Copyright Resources & Creative Commons

The Copyright Advisory Network has posted some good resources from the ALA for teachers who want to know more about what they can and can't use in their classrooms. Check it out!

Here's a quick guide to the TEACH Act.

Creative Commons -- Get information and digital images of the CC licenses.
Flickr Storm -- Search for images licensed under CC.
Behold -- Find CC images to use online or in projects.
Jamendo -- Find CC / royalty free music for podcasts
Vimeo Music Store -- Find CC / royalty free music.

Smarts + Extra Time = Cool Stuff

Johnny Chung Lee continues to blow my mind. Here's the link to his hack for making an interactive white board at home.

On my best day, I've never been as smart as he is when he's bored...

Social Bookmarking & the Classroom

I use two tools on a daily basis: social bookmarks and feed aggregators. Specifically, I use Diigo and Google Reader, but there are many choices out there.

Check out this tutorial on Diigo.

The Backchannel & the Classroom

We talked very briefly about how Twitter can be used in the classroom. Here is the presentation I put together for a graduate course on the backchannel.

Adobe presentation

View more presentations from Stephanie Krajicek

More information on backchanneling:

danah boyd's painful experience
Gumption's take on backchannels and  the underbelly of social media

Tools for Encouraging Conversation in L2

How do we get our ELL students to practice speaking skills? Here are some resources to help students who need to practice their speaking skills:

Voki (http://www.conversationexchange.com/)
Skype
http://www.modelmekids.com/
http://ready-set-go-english.blogspot.com/
http://www.livemocha.com
http://www.mangolanguages.com/main

Bloggin with Speech Recognition Software

Yesterday, someone asked about blogging with speech recognition software and didn't even begin to have an answer. However, never fear! I have found some answers, thanks to Darren Rowse and John Morrow of Copyy blogger. Check out this article and video.