At the DEN Institute we had a friendly competition one night called the “DENliest Catch” named after the Discovery show “The Deadliest Catch.” Ten of us signed up to share our favorite Web 2.0 resource in 5 minutes or less. The challenge for me was the 5 minutes or less part – I could have taken an hour.

Two of my colleagues shared resources for books online. Check them out!
The first site, Lookybook, has over 300 picture books currently with the collection growing rapidly. The site allows you to look at picture books in their entirety—from cover to cover. Classroom teachers with an internet connection and a projector in their classroom could use this site to have the students follow along as they read the book aloud. Actually there are many ways teachers with a projector and internet connection could use this site.

Visitors have the ability to search for books by author, illustrator, subject, or genre. It’s definitely worth “a look.”

The other site, Storyline Online, is an online streaming video site (translation – high speed internet connection required) that features members of the Screen Actors Guild reading popular children’s books aloud. Every book has accompanying activities and lesson plans. This site doesn’t have a large collection but it does include some of my favorite books read by some of my favorite actors.

Our friends Melinda Kolk and David Wagner from Tech4Learning have a great resource on their web site providing images for educators.

This site at htp://www.pics4learning.com allows users to search from a collection of thousands of images by key word, location, caption, or photographer. Users can also Browse by topic or look at the 100 Most Popular Images.

At the bottom of each image are instructions for downloading it and well as the citation that the user can copy and insert in their document with the picture.

And, if you have images you’d like to share, there are directions on the site to help you upload your images for others to use.

I subscribe to an electronic newsletter from MACUL called the “Big Deal Book of Technology” and in the April 1, 2008 edition I noticed that Atomic Learning has created free video training sessions for Google Docs.  It will only be free through May, so don’t hesitate to check it out.  This quote is taken directly from the newsletter:
 
“Atomic Learning recently announced a free tutorial series on Google Docs, the free Web-based word-processing program that allows users to keep documents up to date and allows selected individuals to update files from their personal computers. The Atomic Learning series, titled “Google Docs—A Focus on Docs,” includes more that 60 short, show-and-tell movies that guide users through the creation, implementation and use of Google Docs. Topics include working with documents, organizing files, document options, sharing and publishing, working with collaboration, and utilizing the edit, insert and revision tab options. The series is being offered, free of charge, through May 1, 2008.”

View the Videos Here!

In order to embed the video you have created into a Power Point presentation, you first need to convert it to a .wmv file. All movies need to be in that format to play well with Power Point.I have created a video tutorial to show how to do that with a program I talked about earlier, VideoLAN.
Assuming you have downloaded that program, click the tutorial link below, there is also a .pdf file of the steps needed to convert a file using VideoLAN.

Video Tutorial

Converting Flash Document

When that step is complete, you can simply go to the page in Power Point you want to embed the video and follow these steps.1. Select “Insert” then “Movies and Sounds” then “Movie From File”
2. Browse to the file you want to embed and select “OK”
3. it will ask if you want it to play automatically or when clicked, I suggest “When Clicked”.
4. Test your slide to make sure everything works!

While every classroom may have different types of technology equipment, the common thread is how to organize the resources you have. Check out the Managing Classroom Technology Resources web site.

The “Hardware” section provides tips for connecting as well as caring for hardware. The “Management” section gives ideas for placement, signage, requesting assistance and more. The “Grouping” category focuses on using technology with whole group, small groups, and partners. The last three sections are geared primarily for teachers in the district hosting the site (Kent School District in Washington state), but you may find a nugget that triggers your creative juices.

Here are some links to MACUL related sites, etc.

MACUL’s main web site – http://www.macul.org

MACUL blog – http://macul.edublogs.org

MACUL Space (a ning site) – http://maculspace.ning.com

MACUL 2008 Conference photos – http://www.flickr.com, search for macul2008

also see reactions to the MACUL 2008 conference at http://technorati.com/blogs/macul.edublogs.org?reactions