Old and new tools and failing resolutions

Categories: Geography General, Other, Advanced Higher
Up early today, lots to do after two weeks of extreme work avoidance (which was nice...). I'm going to post subject specific materials later, perhaps using some of the great new web applications that I've found over the last few weeks. Some discoveries towards the end of last year have me wanting to go back and explore them further. With s1, s2 and s5, I tried voicethread. I really wanted to use this as a different medium of student input. Here's my example from s1 (11-12 year olds). I didn't really specify any rules, I simply asked pupils what they wanted to find out about Brazil. Some got nervous when faced with a mic, but some really good questions and lots that I could answer without significantly altering the resources we use already.

I liked Mr Alexander's use of this too for revision, and this might be something to consider for later in the year. I also started using posterous towards the end of last year, although we had problems with creating a group blog. This might be OK now after they launched easier group blogging options.
Things that I'd like to try this year include edmodo. I signed up for this hoping that it would help better organise myself and some groups. As a teacher, I can share notes, links, files, alerts and assignments without needing students to register e-mails. Every student will have their own 'locker' where they can store items that are relevant to them. I also liked the look of backboard, which would be great for peer assessment, although I may ask if a colleague would be willing to try this out (overload!). In terms of classroom resources, I thought that screen toaster looked excellent. You can record anything on your screen and share either by embedding or creating a link. You can also, if you wish, provide commentary or notes. I'm going to do this later for a Google Earth tour, great for rooms which don't have access to GE. Finally, for my use, QuizzEgg looks great, good for alternative graded homework exercises.
For Advanced Higher students use, these might be handy. Iterasi allows you to save a web page in the form that you read it. This would have solved a problem one pupil has already had- a disppearing web source! When you are making your bibliography, perhaps you could use this to help you, and also, check that you haven't been ripping off your sources through the plagiarism checker!
One of my resolutions was to spend less time online, so looks like I'm failing with that one already! Can't help but think this would be helped if we had access to GLOW...Many thanks to cliotech, who many of the links have been sourced from. A really excellent blog!