Do your holiday plans include air travel? If so, you might be able to take advantage of free WiFi!

Google has partnered with 47 airports around the country to offer complimentary wireless internet access between November 10, 2009 and January 15, 2010. This gift from Google is available in the public areas within the airport, no matter which airline or terminal. Google has also partnered with Virgin Airlines to offer access on their flights during this time period.

Here’s a list of participating airports:

This from eSchool News:

“NASA Images” is a service of the Internet Archive, a nonprofit digital library. It was created under a Space Act agreement to offer unprecedented access to NASA media (including images, video, and audio), functioning as a free online library for all of NASA’s multimedia content. Users can search for material by keyword or theme (such as Earth, Astronauts, Solar System, or Universe), or they can browse through several featured collections. The site is constantly growing with the addition of current media from NASA, as well as newly digitized media from the archives of the NASA Centers.
Go to http://www.nasaimages.org to see for yourself!

Here’s a slideshare presentation from Jane Hart, CIPD Conference April 23, 2009.

How To Make E Learning Work

View more presentations from Jane Hart.

Wow! My bags are unpacked and I managed a long nap Sunday afternoon, but my head is still swirling with all of the new ideas that I picked up from the conference. From the pre-conference workshops on Wednesday to the closing Keynote with Tim Magner on Friday, it was a fantastic experience. We had the highest attendance in seven years!

If you were unable to attend, go to the MACUL Space at http://maculspace.ning.com. Ben Rimes has created a Launchpad for users with links to the Conference Blog, Session Discussions, Workshop Discussions, Guerilla Discussions, Conference Attendee Information, and the Conference Schedule.

Even if you were able to attend, I’m certain you’ll find the links above very useful…and this is a great way to continue the conversation and learning from the conference!

Attention all teachers, librarians, parents, and people passionate about literacy!!!

Five bloggers, all members of an online community which promotes children’s books and reading, have come up with a great idea for a project they’re calling “Share a Story – Shape a Future.” Here’s the description of it from The Book Whisperer’s (aka Donalyn Miller) Blog:

“This is an ensemble effort not only to celebrate reading among those of us who already love books, but to encourage each other to reach beyond ourselves and do it in a way that we are neither judging nor instructing others. This is a venue for communicating practical, useable, everyday ideas.”

The event begins March 9, 2009 and lasts one week. Each day they will have a group of bloggers sharing ideas around a specific theme. There are a number of book giveaways and free downloads that will be announced by the various hosts as they get closer to the kickoff. Here is the tour schedule.

Day 1: Raising Readers

hosted by Terry Doherty at Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, the Reading Tub blog

Finding Time at Home – Tricia Stohr-Hunt @ The Miss Rumphius Effect

Making Time in the Classroom – Sarah Mulhern @ The Reading Zone

Helping a Reader in Need (remedial readers) – Sandra Stiles guest post on Scrub-a-Dub-Tub

It’s Bigger than the Book: Building Strong Readers at any Age with a Daily Dose of Read Aloud – Cathy Miller interview on the Share a Story – Shape a Future blog

Keeping Gifted Readers Engaged – Donalyn Miller @ The Book Whisperer

Day 2: Selecting Reading Material

hosted by Sarah Mulhern at The Reading Zone

The ABCs of Reading: Infants, Toddlers & Preschoolers – Valerie Baartz on The Almost Librarian

How to Help Emerging Readers – Anastasia Suen @ Easy to Read blog

Helping Middle Grade Readers – Sarah Mulhern @ The Reading Zone

Booklists and Read Alikes – Sarah Mulhern @ The Reading Zone

Using Non-fiction – Mary Lee Hahn of A Year of Reading, hosted by the Stenhouse blog

Day 3: Reading Aloud – It’s Fun, It’s Easy

hosted by Susan Stephenson at the Book Chook blog

Ten Terrific Tips from Read-aloud Queen, Mem Fox – on the Book Chook blog

Conquering Stage Fright – Interview with Sarah Mulhern/The Reading Zone @ the Book Chook

Reading Aloud With Kids: A Dad’s Perspective – hosted by Steven and Brian at Book Dads: Fathers that Read

Using Technology for Read Alouds – Sarah Mulhern @ The Reading Zone

What to Do When the Reading is Done – Aimee Buckner, hosted by the Stenhouse blog

Reading Aloud with Independent Readers – Donalyn Miller @ The Book Whisperer

Day 4: A Visit to the Library

hosted by Eva Mitnick at Eva’s Book Addiction blog

From Cozy to Cool – Library Spaces for Everyone – Eva @ Eva’s Book Addiction

Lions and Marble and Books, Oh My – Betsy Bird at A Fuse #8 Production

How to Make the Library Work for YOU – an interview with Adrienne of What Adrienne Thinks About That conducted by Jules at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

The World Beyond the Library’s Walls – Melissa @ Librarian by Day

Day 5: Technology and Reading – What the Future Holds

hosted by Elizabeth O. Dulemba at Dulemba.com

Audiobooks with Bruce Coville of Full Cast Audio and Mary Burkey of Audiobooker

E-books with Harold Underdown of The Purple Crayon and Sheila Ruth of Hornbook

Podcasts with Andrea Ross of Just One More Book! and Cheryl Rainfield of cherylrainfield.com

A resource of links to audiobooks, e-books, podcasts and webcasts @ Dulemba.com.

Through Share a Story – Shape a Future they hope to build a community of readers, by sharing ideas and encouraging each other. When the event opens on Monday, March 9, 2009, there will be plenty of opportunities for you to join them and share your ideas.

NASA’s Image of the Day site has been in my bookmark lists for as long as I remember. There are incredible shots that are available for use in the classroom and I make a point to share this resource when I teach “Using Digital Images”.

Last week when I was teaching a group of teachers about social bookmarking and shared my delicious account with them, one of them found the NASA link. The image of the day was this amazing shot taken from above Washington DC on Inauguration Day.

Most of us saw the sea of people on TV – or in person if you were lucky enough to be there – but few of us probably had the opportunity to truly understand the magnitude that this photo offers.

I had to downsize it considerably to fit into this post. Find this image and more at the NASA site.

ISTE has made some changes to its December webinar offerings, including the addition of a new session by Hall Davidson. Here are the new dates and topics:

• Wednesday, December 3 – Dr. Z’s Creative Cookbook for Collaborative Communication (Dr. Leigh Zeitz)

Join Dr. Z as he takes you on a tasty tour of on-line gadgets and gizmos to spice-up your learning and working environments through collaboration. We will explore the Web 2.0 tools that can be used to make your online world of learning and work more creative and productive. The collaborative tools of Google Docs, Forms and Presenter will be used to share and access information as well as provide an interactive chat forum for audience members during the presentation. Our menu will also include a variety of exotic-sounding entrees including Skype, Ning, Jing, and Twitter. This culinary cruise is designed to whet your appetite for new opportunities and stimulate your imagination about what is possible in today’s Web 2.0 kitchen.

• Thursday, December 4 – Copyright – From Nuts and Bolts to Web 2.0 (Hall Davidson)

The amount of intellectual property on the Web has exploded but the rules have remained the same since the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1998) and the TEACH Act (2002). In this Webinar we will discuss the underlying fundamentals of Fair Use, copyright policy, and the classroom, and their application to digital content and the manipulation of tools in a Web 2.0 world. We’ll cover tips on copyright-safe searching (unavailable until recently), implications for content creation, and an exploration of what this means to wired classrooms. Classroom practitioners have both responsibilities and freedoms they are generally not aware of. Learn how these apply to the digital classroom. Also, hear the latest in copyright pro-active advocacy in the educational media from policy announcements on November 11, 2008. The webinar is hosted by Hall Davidson, whose published copyright guidelines hang on many classroom walls. Guests will include policy advocates and intellectual property experts.

• Tuesday, December 9 – Digital Citizenship for Parents (Mike Ribble)

How can parents keep up with all the new and ever-changing technologies that children take for granted? Parents often feel overwhelmed with the challenges and risks of this digital culture in children’s lives. They want their children to take advantage of all technology has to offer, however they also want them to stay safe and act responsibly. This webinar is an overview of the new and popular technologies that includes a discussion on how to help children become good digital citizens. This webinar is important for anyone with children at home or wants to understand more about the issues that are affecting them today.

• Tuesday, December 16 – From Toy to Tech Tool: Cell Phones in Learning (Liz Kolb)

How can parents keep up with all the new and ever-changing technologies that children take for granted? Parents often feel overwhelmed with the challenges and risks of this digital culture in children’s lives. They want their children to take advantage of all technology has to offer, however they also want them to stay safe and act responsibly. This webinar is an overview of the new and popular technologies that includes a discussion on how to help children become good digital citizens. This webinar is important for anyone with children at home or wants to understand more about the issues that are affecting them today.

All webinars are at 4:00 p.m. at Muskegon ISD and are free to all educators. You must register however on the ISD web site. Go to http://www.muskegonisd.org/development.

For more information about the ISTE webinars, click here.

Hi! Diane asked me to share a bit about the Constructivist Consortium, so here goes!

Back in 2007, Gary (Stager) came up to David and I at an educational technology conference lamenting the lack of exciting, engaging, and constructivist tools. After thanking us for doing good things we kids, we started talking about getting together with a small group of publishers to support each other and promote open-ended, creative, student-centered work with technology. He talked the Peter (Reynolds) at Fablevision and a few other vendors, and the Constructivist Consortium was started.

Members of the Consortium include Tech4Learning, Generation YES, LCSI, SchoolKit, Inspiration, and Fablevision. We have been working as a team to raise awareness about constructivist uses of technology and have sponsored events like the Constructivist Celebration and Constructing Modern Knowledge to foster this type of learning environment.

Constructivist Consortium companies believe:

• the learner should be at the center of the educational process
• students need to be empowered to succeed
• computers and technology provide new ways for children to learn
• educational technology should be creative, open-ended, and flexible
• students must be given opportunities to collaborate, communicate, create, and publish

To get a feel for the learning environment the Consortium is trying to foster, I encourage you to join us at a Constructivist Celebration. We will once again have a Celebration the Sunday before NECC in Washington DC. Last year, the event sold out in less than 35 hours, so be sure to get on the mailing list, so that you are one of the first to hear about the event and register! The cost is usually minimal and you get lots of free software that more than makes up for your registration cost.

You can find out more about the Constructivist Consortium at our website: www.constructivistconsortium.org

To sign up for our mailing list, visit:
http://constructivistconsortium.org/signup

Have a great week! Lindie
 

Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit the Student Technology Showcase at the Michigan State Capitol Building in Lansing. First of all, the building is beautiful – I love it. Every time I visit I just stare up at the inside of the dome. Here’s a shot for you…

The students’ projects were just as awe-inspiring as the building. All grade levels were represented and the students were quite proud to show the adults what they were doing with technology in their classrooms. This is a great way for MI legislators to see just how schools are integrating technology. Then, when educators ask the state for technology funding, legislators have concrete, visual examples of what can be done. Some of the students were even invited up on the floor of the House for a quick photo shoot.

One of the teams was from our area – Drew Morris brought students from Reeths-Puffer Intermediate School. They showed everyone how they created underwater robots.