A Web 2.0 Mother’s Day

This year, Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 13.  Speaking from experience, it is expensive on the father but it’s always nice if the kiddos chip in a bit.  Sure, let’s stick Dad with the bill for Sunday brunch but there’s always something extra special when a present is hand made.  Traditionally, this means construction paper, scissor, glue, and … but why not move up to something electronic.

Wordle
Everyone’s favourite word cloud.  How about creating something with words to describe your mom?  It’s not hard; she’s so special the words and attributes should just leap off your fingertips.  Don’t forget to throw in about a dozen LOVEs to put the finishing touches to it. I’m sure that a custom palette is in order here!

Tagul
Ready to up your game, then give Tagul a shot.  It’s got all the love of Wordle and, for our purposes, adds the ability to add shades and even more fonts to your creation.  Text from “Ode to My Mother“.

Even if you’re doing a traditional Mother’s Day card, the Wordle or Tagul, when printed, makes a nice, personalized card inside.  Just don’t tell Hallmark.

Podcasting
Have you been waiting for the perfect opportunity to create and publish a podcast?  This is the time.  Have each student carefully craft a message to Mom and post it to your class wiki.

Create an Animoto
The folks at Animoto were one step ahead of me.  Right up front on their website is the recommendation to create a movie for Mother’s Day.  Animoto provides some very nice themes to do the taks.  They recommend the Retro Wheel – but there are other great looking themes just waiting to be used – “Through the blossoms”, “Coming up Roses”, and “Land of the Rising Hearts” look ready for the job.

Web2.0 applications add just that extra special something to a traditional classroom activity.  Very easily, you can customize and personalize the message.

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OTR Links 05/07/2012

• A Guide for Administrators

  In the face of the “new normal” of decreased budgets and increased expectations, many administrators are turning to technology to enhance teaching and learning while mitigating the consequences of consecutive years of budget cuts.  Mobile learning, in particular, has attracted a great deal of attention for its potential to engage students by leveraging the technology environment they have grown accustomed to in their non-school lives; its potential to scale personalized learning and reduce the digital divide; its potential to extend learning beyond the four walls of the classroom and the limited hours of the school day; and its potential to enable new pedagogies based on the affordances of these devices that students already carry at their fingertips.

  tags: guide administrators BYOD

• Around the Corner-MGuhlin.org: #BYOD – Criteria for Implementation Success #byodchat #edchat

  Bring Your Own Device/Technology (BYOD/T) 
  Criteria for Implementation Success

  tags: BYOD

• Do not track | Online privacy tools | Disconnect

  Don’t let Facebook, Google, or Twitter follow you around the web.

  tags: privacy tools chrome web

• Welcome – Timely by Demandforce

  We help you schedule tweets for maximum impact.

  tags: twitter post timely

• ADay.org: Photographing the World in One Day

  In 9 days time, people all over the world will be coming together with one single aim – to photograph their lives – as part of the global ADay.org project.

  tags: org world

• Tony Vincent’s Learning in Hand – Blog – Wireless Mirroring from iPad to PC Now a Reality with AirServer

  Windows users now have a way to wirelessly mirror iPad and iPhone to their computers with AirSever.

  tags: ipad

• 21 Century Classroom: The Amaryllis: Do You Understand the World For Which You are Preparing Students?

  I worry sometimes that my colleagues and administrators do not really understand the world for which they are preparing children.

  tags: classroom world preparing students

• iFlop: 60% of iOS developers lose money on apps (infographic) | VentureBeat

  Nearly 60 percent of iOS developers don’t break even with the apps that they create and market, according to a recent study by App Promo.

  tags: ios developers money apps infographic

• A Liberal Decalogue: Bertrand Russell’s 10 Commandments of Teaching | Brain Pickings

  British philosopher, mathematician, historian, and social critic Bertrand Russell endures as one of the most intellectually diverse and influential thinkers in modern history, his philosophy of religion in particular having shaped the work of such modern atheism champions as Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, and Richard Dawkins.

  tags: teaching

• 10 things school libraries can learn from the Apple Store! « NovaNews

  Much has been written about the structures, the founders and the personalities that have moulded the image of the amazingly successful business – Apple.  Not only have we, the consumer, been able to establish new day-to-day routines by using the numerous Apple products on the market, but, aware of it or not, our lives have been deeply impacted and altered.

  tags: things school school libraries libraries apple store

• BBC News – Parents ‘more involved in children’s schools’

  Parents believe they are more involved in their children’s education than their own parents were – and that children now have more opportunities in school, suggests a survey.

  tags: bbc news parents children schools

• Using an iPad as an alternative to an interactive whiteboard | The Whiteboard Blog

  With more and more schools (and teachers) getting iPads, I’m increasingly being asked how a teacher can hook up their iPad to their interactive whiteboard.

  tags: interactive whiteboard ipad iwb technology

• Microsoft talks DVD, Media Center support in Windows 8 and why most won’t miss it – Engadget

  With the new trend of discless devices (tablets, netbooks, ultrabooks and all in between) Microsoft saves a few bucks on the licensing costs for unsupported technology, while it and OEMs only pay up on computers designed to play DVDs out of the box (Dolby and MPEG codecs for online video streaming are included in all versions).

  tags: microsoft talks dvd media center support windows miss engadget

• Coding Horror: Buying Happiness

  What is, then, the science of happiness? I’ll summarize the basic eight points as best I can, but read the actual paper (pdf) to obtain the citations and details on the underlying studies underpinning each of these principles.

  tags: coding horror buying happiness

• Coding Horror: Is Eeyore Designing Your Software?

  This classic Eric Lippert post describes, in excruciating, painful detail, exactly how much work it takes to add a single ChangeLightBulbWindowHandleEx function to a codebase at Microsoft:

  tags: coding horror designing software

• Mi2N.com – Windsor’s Beaverfest Rocks With The Cult, Three Days Grace, Puddle Of Mudd & More

  Beaverfest returns for a 2nd year of blazing live rock and country music at Windsor’s Riverfront Amphitheatre on June 1, 2 and 3, 2012.

  tags: com windsor rocks cult days grace

• Dodgy Coder: Why was .NET called .NET?

  Microsoft started development on the .NET Framework in the late 1990s, originally under the name of “Next Generation Windows Services” (NGWS).

  tags: net called

• Computer Science is Not Math : Scott Schneider

  A surprisingly common sentiment among some programmers is that “computer science is math.” Certainly, computer science as a rigorous discipline emerged from mathematics.

  tags: computer computer science science math scott

• Rocking iPad Ideas for the Classroom | Staffroom HQ

  Some people have asked me “how do I integrate the iPad into my English classes?” I respond by providing some iPad related tasks that link and work well with the text types taught in Australian primary schools.

  tags: ipad

• 9 of the coolest educational videos from TED-Ed | memeburn

  When TED launched its educational website for younger students last week, I think teachers everywhere realised they had to up their game. The 3-10 minute videos are designed to encourage curiosity and show how the world works using compelling animation and the audible explanations of a gifted teacher.  Even if you’re not in high school, the videos are sometimes fascinating, sometimes kinda strange, but generally very cool. Here are some of the best videos that are designed to amaze and challenge your brain.

  tags: TED edtech TED-Ed edchat TEDEd tedtalk TEDtalks ifttt

• Digital Differentiation with Screencasting – Download free content from Apple Distinguished Educators on iTunes

  This collection focuses on showing teachers and students what it takes to make a screencast video for sharing knowledge with others. The goal of this collection is to give elementary/intermediate school teachers a toolkit of ideas and resources they can use to differentiate instruction using video in the classroom. Teacher or student created screencasts can be posted online, shared on mobile devices, viewed at home or viewed in the classroom to further extend classroom learning.

  tags: howto differentiation screencasting

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