Conquering technophobia

Old dog, new tricks: Tips for technophobic teachers

Stephenie Meyer

Did you know that Stephenie Meyer first saw Edward and Bella in a dream? Watch the Youtube video.

Favourite quote

Have no fear of perfection – you'll never reach it. Salvador Dali



Celebrate Astronomy

2009 is the International Year of Astronomy
Celebrate Astronomy provides a range of resources and activities, including a discussion forum, wikis and a database activity. Students will have the opportunity to find out more about astronomy and share their knowledge with other project participants.

Make your own songs

Songsmith generates musical accompaniment to match a singer’s voice. Just choose a musical style, sing into your PC’s microphone, and Songsmith will create backing music for you. Then share your songs with your friends and family, post your songs online, or create your own music videos.

Try a winning and new search engine

iSeek was the 2008 winner of the best alternative search engine. Has an educational search option.
And Leapfish is in beta format and claims to be the fastest search engine on the planet. Looks interesting.

Create your own Picture Books

If you have always wanted to write a children’s book. Now you can do both easily and for free at www.biguniverse.com. Read more at http://wirededucator.wordpress.com/2008/08/06/big-universe-great-for-educators-the-child-in-us-all/

Digital Storytelling

The following sites were posted on IASL-Network
So many choices .. Photostory or iMovie come quickly to mind. Here are some other suggestions:
Digital Storytelling
http://teachdigital.pbwiki.com/ds
Wes Fryer has this useful wiki for his presentation on the topic of digital storytelling. His list of digital storytelling options is more comprehensive than this one.

Stapleless Book:ReadWriteThink
http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/stapleless/
Great little tool. No audio . Good for younger students and imaginative adults.

Flip Book : ReadWriteThink
http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/flipbook/
Be sure to see this. You might be able to use it as a tool in the library or classroom.

Animoto
http://animoto.com
Upload your own images. Add music or voice. Animoto now has a text option. Animoto has limited controls for a student who wants to tell his story but it is a lot of fun to use with photos/text/music. There are educational terms available. Here's an example of an animated Animoto with limited text http://animoto.com/play/vamFQrga6hlB1R3SjgaQ1A

Comic Solutions
http://comiqs.com/
http://www.toondoo.com
In ToonDoo, for example, you can upload your own images and enhance those with various graphics that are provided. You can create a library of Toons that can be turned into a Toonbook. No audio. Fun.

Voicethread
http://voicethread.com
http://voicethread.com/about/k12/ [K12]
Popular digital alternative that is intended to link your audio with your images. Example of a storybook in Voicethread ? http://voicethread.com/#home.b2962.i26130

Slideshare
http://www.slideshare.net/
Create a "book" using Powerpoint and then use Slideshare to make it available to others.

Mixbook
http://www.mixbook.com/
Mixbook.com allows you to create photo books. Mixbooks can be shared online or as printed books. New ? add your own stickers for a scrapbook effect. It costs to print a book.

Blurb
http://www.blurb.com/
Similar to Mixbook. Create personalized book online. Printing available. Book on how to make a Blurb book is at http://www.blurb.com/create/book/htmab . Costs to print.


Bookrhttp://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/
http://technogogy.org.uk/bookr/bookr.htm [Video tutorial]
Helpful tutorial. UK site.

Scrapblog
http://www.scrapblog.com/
Multimedia scrapbook.

Iron on T-Shirt tranfers

DLTK's Crafts for Kids Printable Iron On T-Shirt Transfers

Book Marks

You can make bookmarks yourself, of course, from any of the bookplates we have on show. But we've started you off with bits from some of the bookplates we know are favourites, and here they are.