Looking forward to seeing you all at the next session on Google Sites & Docs. Do let me know if you have specific things you want to cover. (leave a comment below) Thanks!

There’s also a Slideshare group, set up by Michael Sauers, for presenters to share their slides. One of the presentations already posted is  Pivot Points for Change: Connecting the Dots of Information Literacy with Social Media by Buffy Hamilton. She’ll be presenting this on Monday morning. If you’re going to be at the conference, make sure you get to her program on Monday morning!  Here’s a preview for you. Summary on Buffy’s blog (edit 4/9/10)

These students are part of the semester long Media 21 project designed and taught by Buffy Hamilton and her colleague, Ms. Lester at Creekview High School in Canton, Georgia.

And be sure to read Buffy’s most recent post to hear more about this impressive project and hear Alex & Jovi explain how they put together their Netvibes pages.

New York State Educators:
If you are teacher, librarian or school administrator at a New York public, private or independent school, WE WANT YOU! We are conducting a survey of middle school and high school students’ online research habits, and we’d love for you to participate.

The online surveys are short, painless (we don’t ask sensitive questions), easy to understand and anonymous. They should take about 10 minutes to complete.

Please note: Students will not be asked to provide their names, e-mail addresses or any other identifying information.

This chart shows declining birth rate associated with increases in personal income for the US, UK, China & India. What story can you tell about what’s happening here?

Just think how this could be used in school to bring “boring” old data to life. This service has been around for a few years, but I just learned about it thanks to Buffy Hamilton’s post:  Storytelling with Data: Statistics Tell a Story.

Gapminder includes over 200 social and economic indicators that you can use to create amazing data representations. Countries of the world are represented by bubbles on the charts. Regions of the world are shown by color and bubble size shows relative population size.

And take a look at this stellar presentation by one of the founders of Gapminder, Hans Rosling as he makes data not only compelling, but entertaining!

About 10 years ago I worked on a project called “Numbers Tell the Story” that helped libraries create compelling stories about their libraries that were supported by data. Part of the technology piece of the project was learning to use Excel & Powerpoint to transform data into visually interesting charts and images rather than boring tables of data. I’m just imagining what a Gapminder like tool could have done for that project.

Wed September 16, 2009 8pm–9pm (Eastern)
Where: Elluminate link- http://tinyurl.com/cr20live
What:  RSS widgets and Personalised Home Pages
In this third session on RSS we continue the discussion by looking at all the different ways you can use RSS widgets on websites and check out Personalised Homepages like NetVibes, PageFlakes and iGoogle for managing class information.

And make sure you check out all the other great programming, conversations and training on the Classroom 2.0 calendar – truly a terrific resource!

My first thought was that it will help me organize some of the photos I’ve added to my favorites. I ‘fave’ lots of photos and then have trouble finding them again. Galleries might help with with this. (anyone else have great ways of organizing favorited photos?)

The limit of 18 photos encourages flickr members to act as “curators” and gather the best work representing a theme. Seems like a great presentation method for a school project.

Thanks to ShellyS for adding one of my photos to her Simply Awesome gallery or I might have missed this new feature!

Get more info from flickr galleries help.

Because of their low cost and ubiquity, an increasing number of educators are considering the use of mobile devices, such as cellphones, netbooks, GPS systems, digital recorders, and MP3 players, in the classroom. When harnessed properly, supporters say, these devices can open up new educational opportunities for students. But some critics feel such devices are more of a distraction or annoyance than a learning tool. Our guests will discuss which mobile technologies are best for the classroom, when they should or should not be used, and which emerging mobile technologies will have a significant impact on K-12 education.

(via: Mobile Libraries)

(image courtesy limowreck666)

• Aug 19 Mobile Devices within Instruction    
• Sep 16 Digital Content    
• Oct 14 Web 2.0 and Education    
• Oct 28 21st Century Skills    
• Nov 11 Top 10 Trends in Student Learning with Technology    
• Dec 2 Internet Safety

I have lots of school library media specialists in the technology classes I teach. They are often the ones in the forefront of using technology in their school districts and come up with great ideas for how technology can support student learning and help teachers do their jobs better.  At the same time, they often tell me that many of the tools we explore are blocked or that students can’t have email, so therefore can’t even get accounts with so many of the tools.

When I was a gov docs librarian, our tagline was “documents to the people”. Well I think my new clarion call will be “technology to the students”!

In that vein, take a look at this great blog post Google Apps for Education overview by Kathy Schrock. She details how they arranged for school email accounts for all their students and teachers. How they use Google services to share documents, calendars and more. And she includes an excellent model for an email permission slip, explaining why students need email and acceptable use guidelines.

If you’re having challenges in your school district, maybe this model can help. Just keep at it! Demonstrating the value and need for access to technology. You’ll get their eventually.

Had successes in your district? Please share!!!!