Edublogs

"Arty Reflections"
http://mshearman.edublogs.org/

I almost didn't visit this blog because if its title. I really hate the word "artsy" but arty is even worse. Yuck. However, it was one of the only blogs I saw on the list related to art so I decided to see what it was about. To my surprise, the content was interesting and this was something that I was thinking about when we were discussing using blogs as a tool in the classroom. Ms. Hearman has created a blog to share her students' artwork with the world. The blog's purpose is not just to show their images, she is creating a dialogue between students, parents and other art classes around the world. They are learning about art criticism by using the 6 Thinking Hats Framework to construct their comments about each others' work. http://mshearman.edublogs.org/what-are-the-6-thinking-hats/ I think that is a great way to get kids to think and write creatively, when I have an art class I will definitely use this strategy.

"Voice Thread"
http://voicethread.com

The open classroom blog ( http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/ ) led me to Voice Thread, an amazing interactive blog. This allows users to create and animate video files while narrating with audio. People can leave vocal comments by using a microphone or telephone. What a great way to tell stories or give a presentation. The Open Classroom blogger posted a Voice Thread where teachers from all around the world summarized their day in one sentence. This blog could lead to really cool collaborative projects, I'll be thinking about what I want to make using this tool.


"Teacher Hacks"
http://teacherhacks.blogspot.com/

A writer from this blog made a video promoting learning for a new generation called 3 steps for 21st Century Learning. The video encourages educators to teach their students competition, cooperation, and collaboration. This blog further develops those concepts and provides examples of ways we can prepare our students for the future. Although the video itself was a little on the cheesy side, it was interesting information that I will try to incorporate when I have a classroom. It's too bad this person hasn't posted in a year.