Happy Blog-iversary to Angela Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - August 31, 2009June 30, 20101 If you haven't visited Angela Maiers' blog before, you're missing out. Her blog turned two years old today. She has been blogging for almost as long as I have, and was one of the early commenters on my site who really inspired me to continue pressing on. One of the things I most respect about Angela is her obvious patience with children and her desire for them to be educated as well as they possibly can be. Thanks for everything you are doing for 21st Century Educators, Angela!
20 Free Online Tools, Apps, and Downloads Blogging & Technology by Karen Schweitzer - August 4, 2009June 30, 20102 This is a guest post from Karen Schweitzer who writes for OnlineCourses.org. The Internet has tons of online tools, apps, and downloads with the tech-friendly teacher in mind. This list offers 20 free sites that would be genuinely useful to educators throughout the school year: ThinkFold - ThinkFold is a structured environment for groups to collaborate on documents, presentations, ideas, and plans. This free app is perfect for students and teachers who want to brainstorm, interact together on an outline, and make changes in real-time. Mindomo - This site provides a versatile mind mapping tool that can be used to organize and store research. Educators can share their maps online or embed them into an existing webpage. SchoolTool -
SYWTT Voicemail Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - July 19, 2009June 30, 20102 I recently got my Google Voice invitation and decided to set it up. In playing around with the settings this afternoon, I realized that I could set up a widget to connect my readers directly to my voicemail. I don't know how many people are interested in connecting to me this way, but I thought it might be a nice way to provide some opportunities for increased communication. Who knows, this may open up a way for me to get some questions from readers. If the response is positive, I might even post the phone number so maybe some of you could share the number with friends who don't do the whole blogging thing, but have questions about teaching problems.
25 Free Apps And Websites For Tech-Loving Teachers Blogging & Technology by Karen Schweitzer - July 8, 2009July 10, 20164 This article was originally written in 2009. Some of the sites are no longer active, and there are undoubtedly newer and better sites and apps for tech-loving teachers now. Feel free to add them in the comments section. Whether you're looking for ways to incorporate technology into the classroom or into your daily life, the Internet has the tools you need. There are lots of free web apps and websites designed specifically for tech-loving teachers on a tight budget: VerbaLearn - VerbaLearn is a comprehensive vocabulary building site that uses audio, video, flashcards, and games. It is a great place for teachers to help students improve English vocabulary at home or school. Writewith - This free web app makes writing online
How To Use Twitter In The Classroom [VIDEO] Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - June 18, 2009June 30, 20100 I recently came across a video on TwiTip about Monica Rankin, a professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, who was using Twitter in one of her classes this semester. The video is below. I emailed Dr. Rankin to see if I could get some thoughts on the experiment following the completion of the semester. She told me that she is in the middle of several research projects presently, but she did send me to a page on her website that summarizes the experiment. The site also includes some other links of interest at the bottom. If you're interested in learning more, check out Some general comments on the "Twitter Experiment."
20 Great Websites for Teachers Blogging & Technology by Karen Schweitzer - June 14, 2009June 30, 201010 This is a guest post by Karen Schweitzer who writes about online colleges for OnlineCollege.org. Teachers who are interested in implementing technology in the classroom and in their own personal lives can find plenty of free resources online. Here are 20 websites worth visiting today: Shmoop - Shmoop is a great new site that is becoming very popular among teachers. The beta site dedicates itself to making reading and writing more fun for both students and teachers. ClassMarker - Teachers can create professional looking online quizzes on this website. The quizzes can be taken and graded online. LectureTools.org - This site can be used to create student-friendly slide presentations and lectures. Other interesting features include the ability to check
20 WordPress 2.7 Plugins You Can’t Live Without Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - June 6, 2009June 30, 20105 I have gotten questions from time to time about what plugins I use on my blog. I've posted some plugin lists in the past, but sometimes plugins are no longer supported by their author or else the functionality is duplicated in later WordPress versions. So here are 20 WordPress 2.7 Plugins You Can't Live Without. Advanced Excerpt Excerpts allow more articles to show up on the home page, while still not allowing too many links (Search Engines don't like more than 100 links on a page) or too much clutter. Advanced Excerpt lets me customize how many words or characters appear before the cut as well as letting me choose which HTML elements to strip from the code entirely.
30 Twitter Tips for Teachers Blogging & Technology by Karen Schweitzer - May 26, 2009August 4, 20163 There's no question that Twitter is a wonderful resource for building your personal learning network. If you've never used Twitter before, have no fear. Karen Schweitzer is here to get you up and running in no time with 30 Twitter Tips for Teachers 30 Twitter Tips for Teachers Twitter can be a great resource–if you know how to use it. Here are 30 tips for teachers who want to learn how to use Twitter to network, teach, and share information: Determine your purpose Before spending any amount of time on Twitter, you should decide what you want to get out of it. Do you want to meet people who share your interests? Do you want to promote something? Do you want to update
Video: Texting While Driving A School Bus? Are You Serious? Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - May 9, 2009June 30, 20102 Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy I gotta come clean. I've texted while driving. Quite a bit. I saw this video this morning thanks to DetentionSlip.org. I've Facebooked while driving. I've looked up maps while driving. I've Twittered while driving. I've just flat out used my iPhone for almost everything it can possibly do while driving. I don't think I'm gonna do that any more. Next time I do, I'll watch this video and remind myself of how dumb of an idea it is.
No Rights Reserved Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - April 26, 2009June 30, 20109 This blog is about sharing ideas. The ideas and conversation are far more important than me personally. For that reason, you are hereby free to take any articles or comments that I (Joel) personally have produced for So You Want To Teach?and use them in whatever way you so desire! Call it Open Source Blogging, call it Uncopyright, call it Public Domain. I call it No Rights Reserved. Absolutely. Unequivocally. If you want to take an entire article, or even a series of articles, and publish them in a book, magazine, newsletter, newspaper, ebook, or whatever else (edited or unedited), go for it. Let the information flow! What if I want to sell ? Feel free to find one of my witty quotes
Should All Great Blogs Have A Comments Policy? Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - April 26, 2009June 30, 201023 Recently, Holly left a comment that brought out a few points. I wanted my readers to address her question, and so I posted that question. In the process of doing so, I realized that her comment (and a few others lately) raised a key question for me as to whether or not I should have a codified Comments Policy for So You Want To Teach? As I've been working my way through Darren's 31 Days to Build A Better Blog project, I've been analyzing a lot of things on my site. I've come to realize that there are a few things lacking on my blog that a lot of the great blogs I read out there have. With Holly's question
10 WordPress 2.7 Hacks That Make My Blog Totally Rock Out Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - April 20, 2009June 30, 20101 This post has absolutely nothing to do with teaching or education. It's totally about blogging. More specifically, WordPress. If you have not yet discovered the wonders of WordPress, I recommend checking it out sometime. With that disclaimer out of the way, I'll start out by listing the hacks that I have done, explaining why I did them, and then explaining how I went about adding them. Here goes: Added a featured article Put Featured & Latest images on home page only Thumbnails of all images in main and archive pages Moved most ads to search visitors only Added social media links to individual posts and searches Retweet button Reader submitted links page Added links to the footer and
Twitter Guide for Teachers Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - April 12, 2009June 30, 201014 Also be sure to check out the guest post 30 Twitter Tips for Teachers When I first read Mashable's article 10 Ways Twitter Will Change Blog Design in 2009, I was a bit reluctant to buy in. I mean, I had heard of Twitter before. I even got a Twitter account way back over a year ago. But I didn't really explore it much, and I didn't see the point. But as I read the post on Mashable and its comments, I began to see that Twitter was something I should begin to explore much more in-depth. I have come across a few resources about Twitter for teachers lately that I thought you might enjoy. Nine great reasons why
Carnival of Education #214: The Day To End All Days Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - April 8, 2009June 30, 201012 It all started innocently enough. As a band director, I have been to numerous rehearsals of orchestras, jazz bands, mariachis, bands, and even choirs. So when Mr. Teacher (of www.learnmegood.com) asked me if I wanted to join him for choir practice, I was excited. "Well, I was just watching these 100 Free Online Lectures that Will Make You A Better Teacher. But I have a few minutes to spare. Wait a minute, I didn't know you could sing!" I responded. "I doesn't," was the puzzling reply. Thus began the longest day of my life If I had simply pulled out my handy New Revised Teacher Dictionary, I would have known I was in for way more than I had bargained
20 Blogs I Wish Were Around When I Started Teaching Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - April 5, 2009June 30, 201040 When I first started out, I was living by myself far away from home. I didn't have any friends in the community outside of the school. And those were either other band directors or band parents. I didn't do anything to really try to keep in contact with college friends, I sort of had the Lone Ranger type approach. That was way back in 2002. My how things have changed! Now, education prep programs all over seem to be requiring students to read and comment on blogs as part of their education. With that being said, I have seen quite a rise in the number of educational blogs out there since I started blogging two years ago. I have seen