Lots o’ Links from the Inbox

We finished RCWP’s version of Tech Matters today, and I will write about that in a future post. But, for tonight, I am cleaning out my inbox and I have a number of links to share that were sent to me over the summer. So, in no particular order or thematic fashion, here are some things that people have taken time to share with me this summer, and I share them here with you.

Troy Morris from wetpaint shared a story about Kathy Cassidy, a primary educator in a little town called Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan Canada. She’s teaching her students by integrating all sorts of Web 2.0 tools into her teaching. Your readers may be interested in her story, and hopefully will be inspired to re-think how technology and classrooms can join forces.

  • Her latest experiment is connecting the students with other students from across the world to collaborate on math skills using a wiki on our Wetpaint network (which is how I found out about it).
  • Her classroom in a small Canadian town is learning with some help from classrooms in New Hampshire, Colorado, Australia and New Zealand.
  • The teachers of each classroom, separated by thousands of miles, collaborate in primary math education using an internet tool called a “wiki.” I know you folks have written about wikis before, but in case some don’t know what a wiki is, wikis are web-pages which thrive on community involvement and can be edited by anyone, as easily as writing an email. The Primary Math wiki uses the popular wiki platform, Wetpaint (it’s easy and ad-free for educators).
  • Cassidy’s class has begun to consider the students they collaborate with on the wiki to be an extension of their local friends. They recently checked a book out of the library which the children in Mrs. Marrinan’s Australia classroom had recommended.
  • “The kids feel a real kinship to each other,” says Cassidy, “Learning is collaborative. We cannot just sit inside our classrooms and teach the way we always have. The world is connected now, and we must be connected too.”
  • Their website is: primarymath.wetpaint.com

Maurice Sikkink from Intodit shared the following:

  • I’d like to let you know about a free Wiki group service called Intodit that is being used by some people in the educational field to support their online learning and teaching activities. I would be very happy if you could review Intodit as an educational tool in a short blog post. For an example how the service is being used click here.
  • To give you an idea, Intodit is a free service where people can create groups for their interests the Wiki way. Users can share their interests by building pages or starting discussions for their Wiki groups.
  • We wanted to create something that people could use to share their interests in a flexible way. The Wiki system was a starting point for this but it had to be really user friendly while still allowing people to fill in the blanks. The drag & drop system makes it possible to add text content, photos and widgets such as movies in a user friendly way.
  • I’d be happy to answer more questions about Intodit if needed.

Kelly Sonora from SmartTeaching.org shared the following:

Barbara Schreiber from The Britannica Blog shared the following:

Finally, Sameer Bhatia of ProProfs shared the following:

  • According to the NPD Group, over 62% of American adults and 34% of children are overweight. Today, ProProfs is launching its free online Quiz School that can’t be used to exercise the body but, it is capable of giving the mind a healthy work out. Quiz School uses a YouTube style interface to make quizzes fun, social & easy for your classroom, business or blog. Key features of the new ProProfs Quiz School include:
  • Creating a quiz on anything (use in school, home, blog and business)
  • YouTube style sharing & embedding of quizzes on any blog, website, e-learning system, and social networks
  • Yahoo Flickr integration for a limitless image library for quizzes
  • Quiz statistics that include reports, trends & Google maps
  • Customization controls for color themes, question types, grading & more
  • The ProProfs Quiz School remains free of cost for anyone seeking a powerful quiz creation tool for their classroom, company, blog or friends.
  • Try the Quiz School
  • Demo, FAQ, Screenshots and Press Release
  • Featured Quizzes

Thanks to all of you who sent these links and I apologize for not getting some of them out earlier in the summer.