10 ways to use your edublog to teach

10 ways to use your edublog to teach
from edublog.com
There are many ways you can use an edublog in your teaching, here are ten to get you started:
1. Post materials and resources
The web is a fantastic tool when it comes to distributing resources - all you have to do on your edublog is upload, or copy and paste, your materials to your blog and they’ll be instantly accessible by your student from school and from home. What’s more, you can easily manage who gets to access them through password and plugin safety measures.
2. Host online discussions
If you’ve ever struggled to create an online discussion space - you’re going to love what edublogs will do for you. Students can simply respond to blog posts and discuss topics you’ve set them without the added complexity of using a bulletin board - commentators can sign up to receive emails when their comments are replied to and you can easily manage and edit all responses through your blog’s administrative panel.
3. Create a class publication
Do you remember the good old days of class newspapers? Well, they just got a lot easier with your edublog - you can add students as contributors, authors and even editors in order to produce a custom designed, finely tuned and engaging collaborative online publication by your class.
4. Replace your newsletter
Always enjoyed photocopying and stapling pages and pages of newsletters on a Friday afternoon? Though not! It’s ridiculously simple to post class information, news, events and more on your edublog
5. Get your students blogging
It’s all very good sending your students off to blog sites, or even creating them for them, but you need to operate as a hub for their work and a place where they can easily visit each others blogs from. Your edublog can be used to glue together your students blogs, and besides which, if you’re asking your students to blog… you should certainly be doing it yourself.
6. Share your lesson plans
We all love planning and admin, right? Well, using an edublog can turn planning and reflection on classes into a genuinely productive - and even collaborative - experience. Sharing your plans, your reflections, your ideas and your fears with other educators both at your school and around the world using an edublog is a great way to develop as a teacher, and a brilliant use of a blog.
7. Integrate multimedia of all descriptions
With a couple of clicks you can embed online video, multimedia presentations, slideshows and more into your edublog and mix it up with your text and static resources. No cds required, no coding necessary - just select the video, podcasts or slidecast you’d like to use and whack it in your blog to illustrate, engage and improve your teaching toolbox.
8. Organise, organise, organise
You don’t only have to use your edublog as a pedagogue… you can equally easily use the tools to organise everything from sports teams in your school, to rehearsals for the upcoming production. You can set up as many edublogs as you like, so don’t be afraid to use a dedicated one for a dedicated event - your can even use it as a record to look back on down the line.
9. Get feedback
There’s nothing that says you can’t allow anonymous commenting on a blog (although you’re also entirely within your rights to put all comments through moderation!) but why not think about using a blog as a place for students - and even parents, to air issues, leave feedback or generally tell you how great you are.
10. Create a fully functional website
One of the great things about edublogs are that they are much, much more than just blogging tools. In fact, you can use your edublog to create a multi-layered, in-depth, multimedia rich website - that hardly looks like a blog at all. So, if you’d rather create a set of static content, archive of important information or even index for your library - you can bend an edublog to suit your needs.

Best Educational Links 2007

The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education — 2007
I decided to start putting together various “Best Of” lists for this year, and am starting out with my picks for the best Web 2.0 applications for education. I’m taking the broader view for this list, so I think these sites are the best ones for students across the board — not just for ESL/EFL students. I hope to create a separate list highlighting the best Web 2.0 sites just for ESL/EFL students, though the sites on that list must be accessible to Beginning English Language Learners. There will probably be some overlap between the two. I also hope to develop a list of the best sites with educational content for this year.
One key criteria I’ve used to compose this list is how easy the application is to use. I basically asked myself if an English Language Learner and/or someone who only knows how to write a web address and to email could use it. If the answer is no, then the application didn’t make this list. In fact, if the answer is no, then I don’t blog about it or post the link on my website.
I should point out that some of these sites may have started prior to 2007, but, since I didn’t start blogging until February of this year, for purposes of this list they all might as well have begun in 2007!
Unlike my Websites of the Month picks, I will be prioritizing this list. I’ll start off with the fourteenth best and end with what I think is the best one. Fourteen might seem like a strange number, but I just couldn’t reduce it any further. Please let me know if you agree, disagree, and/or have other suggestions:
I’ve chosen Vi.sualize.us as my fourteenth pick. It’s a “social bookmarking” site like del.iou.us, but for images. You can save, categorize, and write a description of images on the web. It provides countless lesson opportunities.
My pick for the thirteenth best Web 2.0 application is Sketchcast. You can “draw” on a whiteboard and record an audio explanation at the same time. You’re given a url for your creation and/or you can embed it into a blog. Others can leave comments about your Sketchcast, too. It’s particularly good to demonstrate how to solve math problems.
Number twelve is Footnote. Footnote allows students to access thousands of primary source documents and photos, and easily create online history reports. Their urls can then be posted, and students can also leave comments on their peers’ reports.
My pick for the eleventh best are really two connected sites — SMILE and CLEAR. They’re both from Michigan State University, and allow teachers (and students) to easily create clozes, drag-and-drop exercises, and sequencing activities. They also allow you to use audio and video with the activities, and will host them as well.
The tenth best is CircaVie. I think it’s the easiest online application for creating timelines and incorporating images. It can be used in any number of lessons.
ESL Video is the ninth best. It’s super-easy to take pretty much any video off-the-net and create a quiz to it. It’s designed for ESL/EFL students, but it can also be used by and for mainstream students.
Number eight is Fleck. Fleck let’s you take any webpage and create virtual post-it notes to “paste” on them. They’re great for students to demonstrate their use of reading strategies.
Number seventh is One True Media. It’s a very easy way to create slideshows on the Web, and add text, music and images.
My pick for number six is Community Walk. Students can put many sites on a map with descriptions and images (which can be easily grabbed off the web). Students can use this to describe field trips, report on historical events, and do other mapping applications. There are a lot of these kinds of sites, but I’ve found Community Walk to be the easiest to use.
The fifth site on my list is Daft Doggy. It allows you to create website tours — a series of websites where you also leave your own descriptive text or instructions on each page. You can use it to create Internet scavenger hunts. Visitors can also leave comments. The site’s creator has a different part of his site where you can easily make voice recordings, and plans to connect that ability up to the webtours soon so visitors can leave audio comments. When that happens, Daft Doggy should move even higher on this list.
The fourth-ranked site is called Show Beyond. This is similar to VoiceThread (number three) in allowing audio narration of slideshows, but doesn’t allow audio comments like VoiceThread. You can also add music and text. It’s particularly good in District’s, like ours, that block streaming media (like VoiceThread).
The third-ranked site is VoiceThread. You can upload pictures and create an audio narrative to go along with them. In addition, audio comments can be left by visitors. VoiceThread also provides a great deal to teachers by allowing them to get their premium services for free, including allowing them to create a zillion VoiceThreads for free. Happily, they’ve finally incorporated the feature of allowing you to include images off the web just by inserting its url.
Number two is Bookr. It would be difficult to create an easier application to make slideshows with captions on the web. The only drawback to it is you can only use images off Flickr, and not others on the Web, but that’s a small price to pay for such an accessible application.
And now, my choice as the best Web 2.0 application for Education in 2007 is Tumblr. This “micro-blogging” site upgraded their service this year. It’s a great place for students to easily post a whole lot of their work. Students can have individual or group “Tumblrs.” A student can also share their password with a small number of students who can leave comments.
There’s always plenty of room for agreement and disagreement with these kinds of lists. I’m looking forward to getting feedback on this and other lists I post over the next week.
(Editor’s Note: I have indeed compiled some additional lists you might want to check-out, including The Best Web 2.0 Applications for ESL/EFL Learners; The Best Online Learning Games; Best Internet Sites For English Language Learners, The Best Search Engines For ESL/EFL Learners, The Best Science Websites For Students & Teachers, The Best Math Sites For English Language Learners, The Best Social Studies Websites, The Best News/Current Events Websites For English Language Learners, The “Best” Articles About Education, The Best Reference Websites For English Language Learners, The Best Blogs For Sharing Resources/Links, and a post listing all of the winners called The Best Of The Best — 2007. You’ll also be able to access these, and some additional lists I’m making over the next few days, at Websites of the Year).
All these sites can also be found on my website, along with thousands of other categorized links.
Since this list was posted, I’ve also added The Best Health Sites For English Language Learners, The Best Websites For Learning About Civic Participation & Citizenship, and The Best Websites for K-12 Writing Instruction/Reinforcement.
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This entry was posted on Friday, December 21st, 2007 at 4:47 pm and is filed under best of the year, web 2.0 and You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
38 Responses to “The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education — 2007”
blk1 Says: December 21st, 2007 at 5:55 pm
THanks Larry,Can’t wait to check them out.Bonnie
dogtrax Says: December 21st, 2007 at 7:53 pm
Thanks for the tips
I did notice that you can now add photos from other sites (such as Flickr) to Voicethread — I have not yet tried it but the option is there when you go to create a new thread. I just went through the initial process and it hooked right into my Flickr account and went to my “sets” of photos there.
I guess they have been listening to you, Larry.
Kevin
dogtrax Says: December 21st, 2007 at 7:56 pm
ActuallyI just tried it and it worked like a charm.I even grabbed a photo via a URL and it loaded up.Kevin
Paul Hamilton Says: December 22nd, 2007 at 10:31 am
This is a great list! As always, your observations and recommendations are helpful.
susant Says: December 22nd, 2007 at 10:52 am
Larry thanks, great list! Looking forward to trying out some that I haven’t met before! (BTW voicethread also enables video commenting.)Have a Great Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Elizabeth Helfant Says: December 22nd, 2007 at 10:55 am
This is a great list…found a couple more sites that we can certainly use. Had been playing with trailfire but like Daff Doggy better. I like xtimeline.com better for school than circavie.Thanks for the list!
Sue Waters Says: December 22nd, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Hi Larry - your list is definitely not what I expected because it is so different from lists that most would have put together. Many of the tools I have not tried so now I will have to go, do a road test and report back. May take a few days because I have a 9 yr old nagging me to use my computer (unbelievable!).
Alix E. Peshette Says: December 23rd, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Larry,What a wonderful and diverse list! I did know of a few, but as usual you have dug deep to bring up real gems. Only blogging since last February? My gosh, your dedication and enthusiasm for blogging is awe-inspiring!
Have a great winter break and see you at the CTAP 3 Technology Conference in January!-Alix Peshette
Partrick Says: December 23rd, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Hi Larry,
thanks for picking fleck, hope you’re going to love the upcoming version
Adam Says: December 23rd, 2007 at 5:05 pm
great list… i’d also add http://www.TeachersPayTeachers.com, a cool site that enables teachers to buy/sell original curricula.
Top 2007 Education Apps: Learning 2.0 Says: December 23rd, 2007 at 8:56 pm
[…] teacher and active blogger named Larry Ferlazzo has put together his list of the top education startups of […]
Top 2007 Education Apps: Learning 2.0 Says: December 23rd, 2007 at 8:56 pm
[…] teacher and active blogger named Larry Ferlazzo has put together his list of the top education startups of […]
Joe DiPasquale Says: December 23rd, 2007 at 9:52 pm
Larry,
Great list!
You should also check out http://www.CollegeWikis.com .
We’re “Information for students, by students” - a mix between the content-creation abilities of yahoo answers and the relevance of a specific community. We have a presence at >200 schools and growing.
-Joesuggestions [/at/] collegewikis.com
Munish Gandhi Says: December 23rd, 2007 at 11:21 pm
Larry: Great to see your uncoventional recognition of Tumblr as the top web 2.0 app for education. I recently set up my daughter with her tumblelog at http://anshula.com.
At age 10, she is a digital native. (She knew “google.com” before “multiplication.”) It is surprising to see how natural the medium is to her and, at 3 weeks into it, it is already a part of her education:
- She posted a collection of Earth Poems that were part of her school assignment on her tumblelog.
- Now that she is traveling to India, she has extended it beyond class work to a travelog of sorts (”International observations” at http://anshula.com/post/22127286).
- Anything is game: silly videos (”Good night brother”), her own quotes, her photos, or anything that catches her fancy.
Can’t wait to see what the digital natives will do with the power available to them…
Jaisen Mathai Says: December 24th, 2007 at 12:10 am
Larry, great writeup…take a look at socialbib when you get a chance.
http://www.socialbib.com/
Yakov Says: December 24th, 2007 at 12:43 am
Quintura Kids on http://kids.quintura.com can be included in the list too
Frank Gruber Says: December 24th, 2007 at 10:27 am
Good round-up. You should check out Neulio, an Orlando-based free online course platform, that just launched:http://www.somewhatfrank.com/2007/12/neulio-multi-le.html
Rawle Austin Says: December 24th, 2007 at 11:01 am
Thanks for the excellent roundup. Will be very useful.
david Says: December 24th, 2007 at 11:11 am
Hi Larry,
I see you’ve left out SuTree. http://www.sutree.comIt’s gotta be there!
» Education Tools - 2007 Edition The Village Green Says: December 24th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
[…] The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education — 2007 http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2007/12/21/the-best-web-20-applications-for-education-2007/ […]
Steven Bao Says: December 24th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Don’t forget Student Concourse - www.studentconcourse.comAcademic organization and (soon) social network!
Mike Says: December 24th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
I would add Flashcard Friends www.flashcardfriends.com it is a social network focused solely on education around the creation, sharing, learning, and testing of online flashcards.
Dave Says: December 24th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Hi Larry, great list! I thought you might be interested in another useful tool that I helped create: the Study Groups app on Facebook.
Our users are using it to discuss assignments, schedule group meetings, share and collaborate on class notes, and check out the latest group activity. Hosting the application on Facebook has made it possible for our users to log in and create a study group quickly and easily.
mark vernon Says: December 24th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
When you have the time, please check out the free site at tutorom.com, and let us know what you think - this is an education creation site, and we have a lot of features up there already…still a few more to add, but so far it allows anyone to add/upload elements, create lessons (from various types), add them to courses and then create and cusomtize websites that feature those courses, allowing for access control and reporting. All free.
cheers and merry xmasmark vernontutorom.com
Greg Says: December 24th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
you missed www.engrade.com - free online gradebook and class management
dogtrax Says: December 24th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Good lordEnough with the free advertising of your products on Larry’s site.If it is good, I am sure Larry will discover it and share on his own good time.Kevin
mrsolson Says: December 24th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
I agree, it seems like Larry’s doing a pretty good job of finding stuff on his own! Larry, thanks for the list, I’m a BRAND new blogger (www.mrsolson.edublogs.org) and I’m so grateful that bloggers like you take the time to put together lists like these. I’ll start checking them out now!
p.s. I teach keyboarding - have you found anything spectacular and free out there for teachers in this area?
Gladys Baya Says: December 26th, 2007 at 5:59 am
I always learn so much from your posts, Larry! Thanks once again, and, also once again, a question:
I started myTumblr after your post on them last November, and have found their product reliable and really easy to use… I just wish there was a way for visitors to leave comments… My main concern before getting ahead with its integration into my curricula is: I´ve emailed them repeatedly asking them whether they plan to add such a feature, but have been uanble to get a reply. I tend to mistrust products who never reply to customer queries, as I´m afraid of what would happen if I came across a bug (I know it´s freeware, but…). What has your experience been?
Warmly,Gladys
Dave McVicar Says: December 28th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Larry, thanks for including circavie.com in your Best Web 2.0 Sites for Education. We look forward to hosting timelines that students and teachers use to tell stories and document the world’s events.
Derrall Garrsion Says: December 29th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Thank you for putting up these resources, I’ll need to to set aside some fun/play time to visit them all
Daan Assen Says: January 2nd, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Great stuff! I can think of some good applications for corporate learning as well.
fucc Says: January 3rd, 2008 at 1:14 pm
hi, added to my list here:Best of 2007
Mark Cruthers Says: January 6th, 2008 at 2:34 am
I highly recommend you check out WiZiQ Virtual Classroom.
Introduction
WiZiQ is an online teaching platform, which provides a free virtual classroom environment for teachers to interact online and teach students in real time. Teachers can also build a profile, keep an availability schedule, and maintain a content library, which is associated with their profiles, by uploading PowerPoint presentations and PDF Files.
Yurk Yurk Says: January 10th, 2008 at 1:19 am
Um, I went to Vi.sualize.us, and there was pr0n on the front page. ‘Countless lesson opportunities’? I guess you could see it that way.
mrferlazzo Says: January 10th, 2008 at 2:07 am
I’ve just been noticing the same thing — just over the past few days, in fact. I’ve written to them asking if they can filter out those kinds of photos and have been waiting for a response. It seems it would be pretty easy to at least filter out the ones that have been tagged with certain words.
There’s another alternative site that will be even better when they add a few features in the spring:
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/01/02/oskope-image-search/
Larry
mrferlazzo Says: January 10th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Hi Larry,
thanks a lot for getting in contact. I’ve just woke up (it’s 8AM in Spain)and see the recent images with all that nasty p__n (Edublogs blocks this word). P__n is not allowed atall on vi.sualize.us, and I usually send a warning notification to theuser posting it and set the images as private. But between people postingand I blocking the images could be more time than I’d wish, specially ifit’s during the night here, like just happened. There’s also a blockfeature for the users, but people doesn’t seem to use it so much.
It is a tough task to figure out some way to automatically block this kindof content. You can think about tags, but not everybody use tags. Also theline between erotic and p__n (Editors note: Edublogs blocks this word) sometimes is so thin (not in this case ofcourse!), and depends a lot on people. My idea is to implement some “Safemode” in the (hope) near future, to get all the erotic images hidden forpeople who are not interested.
Last but not least thanks a lot for recommending visualizeus in yourtop webapps. I see your link and I was thinking about sending you anemail, but seems you take advantage As you probably know this is aone-person project, developed on my side time, so you can imagine how Iappreciate things like your post.
Thanks again, and sorry about the p__n issue (Edublogs blocks this word). I’ll try to keep a fastesteye on it
Cheers,Victor
alex Says: January 10th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Larry-
Thorough and well thought out resource list for 2007!
Do check out http://www.ziizoo.com when you get the chance.
Think eBay, but for tutoring.
links for 2008-01-11 « il piede in due scarpe Says: January 11th, 2008 at 12:27 am
[…] Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites Of The Day For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL » Blog Archive » The Best … (tags: Blog Education web2.0) […]