when they click next again. Maybe I am easy to amuse??? I also created a quiz. I can't decide whether to have them do it in the lab or at home (where they could use their book...). I… Continue

Added by Penny Hildinger on March 21, 2008 at 8:49pm — No Comments

My Class Blog and Wiki

My class blog is

www.harju.edublogs.org

Some days the children contribute to the post and other days/weeks my student teacher or I post. We try to include photos of the kids often.

My class wiki is

www.wikiharju.wikispaces.com

I use both the Blog and wiki for different reasons. The Blog is a nice peek into the daily goings on of our class or information about special events.… Continue

Added by Patti Harju on March 21, 2008 at 8:17pm — 3 Comments

March 21, 2008

I am a new MACUL Space member. I am enjoying learning more about technology and how I can use it in the classroom. My new toy is a webcam. I had a great time at the MACUL conference this year. Attended sessions on great Web 2.0 sites (I have already joined Twitter,) Digital Storytelling, Student Film Festivals, Trackstar, and more. I enjoyed both keynotes and am following Steve Dembo on Twitter ( I joined the Yellow team, whatever that means.) So much to learn!

Added by Patti Harju on March 21, 2008 at 7:07pm — No Comments

Link to my blog

http://hartlibrary.blogspot.com/

Please visit!

Added by Katie Allen on March 20, 2008 at 9:03pm — No Comments

Preparing to Moodle

After Spring Break I intend to begin Moodle with my 8th graders. I teach French and Spanish and hope to get them to write and speak more. We used to use Blackboard but are not subscribing anymore. Moodle seems like a good alternative.

Hopefully things will go well. The Computers teacher at the High School is using it and has generously agreed to help me with it. He is very brave.

I was trying to do some research on the Gong project which allows for speaking. I am sure Rick will figure… Continue

Added by Penny Hildinger on March 17, 2008 at 5:06pm — 2 Comments

Digital Immigrants

I don’t know about you, but the whole idea of the digital world gets a bit fuzzy when evaluating how the learning is taking place. Let me explain…if a child is surfing the Internet and finds a page that is loaded with pictures and few words, how “actual” and authentic is the learning? Now, compared to a video game that is academically focused, how does an action-packed, thrill every moment, shooting people’s faces off game promote learning? Aside from learning, aren’t children learning to… Continue

Added by Wendi N Wallace on March 17, 2008 at 8:02am — 10 Comments

Virtual Schooling NING

Just wanted everyone to know, for those with an interest in virtual schooling (and with Michigan's new online learning requirement for graduation, I'm hoping that means some of you) there is a NING that I just found that focuses upon virtual schooling.

http://virtualschooling.ning.com/
I just joined and I hope some of you do as well.

Added by Michael Barbour on March 16, 2008 at 12:30pm — 2 Comments

Think beyond the browser...

That's the tag line on the Cooliris website, makers of PicLens, a browser plug in that provides you with an immersive view of images on the web, "that goes beyond the confines of the traditional browser window." I installed it last night and quickly lost 45 minutes of my life ( It was a great use of 45 minutes, BTW), looking at pictures on Google, Picasa, and flickr with my children. But you don't have to stop there,… Continue

Added by Kevin J. Galbraith on March 15, 2008 at 2:00pm — 5 Comments

COSN: when a conference is really a conversation …

It was a little hard to follow up MACUL 2008 with CoSN 2008, but that’s what happened. To be honest, I wasn’t enthusiastic about doing MACUL then CoSN back-to-back because it’s smaller than MACUL and counts as “1” in terms of the limited out of state trips that I can take this year.

But this apprehension dissipated by lunch Sunday, the first day, when Beth Baker and I made a connection with… Continue

Added by Bruce Umpstead on March 14, 2008 at 5:11pm — No Comments

Why my wife likes the MACUL conference...

This year was my 6th MACUL conference. The workshops are AWESOME, the "hallway conversations" are fun, the networking is meaningful, and my wife gets a new bag. Let me explain...

I think it's great that MACUL takes the time to choose a handsome conference tote bag that is really handy for all of the vendor "prizes" and literature about their products, and the endless supply of pens. Teachers in the vendor area of a conference turn into some kind of "conference-geek" stuff-collector,… Continue

Added by Michael Partridge on March 11, 2008 at 8:00pm — 17 Comments

MACUL 2008 made me a rock star …

… and I am not referring to the Guitar Hero III duel that kicked off my “MDE Update” session on Thursday (3/6/08). I am talking about owning “Umpstead” on Google.com.

Out of curiosity, on last Friday after the conference, I decided to “google” my last name on “Umpstead” and up popped my MACULSpace page, which surfaced as #1… Continue

Added by Bruce Umpstead on March 11, 2008 at 10:30am — 3 Comments