Another Search Engine With a Strange Name

Have you heard of oolone yet?  It's a pretty interesting search engine in that it displays mini versions of websites as opposed to lists of search results with short descriptions.  Below is a short video of it in action.  A few changes have been made since the shooting of the video including the removal of the "adult filter" button that may jump right out at you.  A filter option is still available however.  I'm not sure we'll be saying "oolone it" anytime soon, however it worked nicely and made it quick and easy to sort out search results when I tried it.

Beaming and Sharing Files

We often get asked about workarounds for sharing files that are too large to share through email.  Below are a couple of services that should work just fine provided that the fall out from the megaupload fiasco doesn't wipe these out too.

Just Beam It

JustBeamIt from JustBeamIt on Vimeo.

Let's Crate

www.divshare.com
www.uploaderbox.com
www.minus.com

There are many more.  Please share your experiences with us.

An Educator Must be Relevant...

This video uses a number of quotes and images regarding the shifting roles of teachers in our technology rich world with our digital native students.  Enjoy!

Send Texts to Your Students!

It seems like our students are living by their phones. It's estimated that the average teen is sending over 2,000 texts per month. It's how they communicate with one another and now we can get in on the party at no cost. Remind 101 provides an easy and direct way to reach your students and parents; directly to their cell phones. Don't worry, they won't see your number. Check out the video below regarding this promising service.  Let us know if you use it so we can share the experience with others.

Remind101 from remind101 on Vimeo.

Quizlet!!!

          Many of you who have worked with me know that I won't pass up an opportunity to suggest quizlet.com.  It was an extremely useful tool for me as a classroom teacher and I love to share it with others.  Watch this short video, and if you’re interested in learning more about this tool contact one of us at the mountain.

Free Website Builders

There are many free services for building websites.  They differ in things such as user interface and learning curve, allowed bandwith usage and storage space among others.  Here are a few that you are likely to come across if you decide to create a website.  As always, we're willing to help you through the process of choosing what will work best and supporting you in its creation.

Class Jump is a website that many teachers here are already using. Read more about it here:
classjump.com

Weebly (which also has a classroom and campus edition)



Yola


Google sites


Snap pages


Webnode


We don't want you to feel overwhelmed, we want you to realize that you have many, many options (these are just a few). If you're serious about creating a class website, take some time to think about how you, your students, and parents would use it. We can help you find the tool that will best fit your skills and needs.

Websites, Wikis, and Blogs

     We enjoyed our time with those of you who came to the "Web Walk" this week!  Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to do so.  For those of you who were unable to attend, I’ve included some of the links to the sites and services we discussed. 

www.classjump.com/b/ballato

http://www.classjump.com/N/Nizinkirck/

https://5thgradereading.pbworks.com/w/page/32205210/FrontPage

www.ahsinnovation.weebly.com

www.mrgale.com

www.mrvacanti.blogspot.com

I’ve also embedded a video below regarding the classroom management system, Edmodo.