Blogs+and+Wikis


 * Social Media** toc

Why Social Media?
[| A Slideshare presentation.]

[|Best Embeds for Educational Wikis and Blogs:]Now that you and/or your students are using wikis and blogs, are you curious what could be added to them? From animated slideshows to collaborative documents to interactive review games, many great (and free) tools are available.

Wikis
A great youtube clip explaining the advantages and basics of a wiki. []

**Wikispaces For Teachers**

 * Sign up here for a FREE wiki, **
 * [|http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers] **

**Getting Tricky With Wikis!**

 * http://gettingtrickywithwikis.wikispaces.com/ **

Wiki Walk Through
Site developed by Teachers First, that covers the basics of a wiki. []

Educational Wikis
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/ http://wikisecrets.wikispaces.com/ Welcome to this presentation / workshop on the basics of using wikis within your classroom. Wikis can be used in so many ways to create powerful and dynamic learning environments. From the simplicity of a classroom notice board and resource center to hosting student work and global collaborative projects, wikis are the most powerful web 2.0 tool available to educators and students.
 * This site aims to answer one question: **How can I use wikis in education?

Where to Start with Wikis and Blogs
Jacqui Sharp runs this very comprehensive wiki about wikis getting started with wikis and blogs. Check it out!

50 Ways to Use Wikis.
[|50 Ways to Use Wikis] for a More Collaborative and Interactive Classroom. Wikis are an exceptionally useful tool for getting students more involved in curriculum. They’re often appealing and fun for students to use, while at the same time ideal for encouraging participation, collaboration, and interaction. Read on to see how you can put wikis to work in your classroom. [|Intodit - easy wiki]. Create a wiki for anything you like. Wiki While You Work: An Introduction to Wikis in Education Wikispaces has put together this Professional Development wiki for educators and educational technologists who are looking for tools that will help them demonstrate how to use wikis, and to show what a powerful tool wikis can be. Even if you’re not an educator, though, you could adapt some of the talking points and activities to your own needs.

Simple English Wikipedia
[|This is the front page of the Simple English Wikipedia.] Wikipedias are places where people work together to write encyclopedias in different languages. We use simple English words and grammar here. The Simple English Wikipedia is for everyone! That includes children and adults who are learning English. There are 62,207 articles on the Simple English Wikipedia. All of the pages are free to use. They have all been published under both the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0 and the GNU Free Documentation License. You can help here! You may change these pages and make new pages. Read the help pages and other good pages to learn how to write pages. If you need help, you may ask questions at Simple talk. [|How to embed Glogs on WikiSpaces] [|Wikispaces - New Glogster Widget.]

Why Blogging Matters
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The Case for Student Blogging
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Edublogs
Blog site set up for teachers and students that can allows for blogs to be run and monitored easily. [] [|What You Wanted to Know About Blogging]

Suzie Vesper's blog
[|http://sharetheaddiction.edublogs.org/]

Dorothy Burt's Blog (Pt England School)
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Alannah King's Blogs:
[] []

21Classes
[| Free Classroom and education blogs.] Great for teachers Ideal for students
 * Host and manage blogs for your students
 * Use a Class Homepage to communicate with students
 * Reviewing capabilities of entries
 * Advanced privacy
 * Fully featured blogs to upload text, photos, or insert videos
 * Fun learning experience
 * Customizable visibility and comment settings
 * No e-mail address required

KidBlog
[|Kidblog.org] is designed for elementary and middle school teachers who want to provide each student with their own, unique blog. Kidblog's simple, yet powerful tools allow students to publish posts and participate in discussions within a secure classroom blogging community. Teachers maintain complete control over student blogs. Set up your class with no student email addresses. Provide your students with an authentic, engaging, and interactive learning experience with Kidblog. [|How to use KidBlog to get your kids blogging in five minutes.]

Ideas For Classroom Blogs
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Blogging With Middle Schoolers.
[|Useful article on establishing blogging in your class.] media type="custom" key="6890735"

Recreational Writers
[|Thoughtful blog post from Luke Sumich, Summerland School.] media type="custom" key="6950133"

Other Social Media
[|Twiducate] This is a free social networking resource for schools, principals and teachers. Our goal is to provide social networking for you and your 21st century learning students. We respect student privacy and as such only you and your students can view your network and posts. Give your students the skills they need to survive in today's technological world! [|Edmodo] Edmodo is a social learning network for teachers, students and schools on the Web. Teachers and students worldwide use Edmodo every day to connect and collaborate in a secure, fun environment. Our free network offers a safe and easy way to post classroom materials, share helpful links and videos, and access homework, grades and school-wide notices.

Facebook
[|Teacher's Guide to Using Facebook] [|Every Teacher’s Must-Have Guide To Facebook] You can’t swing a stick in social media without hitting something on Facebook. Same goes for education. You can’t talk about how technology is revolutionising education without mentioning Facebook. It’s a simple service to figure out but what about once you become a regular user? If you’re a teacher, you would be well served by spending 3 minutes to read through this must-have guide. (We timed it out and it’s a bit under 3 minutes)

Twitter
[|The Ultimate Twitter Guidebook For Teachers] media type="youtube" key="-271Zvf3y_I" height="385" width="480" [|A Twitteraholic’s Guide to tweets, hashtags, and all things Twitter] For Twitter users conferences are like walking into a big party where you know everyone and are meeting up with old friends. So how do we use Twitter? Here’s advice on using Twitter written with assistance from the twitter network and readers comments on this post — thanks everyone for sharing their tips! [|Thirty Interesting Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom.] [|A Teacher's Guide to Twitter] [|Here are eight videos to help teachers get started with using Twitter.] The idea for these videos is to make them short and to the point and provide specific instructions on how teachers can use Twitter.
 * Twitter for Teachers**: An introduction to how Twitter can help teachers with their professional development.

The Ultimate Teacher’s Guide To Social Media
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Virtual Worlds
[|Create an Avatar in the Virtual World of Kaneva.] You know you'll look good in 3D, so what are you waiting for? Using our free avatar creator, you can create your very own cool avatar. Make your avatar as unique and stylish as you are, and shop for the latest 3D clothes and accessories in our free virtual world. Then use your avatar to explore the Virtual World of Kaneva and interact in 3D. Full of modern day people and entertainment, being in the Virtual World is like hanging out and going places with your friends in the real world. If you've heard about virtual avatar worlds before, now is your chance to experience what the buzz is about. [|Whyville]is a virtual world geared for teen and pre-teen girls and boys. Whyville's millions of registered "citizens" come from all over to learn, create, and have fun together. Whyville is their world. Whyville has places to go, things to do, and of course, people to see. Whyville has its own newspaper, its own Senators, its own beach, museum, City Hall and town square, its own suburbia, and even its own economy - citizens earn "clams" by playing educational games. And much, much, much more!

School Websites & Blogs
[|Lifeyo] Lifeyo is a new, Southern California-based startup that is on a mission to make polished, professional websites accessible to anyone. We do it with easy-to-use tools that work fast and require little know-how: One-touch publishing, drag-and-drop editing, and pixel-perfect web design templates make Lifeyo simple, yet extraordinarily powerful. This looks really promising!

School of elearning
If you're a NZ educator and need a platform for sharing or learning with like minded individuals, [|then this is the network for you].

Skype
Skype is a free and easy way for teachers to open up their classroom and their students to a world way beyond their campus. With Skype, students can learn from other students, connect with other cultures, and expand their knowledge in amazing ways. Teachers and parents can also benefit from Skype in the classroom. [|50 Awesome Ways to Use Skype in the Classroom] [|View the current list of experts willing to Skype into your class/school:] [|Skype in the Classroom – The EduSkypers Phonebook] [|Welcome to the Skype An Author Network] [|Using Skype in the Classroom] [|Tips for Using Skype in the Classroom] [|10 Ways to Use Skype in the Classroom] [|Learning Beyond Walls: 21 Skype Resources] [|10 Ways to Use Skype in Online Classes] [|Skype: Talk to Anyone, Anywhere for Free] (PDF file) Skype for Teachers Introduction in 3 Minutes media type="youtube" key="Ap97JddVceI?fs=1" height="385" width="480"