In the ed tech universe, many of us have been awaiting this year's K12 Online Conference: Amplifying Possibilities.

This is a conference by educators for educators around the world interested in integrating emerging technologies into classroom practice. A goal of the conference is to help educators make sense of and meet the needs of a continually changing learning landscape.

This free virtual annual professional development event spans the next three weeks.  Presentations appear in the form of streamable or downloadable audio or video clips, with each workshop lasting about 20 minutes. Presentations are archived so th...Read More

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Permit me a post that may have little pedagogical value.  (You might file this one with my post on my other guilty pleasure, Mygazines.)

I find myself unable to stick to the kind of schedule that allows me to watch my favorite television shows when they air.  I never got around to buying TiVo.  Most nights I just fall asleep over the laptop or on the couch.

So discovering Hulu.com, a free alternative, was major for me! 

Hulu allows me to catch up on those shows I cannot f...Read More

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My students' research projects and their after-school clubs are trending decidedly green. 

Because I am always looking to feed them cool sources and new ideas for activities, I was delighted to discover Green Wikia. 

Launched in March, the wiki currently offers 714 articles organized under such categories as:

• Sustainable living
• Environmental issues

...Read More

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I discovered the Baldwin Online Children's Literature Project, through LIS News this morning.

Named in honor of James Baldwin (1841-1925), and officially called, ...Read More

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Back in 1978, Susie Orbach redefined fat as a feminist issue.  That definition helped many of us better understand the politics of weight and gender.  

We need to see another truth: 2.0 is an intellectual freedom issue.

Intellectual freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction.  It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored.
Intellectual Freedom and Censorship Q & A

As I travel from one state conference to the next, I am discovering that the r...Read More

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My fabulous student teacher Kate and I returned from our state database training pondering how we might better promote the amazing resources of the ACCESS PA POWER Library.  We also happened to be exploring the capabilities of GoAnimate, the souped up cartoon generator.  We dragged our ever-willing building sub (another Kate) in on the fun.  And voila!

I think both Kates did a fine job and we're planning more commercials using this and other tools.  We can send the links around in email, embed the video as a widget in our wikis and blogs.  

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I've been playing around with and blogging about Wordle, the online tag cloud generator, for quite a while now.

Last night, I discovered Lucy and Ethel's Library Schemes' wonderful suggestion about using this tool to create Dewey signs.

Using the OCLC Dewey Summaries, with a bit of editing (for instance, eliminating unassigned and...Read More

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No late charges in the public domain!

That's the way PublicResource (a nonprofit devoted to making government information more accessible) promotes its FedFlix project, a Joint Venture between the National Technical Information Service.

...Read More

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Julie Lindsay shared this site this morning on Twitter.  It's a greener compromise for the many of us who work in labs with learners who love to print. It allows the print happy to remove ads and other content from websites and it allows us to save a little on ink and paper.

Now in Beta,  PrintWhatYouLike generates print-friendly pages, eliminating the need to copy content into a word processor.

The site explains the app's features:

• Edit any public page in your browser

...Read More

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I love it when seemingly disconnected ideas converge.  When this happens, I walk away with new clarity and new purpose.

A casual conversation in the airport this week sparked my latest convergence of ideas about boxes.

Here's what happened:

I discovered a new and very different place to get a bite in Philly International--a little wine and snack spot that served both food and flights (three tastes of somehow connected wines).  This was a real change from the food court between B and C Terminals.

The host seated me next to another woman who appeared as engaged with her laptop as I was about to be.  She broke the ice.  We began to chat.

Before long, we b...Read More

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It's 1:30. 

I have spent much of this day in database training. 

I am training in databases I have known and loved for nearly 15 years.  I have another hour and a half to go. 

I don't know why I am here looking at screen shots of sources I use every day of my life.  I suspect the majority of this very polite audience is also very familiar with these databases. 

I reached the peak of my anger when the presenter said: "Click on the printer icon if you'd like to print."

There's got to be a better way.  A handout of new features?  Examples of effective practice with these tools? New learning and integration ideas? Highlights of j...Read More

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How cool is this?  If you wait a minute, you'll see that you can now read Alice in Wonderland directly on my little blog. 

I've been playing around with creating a collection of fulltext classics on our Virtual Library for a little while now.

Today I discovered, we can embed books--available fulltext or previews--from Google Books on our wikis, blogs, instructional Web pages, virtual libraries, and online catalogs.

Instructions were des...Read More

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