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Between cell phones, flip video cameras, digital camcorders, etc. it is easier than ever to create digital video. The problem is the fact that the video is recorded in 1 format and you often need to have it in a different format to play it in a different device or on the web. There is a free and easy conversion tool called Format Factory that will allow you to import your video and convert it for playback on almost any device. You can download this software by clicking on the file link below:

Word Clouds Free and Easy

Wordle.net is a free resource for creating word clouds. You can copy and paste a collection of words from any document you choose and have it make your cloud that way. Another option is to pull the words from a blog or RSS feed. I did this to produce the word cloud below using the Loti Guy Speaks blog.

Advanced Features

Here is a wordle image that was generated using the advanced wordle usage feature. This allows you to give different words a specific relative weight. I typed the info up in MS word and pasted it in.

Another interesting advanced feature allows you to pick the size and color (using hex code) for each word. A simple way to handle the color coding would be to get a list of 8 basic colors and their hex codes for student reference. There are many sites with info about hex color codes such as Web Color Chart.

Implications for Learning

This is a really interesting tool but what are the implications for helping our students learn? How could the use of different colors and sizes of words impact our visual learners? For some this might seem confusing but to others it might help them understand. The biggest learning value might be in the process of creation as much as it is with the end product.

Feel free to add comments about how this could be integrated into a classroom.

• Take keywords or concepts from a novel and do a word cloud summary? Students could make the most important ideas larger than the rest.
• Couldn't the same thing be done for a historical event?

How about a wordle on the threats to our natural environment? Students could rank what they perceive to be the greatest threats via larger text. The smaller text could include smaller contributing factors and other aspects of the issue.

Tutorial

Teacher Tube Tutorial on Wordle

Digital Wish is a site that allows teachers to sign up for classroom technology and then solicit donors to purchase it for classroom use. Here is how the Digital Wish folks describe the process:

Teachers...Make a Wish

Just like a gift registry, you build a wish list of technology products for your classroom. Then you can tell prospective donors how their support will make a difference to your students. After a purchase, Digital Wish automatically donates an additional 2%-10% in funding for your next technology project!

You can access digital wish @ Digital Wish Sign Up. All Weslaco ISD schools are already in the system so all teachers have to do is sign up and start wishing.

We have Animation-ish software in several of our classrooms. This is a product that allows students to use their creativity to make digital animations. If connected to content learning this has the potential to help students that are interested and/or talented in artistic ways. A few examples of ways it can be used include:

• Animating vocabulary words. By creating the animation students are actively engaged and will likely retain more information. The animated words could then be used for review.
• Animating science concepts. Student created animations for concepts such as soil/erosion, water and nitrogen cycles, food chains, etc. make the content come alive.
• Digital story telling. Students can take their original story and bring it to life through animation.

The cost per license of Animation-ish is approx. $25. If your campus is interested in purchasing licenses then simply request a quote.

For those of you that are already using animation-ish there is a easy-to-use quick start guide that just came out. You can download it from the link below.




You can learn more about this software @ Animation-ish.com.

We value the opinions of students and want to know what they think about education in general and how they like to learn and use technology. To get some insight into how students feel about these things we have at least some students at each level participate in an online survey call NetDay Speak Up. The results for the latest surver are contained in the files listed below:

We are interested in your thoughts about the results so feel free to comment.

If you want to expand your classroom worldwide and engage your students in collaboration with students all over the world then check out the iEARN projects site. There are a wide variety of opportunities to collaborate on different topics. Two current projects of interest are "Our Footprints, Our Future" and "Action! Animating Voices for Change". These projects have all the elements of Loti level 5 such as, authenticity, collaboration outside school, problem based, and using a variety of technology tools. If you are a Weslaco ISD teacher and are interested in participating in an iEARN project please contact me @ samdahl@wisd.us.

Did you know that any Weslaco ISD teacher can have their own classroom wiki/blog? This is hosted inside our district and therefore isn't part of any type of filter. Your wiki/blog can be used in a variety of ways:

• To provide students and parents a way to "stay in touch" with the great things going on in your classroom
• As a way to incorporate podcasting for yourself and/or your students. Each blog entry can have a podcast file (.mp3, .m4a, .mp4)
• Podcasts can be audio or video
• Podcasts are an excellent way to get students to create projects for a larger audience (22% or 1,463,000,000 people in the world have internet access)
• Podcasts are "subscribable" so anyone that wants to "tune in" can simply subscribe using iTunes and they will automatically get notified when a new podcast is posted.
• Students could use the wiki area to create pages related to classroom learning. Since a wiki allows multiple people to contribute it would be a great way for students to collaborate on a project.

If you'd like to have a classroom blog/wiki setup simply complete a work order and request "classroom wiki/blog setup" and also provide the name for your site. For example, Mr. Amdahl's Classroom, would be a fine site name. It would be even better if you could get a little creative...

Wow is all I can say about the 2 Weslaco ISD Atomic Learning Spotlight Campuses for October 2008! This is actually the first month that we provide this recognition for outstanding use of Atomic Learning to help teachers and student learn about technology via the Atomic Learning tutorials. We are recognizing the top campus for student use and the top for teacher use.

In the student use category, Cleckler/Heald Elementary had 633 tutorial views by students. The tutorials were primarily based on 2 different software titles, Inspiration and MS Word. Sound to me like it is possible that they might be using Inspiration to learn how to use electronic graphic organizing to get ideas developed and then publishing their work in MS Word. I'll investigate this and post a follow up.

In the teacher category, the North Bridge Elementary teachers had a total 1705 tutorial views. Almost all of the tutorials were for Kidspiration software. The campus is using Atomic Learning to help teachers learn the basics of the software and then having follow up face-to-face sessions to work on lesson planning and integration into instruction. This is being done as a combination technology/GT training and is counting for the 6 hour GT update. What a great idea. I'm hoping it will catch on with some other campuses.

These 2 campuses acounted for over 96% of the Atomic Learning usage in the district for October. Great news for these 2 campuses. Not so great for the others. The pie chart below shows the stats for the month.

If you are a teacher, parent, or student looking for educational material then you need to check out the Thinkfinity site. It is full of excellent materials from educational content creators such as:

• American Association for the Advancement of Science
• International Reading Association
• National Center for Family Literacy
• National Council on Economic Education
• National Council of Teachers of English
• National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
• National Endowment for the Humanities
• National Geographic Society
• ProLiteracy Worldwide
• Smithsonian National Museum of American History
• The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

So check it out and be sure to share it with others.