They work by users marking their posts with the appropriate hashtag so the other users can easily follow what’s happening. Twitterers talking about things in the realm of education/technology will often use the #edtech tag. The neat part is that someone doesn’t even need to have an account to follow the action. Try it here http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23edtech. Currently there is a lot of noise regarding people joining certain groups such as the ed tech twitter group, and registering at wefollow, but if you sort through it you can find some good resources, tips, etc…

Thinking of joining twitter? You won’t be alone. You can start by getting an account and adding @teachertechblog. Then you can visit wefollow.com and add some of the top ranks for the #edtech group. By then you should be well on your way to a timeline full of… stuff… hopefully good resources and the like.

When trying to raise money to add technology to a classroom, many teachers will turn to writing lengthy grants or begging. I won’t knock either strategy, but eInstruction is giving classes a chance at a remarkable technology makeover in a way that won’t just get the students involved, but will be a blast in the process. What are they wanting? A music video. So not only will your students get to be the rockstars that they are, but their classrooms could walk away technology package whose value might have Timbaland jealous. This leaves only two questions. What do you need to do, and what could you win?

Here is what you do

Make a music video based on the theme of how you use(or could use) technology in the classroom.

The video will be judged on the following criteria: demonstration of effective use of technology, collaboration between teachers and students and the overall creativity and spirit. The video must be submitted by a teacher.

‘eInstruction’ must be mentioned once within the lyrics of the song and the video must direct viewers to www.eimakeover.com to vote. The video should be no longer than two and a half minutes in length.

A panel of judges will select five finalists in each category, and the videos will be posted on the contest website where the public can vote for their favorite.

The contest is open to all primary and secondary teachers and students in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and Australia. The contest is not limited to users of eInstruction or Interwrite Learning products.

Video submissions for the contest will begin at 12:00 PM EDT (16:00 GMT) on September 15, 2008 via the official contest website: www.eimakeover.com. The contest closes at 11:59 PM EDT (15:59 GMT) on October 24, 2008. Finalists will be announced on October 31, 2008 and winners will be announced on December 3, 2008.

Here’s what you could win

* Next Generation Interwrite® Board
* Next Generation Interwrite® Pad
* Workspace- ExamView® Edition
* CPS RF 32 Unit Student Response System
* ExamView® Assessment Suite
* ExamView® Learning Series
* Dell™ Latitude™ E5400 Laptop
* Planet Earth Series DVD Set by Discovery Education
* Study Island Subscription
* Inspiration® and InspireData™ Licenses*-
* Server – Provided by Safari Montage®
* netTrekker d.i. License
* Control System from Calypso Controls
* AVerVision CP300 Document Camera by AVerMedia®
* One Day of Professional Development from Brewer Technology and Learning
* Free Installation from BMC
* Other prizes will include an LCD projector, sound system and $1,000 (USD) for other classroom technology. Plus, a party for the entire school.

All of this is valued at right around 25,000 dollars.

The contest will name one winner from the following three grade level: Kindergarten through fifth; sixth through eighth; and ninth through 12. In addition, all participants who submit a video will receive a free copy of Workspace- ExamView Edition LE, and the 15 finalists will also receive a software package including our ExamView Assessment Suite, PuzzleView and Quiz Show, allowing winners to present content in a puzzle or game show format.

For rules and guidelines for participating in eInstruction’s Interactive Classroom Makeover Video Contest, visit www.eimakeover.com. For more information on eInstruction’s interactive learning solutions, please visit http://www.einstruction.com.

Let me give you a brief walk through.

I signed up for twitter, and now I have an empty page with a little box at the top that says “what are you doing?”. So I tell it something like “writing a blog post about twitter in education”. When people visit twitter.com/teachertechblog they will see that update. It is almost like a blog, except it goes way beyond that. With blogs, people have go to your website to find out the latest news.  With twitter, anyone that signs up and chooses to follow your posts will automatically get your update. Granted, any blog with RSS will update people in a similar fashion. But Twitter sends out these updates not only to web pages, but also to mobile phones via sms, Instant Messenger clients, and a whole bit list of web applications.

So lets say several people add my feed and see my post that says I am writing about twitter and wanting feedback. They get it on their phones, emails, etc… They have a choice of just smiling at the fact that they are staying or informed, or reply back with real-time feedback.

Someone else might want to use it for more of a social purpose to keep people updated with their lives. They might post something like “going to see Iron Man tonight at eight”. Their friends might ask to join, or ask how it was. The possibilities are endless.

If you would like to get started with twitter, you can sign up and add teachertechblog by going to twitter.com/teachertechblog and hitting the follow button. You’ll be in on the latest works in progress, and your feedback might get featured on the next article.

SlideShare, put simply, is the Youtube of slide presentations. Users of all sorts go there to post their slides from their presentations, and the amount or variety in the topics play in favor to almost any educator. For example, searching for all presentations tagged with education will bring up around 13,000 results. Most of which are accurately on topic. Algebra brings back almost 500, and American History brings back around 19,000. Granted, not every presentation will be exactly what you were wanting, For example with American History you get everything from American Indians to the History of Blue Jeans, but with some creative searches you are undoubtedly able to find something of what you are looking for and often with an interesting perspective.

But why be a borrower and never the lender when posting your slides could be so useful? Not only will you help other teachers by adding to the resources, you also make a great place for your students to catch up on missed work or extra credit. The possibilities of sharing presentation resources across schools and districts is another great reason to dig into this resource.

Slideshare.net

Managing 600 young students would be a nightmare when it came time for reading 600 articles or even setting up that many accounts(especially if they don’t have email accounts). To offset this, Kate recommends creating a teacher blog and writing the articles yourself. Students would be required to do the responding. If done correctly there could be many possibilities for teachable moments.

• How to comment and discuss effectively
• How to participate in an online community in a safe environment
• Critical thinking about how your comments match the questions at hand
• How to respond civilly to criticism.

It’s a thought that a lot of the bad situations occurring on sites like Myspace arise from people not knowing how to safely and effectively work within an online community. Using this model and taking advantage of teachable moments like these would sure seem like a great way to nurture the idea of safe and effective online communication. Thanks Kate!
Thought or suggestions?