Fun & Exciting Stuff

I have found using Rollyo to be a great way to search within a specific set of pages. It takes a few minutes to set up a searchroll, as it is called. Here is how it works: You first need to tell it which websites to search. You type in all the addresses etc. and depending on how wide of a search you have, it might take a while to set those up. Once that is set though, you are basically good to go.

The other way to use this site is to find a searchroll that fits what you are looking for that someone else created already. You can also edit these searchrolls and add sites you like or remove sites you don’t.

Is this the future of search? I think search will get more intuitive, but this is one way that the internets is changing.

I am on the fence about Wikipedia. I am not crazy about my students using it as a resource to find info. But it usually has all of the information right there at their reading level or a little above them in a pretty good summary. It almost forces them to click through the links to understand a word or phrase if they don’t get it.

And don’t even get me started on Uncyclopedia.

I am always looking for “low-tech/low-cost” (i.e. you don’t need to purchase a server farm to do it in the classroom) uses for technology. Here is one that I am working on: The text does not have the greatest selection of images for any subject or it would be thousands of pages long. In searching for images of the Hagia Sophia for a Global 9 lesson, I kept coming back to Wikipedia. Here are the ones from the Hagia Sophia. The kids were really interested in it and it provided them with an alternative from the text.

As I go through the year, I am saving all these bookmarks to a folder to use in the future.
I am interested to hear what others think about classroom use for Wikipedia

I had a real hard time coming up with a title for this blog. I am not the most creative person. Finally I settled on my response to the question teachers love to hear as they are trying to start the day. To get the full effect make sure you read this very nasally/whiny: “What are we going to do today?” Teachers hate to hear it and I don’t think that most kids realize that some teachers take that as an insult.

I am writing this blog because, as I say in the “About Me” section of the front page, I think there are other ways to communicate with my students. I am interested in using technology to open up new avenues in my teaching. I want to work collaboratively with my peers from the next classroom and around the world. I am open to new ideas and uses for technology. Please feel free to share or email them to me.

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