Thursday, May 13, 2010

The Semantic Web

There's chatter everywhere about the Semantic Web, or Web 3.0. I've been reading up, trying to understand what this means and how to explain it in layman's terms.

Today I found this video, which explains it better than I ever could. Enjoy!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Zooburst

I read about the new 'augumented reality' storybook site, Zooburst, visited it yesterday, and decided to apply for an 'alpha' account to try it out. Low and behold, they accepted my application already! So I gave it a go today. Here's my first attempt, sans the webcam. I'm having trouble with the webcam portion, but using some free clipart and trial-and-error, I managed to get a small book completed! Fun stuff - I can see my junior high i-team kids using Zooburst next fall to create some neat books for the kindergartners to enjoy!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Technology as the Trojan Horse

I'm previewing a book online today by Ralph Fletcher, Pyrotechnics on the Page. Wonderful book about writing and word play. This line just jumped off the page at me: "...fun is a Trojan horse for weightier educational terms like ownership, engagement, and flow. Fun matters." (p. 34).
Wow! That's exactly what the carefully thought out use of technology in the classroom is - the Trojan Horse that hooks us in, gets us thinking, engages us in learning.