Kamehameha Schools Distance Learning (KSDL) Owau

While searching for an OWAU piece to share I came across this site with a list of tons of Web 2.0 applications http://www.go2web20.net/ . Some are familiar topics like social networking sites, blogs, share your life story online, share your photos, you get the idea. What I also found was that there were many applications for new ideas, well new to me anyway. I started by just clicking around & looking what was posted, until I realized that there are literally hundreds of applications listed on this site. The good thing is that you can search using tags. Since we’re focusing on marketing this year, I found a few applications that might be useful; of course there are still others on this site too. Add This http://www.addthis.com/ This site allows you to create a button & add it to your website. What does the button do? It makes it easier for people to share and promote your content. By clicking on the button the information goes back to a social networking site. This program als...

On January 30th, I attended my first virtual conference called Stepping into Science through Second Life. For those of you that are not familiar with second life, it's a completely virtual way of communicating and networking. Prior to the conference, I had to create an avatar by going to http://www.secondlife.com/join , confirming email and downloading the second life software. There was also an orientation held to make sure you knew how to navigate and use the tools such as teleporting, flying, moving, searching and so forth. The conference had many of the familiar qualities a face-to-face conference. The conference schedule existed of a Keynote speaker named Troy McConaghy who works on media projects related to science and technology. There were breakout sessions that allowed you to pick from various field trips to Genome, Astronomy, NASA, and Earth Systems. We also participated in a live segment on NPR (National Public Radio) called Science Friday. The conference clos...

Aloha käkou, With the recent DOE report to the Senate saying that they (DOE) "underestimated the demand for on-line learning and they now have a goal that by 2011-2012, each student has to take at least one class on-line," I've been thinking that this could finally be the break-through that we need in Hawai`i in regards to considering distance learning as not only a viable, but also a valuable, alternative to f2f classes and even brick & mortar schools. I found this article in the Threshold magazine that's a quarterly journal dedicated to education and technology. It's done in collaboration with NACOL and seems like a very good resource. I liked the article because it's done in a forum with leaders in the online learning field giving their opinion on "What does the future of onlinel earning look like?" So, before you read the short (sorry, yes it is only text) article, think about what your answer to this question would be? Will the future be a ...

I attended the BB Release 9 Webinar to see the movements to NG taking shape. Their touting the Web 2.0 interface and some of the upgrades look very appealing. The new release integrates journals and blogs, improved dashboard and gradebook capabilities, with easier dropdown navigation. I think the product overview on their site provides a good look into what's to come vs. attending the Webinar but I'm excited to see what other Webinars they will provide in the future. http://blackboard.com/release9/

I thought I’d share this web application I came across in my quest to find a relatively simple app to help us manage our mentoring data in the DL Orientation. Our specific needs were that it be a free online database, password protected, had the capability of rapid form development without too much programming knowledge and was easy for the end user to use. The application that met these requirements was Zoho Creator ( http://www.zohocreator.com/ ) a part of a suite of online applications including word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, wikis, organizers and more. What’s great about Zoho Creator is that they have an online repository of applications already developed that you can download to your account and use for free. Initially, I tried some of these applications, but it was overkill for our needs. Zoho Creator can do a lot if you know programming and they have a pay model where it allows you more flexibility and features. I think Zoho Creator would be a useful tool for both...

iGoogle (formerly Google Personalized Homepage and Google IG), a service of Google, is a customizable start page similar to My Yahoo! and Windows Live Personalized Experience. You can login from www.google.com or www.google.com/ig using your Google account. Its features include the capability to add web feeds and Google Gadgets. I started using iGoogle about a year ago but only changed my theme to make it pretty. Recently I started to add web feeds from various blogs to keep updated on different technology. I added Larry Ferlazzo's blog which is for teaching ESL, ELL students but it provides great Web sites and technology for classroom integration. He has a best Web sites of the year post that is great for finding a variety of learning tools. I also added Mashable and various gadgets for news feeds, photos of around the world (places I hope to see one day), and weather. It's a nice way for me to get a snapshot of what's happening without going out to search f...

If you're like me, you hate to use paper and try to conserve by using as little of it as possible. I've been using that great PDD notebook that Robin Racoma illustrated, but now I'm running out of room...if you're in the same situation, this is a great time to try out a digital notebook program. In an attempt to improve efficiency and effectiveness I've been playing around with the Microsoft Office OneNote program. I use it to take notes for meetings, phone calls, or simply do research. Some of you may have even seen the icon under the Office folder, but never had time to explore it. I've been using it since I got my new computer because it was already installed. One may say, "I use Word to do all my note taking." OneNote allows you to do more than just write text. In addition to allowing plain text, it also allows you to add graphics and images where and however you want. It gives you a free form canvas (just like my trusty PDD notebook), to...