Thoughts About 1:1 Initiative Site Visit

I was very impressed with the BCLUW school visit to learn about their 1:1 initiative on November 14, 2013. Principal Cari Teske led an informative session explaining all the relevant details about how they moved through the process. Mary Ascher, teacher librarian and technology integrationist, was also a model of meeting the needs of students and teachers.

I had the opportunity to visit a social studies classroom in the afternoon. Students were working independently / and in groups on a project about the decade of the 1960s. I was curious about the resources they used. They were using primarily free websites for their research. During informal conversation I was able to ask about their source evaluation. Students reported that they felt comfortable assessing the accuracy or bias of websites used, basing their rationale on other sites they'd viewed.

The teacher was a great proponent of inquiry learning. One note from the teacher when I asked about resources used was that he recalled the history databases he'd used while a student at UNI. He thought the decades approach the students were using would also be benefited by databasees similar to those from his undergraduate program.

Embeding Animoto and Shelfari

To embed your Animoto widget: From Animoto page of your video, click Sharing, Embed code, and copy the code. In GoogleSites, Click in a textbox. Put several Returns spaces where the video will go. Click HTML on the top right. Look  in the code for a series of <br> (breaks/returns) Click after one and return. Paste text > Click Update > Click Blue Save button. See your Animoto.  NOTE: This works in Firefox, but may not work in Google Chrome browser, due to some Flash incompatibilities. If you use Chrome, I'd suggest you create a Blogger account in Google. Create your posts with Animoto or Shelfari's embedded, using the HTML button and pasting in Code where appropriate after the <br>s as explained above. Then view in Chrome.

Karla's 30 sec. Book trailer for Avi's Iron Thunder (full version in YouTube)


To embed someone else's Animoto: From their Animoto video, click  Embed code, and copy the code. See directions above for pasting in html box in GoogleSite or in Blogger.

Internet Safety Animoto created by Van Meter Elementary students.

To embed Shelfari in GoogleSites to work in Firefox: Create Shelfari. Click Your shelf; More >My Widgets> Click Create a new Widget > Choose Flash > Copy the code.   In GoogleSites, Click where you want the widget, return several times, click HTML on right, Look  in the code for this series of <br> (breaks/returns) Click after one and return. Paste text > Click Update > Click Blue Save button.  NOTE: This may not work in GoogleChrome browser due to some Flash incompatibilities.

 

To Put Shelfari in a Blogger so it will work in Google Chrome: Open Your Shelfari. Click Your shelf; More> My Widgets > Create a new widget> Choose Blogger. Continue through til you get the Widget code to copy. Then in Blogger, paste it into your Blogger HTML box. Click Update. Preview.

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog