The Village Gets Bigger

Remember the proverb “It takes a village to raise a child”?  I’m happy to note that the Ontario educational blogging village got bigger this week.  Check out the LiveBinder or the Scoopit page for the latest.  From the Scoopit page, you’ll see the entries in LIFO (Last In, First Out) format.  i.e. the latest additions at the top.  If you check the LiveBinder site, you’ll notice that there’s a new tab.

This is a new category.  While we are all advocates at our various level, there was a whole group on the Ontario scene who had been excluded.  With the advice of @ShannoninOttawa, I’ve opened up this new category to recognize the blogs of people who aren’t directly employed by the educational system and yet have a deep interest in making sure that students in the province receive a superior education.  Please welcome them to the fold.

OurSchool.ca
Lorna Costantini was keeping an eye on my old stomping groups – the Avon Maitland District School Board and Director Ted Doherty’s inclusion of parents in their strategic planning.

All school districts struggle with all kinds of issues.  What a progressive concept to reach out in this manner to invite parents in the process.  After all, it only makes sense – they provide the student bodies that make the district what it is.

Safety 4 our Schools
The latest issue here revolves around school districts that don’t require background checks for volunteers in schools.  The body of a message from the Minister of Education appears in the latest post and there’s a table identifying which school districts require and which don’t require background checks.  Interesting.

SheilaSpeaking

There’s more about parent involvement in schools from Sheila Stewart’s blog.  Her current entry is Part II of a series examining the state of Parent Involvement Committees in the province.  They are legislated; but how effect are they?  Do they even have a significant existance?

I think that the addition of this new group of bloggers will enrich the messages that we have the opportunity to read regularly.  Please welcome to the group and certainly feel free to head over to their blogs and comment on their messages.  They have some pretty strong messages as advocates and may well be our political friends at some level in the future.

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OTR Links 01/27/2012

• Why you should NOT install ‘Fun & Entertaining’ Facebook applications | facecrooks.com

  We often have readers ask us questions about specific Facebook applications. Some apps generate an enormous amount of spam and can annoy the heck out of your Facebook friends. Others are outright scams and should be avoided entirely. For example, any application offering to show you who has viewed your profile, who your Facebook stalkers are etc., are guaranteed to be fraudulent. Facebook doesn’t allow developers access to the data required to create apps like this.

  tags: fun entertaining facebook applications com

• E-ngage Live – Welcome to Engagelive

  Engagelive is an award winning educational platform used across the world. It provides a secure environment for students of all ages to practise strategies that they will need in the community. The difference between Engagelive and other platforms is that it is truly interactive as subject experts are on-line to answer specific questions to individual student queries as they arise.

  tags: engage education

• Make School more like Kindergarten – Mitchel Resnick [#lwf12 @mres] | Oliver Quinlan: Live Blogs

  I many Kindergartens children are actively involved in designing and creating things that matter to them. They learn some specifics from this, but Resnick says what they learn that is most important is the creative process. Rather than simply imagining, they create, iterating with their creations and learning as they go.

  tags: school kindergarten oliver blogs

• Google Says Chromebooks Now in “Hundreds of Schools”

  On stage at FETC today, Google announced that “hundreds of schools in 41 states” have adopted Chromebooks in one or more classrooms, and some 27,000 students in 3 states — Iowa, Illinois and South Carolina — will soon go 1-to-1 with the devices.

  tags: google says hundreds schools

• Utah Moves to Open Textbooks | iterating toward openness

  The Utah State Office of Education announced that (1) it will be supporting the development of Utah-specific open textbooks for all secondary language arts, mathematics, and science courses, and (2) that the USOE recommends that all schools across the state consider these open textbooks for adoption in their secondary language arts, mathematics, and science courses for this fall (2012).

  tags: utah moves textbooks openness

• How to Create Your Own Textbook — With or Without Apple | MindShift

  How to Create Your Own Textbook — With or Without Apple

  tags: ebooks textbooks e-textbooks textbook technology

• Top 13 Web 2.0 Tools for Classrooms « Ask a Tech Teacher

  Every day in my K-8 tech classes, I use a variety of cloud-based tools to enhance the learning experience for my students. There are more of these ‘Web 2.0′ tools than I can keep up

  tags: web2.0 Edchat Tools

• Bill Gates discusses Steve Jobs, iBooks and education in new interview | TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog

  When you think of Apple, you may think of their longtime rival in the OS space, Microsoft. When you think of Mac OS, you may think of Windows (drawing comparisons between the two since Windows debuted), and when you think of Steve Jobs, you often think of Bill Gates

  tags: bill gates steve jobs education interview unofficial apple weblog

• 10 Designs Inspired by Microsoft’s Metro UI | Fuel Your Creativity

  Since Microsoft first unveiled the Metro UI on Windows Phone 7, the rollout has been gradually taking place across every Microsoft product and website. It is the cornerstone of the Windows 8 interface and one of the most notable official uses of Metro UI available now is the excellent implementation on the Xbox 360 dashboard. The new design language has been a refreshing sign that Redmond cares about fixing its messy, bloated and ageing image, and the company is following through and executing.

  tags: designs microsoft metro fuel creativity

• 8 Must-Have Tools for Windows Phone 7 Development – Diary Of A Ninja

  8 Must-Have Tools for Windows Phone 7 Development

  tags: tools wp7

• Around the Corner-MGuhlin.org: MyNotes – #iPads in the ClassroomFive Essential Steps

  MyNotes – #iPads in the ClassroomFive Essential Steps

  tags: org ipads essential steps

• The Classroom Evolved: Creating an Active Learning Environment — THE Journal

  In the first of a new series of articles focused on classroom design, we take a look at a private high school in Florida that’s borrowed ideas from two major universities to create classrooms that support interactive, hands-on learning.

  tags: classroom creating active learning environment journal

• 5 Tips For Staying Motivated While Studying Online | Emerging Education Technology

  With the continued growth of online education, the challenge of staying motivated in self-directed study is something more students struggle with. Here’s a few tips to help.

  tags: tips staying while studying online emerging education technology

• HootSuite and Syracuse University partner to build students’ social media skills | Articles

  HootSuite and Syracuse University partner to build students’ social media skills

  tags: hootsuite syracuse university partner build students social social media media skills articles

• 10 Tips for Teaching English Language Learners | Edutopia

  10 Tips for Teaching English Language Learners

  tags: esl edchat ellchat

• Introduce Yourself with Evernote Hello | iPhone.AppStorm

  You’re at another conference. You hate these things because you’ve always got to try to pretend like you’re having a good time, even with the knowledge that your boss expects you to meet and expand your network of contacts.

  tags: evernote iphone

• Making Rounded Rectangles Look Great ~ Flyosity by Mike Rundle

  Great product design involves thinking about what features to prioritize, planning the user flow from screen to screen, getting user feedback and lots more, but at the end of the day, someone is going to be in Photoshop pushing pixels. The final visual design of a digital interface isn’t going to design itself, and when a designer is crafting the look and feel, here are some elements they’re typically designing:

  tags: making great mike buttons rectangles

• Photogram: A Beautiful Way To View Instagram On The Web [Review] | Cult of Mac

  We love Jeff Broderick’s work here at Cult of Mac. We’ve told you about some of his web app projects, like QuickWiFi and QuickContact, and his latest creation is called Photogram. As the name implies, you can use Photogram to view Instagram in your web browser. The app is beautiful and optimized for both the desktop and mobile experience.

  tags: way view web review cult mac

• IDroo Whiteboard for Skype

  IDroo – Online educational multiuser whiteboard

  tags: whiteboard collaboration skype idroo web2.0 tool IWB education

• QR Code Addin for PowerPoint | PowerPoint Presentation

  This QR Code Addin for PowerPoint helps you to embed QR Code in your PowerPoint slides. You can use this QR Code Addin to generate a QR Code for your contact slide or to be used in many other creative ways.

  tags: qr code code addin powerpoint presentation

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.