I thought I’d share this article from Joanna Nikas at the NY Times which compiles some of the latest and best sources for free online class resources.  Some of them you may be using already, but there are others you may not have heard of. The mentioned offerings are mainly geared toward upper high school and university students. Take a look.

Photo by magerleagues

Wow! I just came across a great resource via Free Technology for Teachers Blog: Google Advanced Books Search. Up to this point, if I’d wanted to find an online book, I’d just do a normal search for the book. Using Google’s Book Search is a much more powerful option.

Instructions:

1. Go to <books.google.com>.
2. Click Advanced Search to the right of the search bar.
3. Put in whatever title or information is pertinent.
4. In the search field, click Public Domain if you wish to download and print the book.
5. Click Google Search at the top right.
6. Choose your title.

Another benefit is that after you’ve chosen the title, you’re able to read it in the excellent Google Books Reader. This is a fantastic resource, particularly if you don’t have specific or enough selections in your library. Give it a try.

Schawbel’s opening salvo:

Today, Twitter has roughly 6 million users and is projected to grow to 18.1 million users by 2010. With all those people, the chances for networking are endless and connecting with new people can lead to career opportunities, so it is essential that your personal brand exists on the service. Last month we showed you a step-by-step process for building your personal brand on Facebook, and today we’re going to show you how to do the same thing on Twitter. By leveraging the Twitter platform to build your brand you can showcase yourself to a huge and growing audience.

Read the rest here.

• CEOs Who Use Twitter
• Keeping Momentum in Social Media
• Starting a Corporate Social Network. Don’t!
• and nine other links

Great info. Check it out.

• Structures for learning
• Time for learning
• Tools for learning
• Communities for learning
• Policy in support of learning

This paper should be required reading for teachers and administrators. Give it a look.

I do most of my personal learning and information gathering in the following ways:

• aggregating feeds of interest into my Google Reader
• receiving news alerts of interest on educational and other topics into Google Reader
• searching for articles of interest in Digg
• Facebook–I get lots of good info from my friends, including video which is right on the page
• blogging–this is by far my most professionally valuable activity as it compels me to do research, consider issues, and basically get it right
• Ning groups

For personal and classroom collaboration, I recommend:

• Ning–create your own customized classroom or school network. A one-stop shop for much of what you’ll want to do.
• An online docs sharing network such as Google docs (not preferred due to formatting issues) or, better yet, Box.net
• Twitter (if it’s fully functional)
• Google suite of tools, including Google Docs, Google Sites, etc.
• Email still works
• Ustream for live presentations
• Slideshare for slideshows
• Class blogs for reflection and information
• Class wikis for gathering and making sense of information

Thoughts?

Betancourt’s identity theft prevention tips include the following:

 

1. Centralize Yourself — Create a central online location so that you control what information is on it. Then connect from that central location to other websites.

Establish an online version of yourself both professionally and personally. Jansons recommended having at least one blog and a personal website with your name as the domain and being active on at least one of each type of social media service so they work as your online resume and base of operations. Then use all of those services as you wish and allow your presence to grow.

2. Know Sites’ Terms — Know a website’s terms of service, privacy policy and the terms under which you’re contributing content. Find out who holds the copyright once that content is uploaded.

3. Document Your Work - Back up web pages, make PDFs of your clips or other work in case the URL may change or get pulled from the website on which it was published. Keep sources’ contact information, interview notes, writing drafts and hardcopies, photos, video files and any relevant reference material.

 

4. Archive Content – Add your URLs for inclusion in the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive. The database tool makes a copy of a Web page and stores it with a data and timestamp. It gives a physical reference for when the content was online and what was there.

As people get more savvy with social media tools, they may be less likely to play fast and loose with their online identities.

McGeveran said many people find their tastes changing about the amount they choose to reveal about themselves in public. He added that because social networking sites such as Facebook are gaining importance and reach, to expect more problems like this to arise and that the law will need to adjust in response.

Top 10 Tools for Learners

The current Top 10 list of tools for learners, based on contribution of 47 Learners AS AT 4 APRIL is:

1. Google Search
2. YouTube
3. Firefox
4. Twitter
   Wikipedia
5. Delicious
6. Facebook
   Gmail
   Google Reader
   Skype

Top 10 Tools for Learning Professionals

The current top 10 tools for learning professionals to use in their own professional practice for creating learning “solutions” for others and their own productivity is AS AT 4 APRIL as follows, based on the contributions of 21 learning professionals

1. Delicious
2. Twitter
3. Skype
4. Slideshare
5. Google Reader
6. Google Docs
7. Audacity
   Google Search
   Moodle
   Ning
   PowerPoint
   SnagIt

I’m currently using almost all of these tools, and I’m slowly introducing more of them to my students. Many of the tools have had a profound impact on the way I teach and keep up to date in education, and on the way my students learn and produce.

I might also add Digg to the list as I use it often to find top articles on topics of interest.

1. Take a look at your lengthy to-do list.
2. Organize pc files and folders.
3. Do some old-fashioned work.
4. Use your mobile unit.
5. Clean out your workspace.

As resourceful educators, it’s not hard to find things to do offline:

• Talk with a colleague.
• Work on lesson plans/units of inquiry.
• Mark assignments/assessments.
• Call some parents.
• Read one of those things used at one time in the classroom–a book.
• Teach!