Authors Who Skype with Classes & Book Clubs (for free!) Welcome to the Authors Who Skype with Classes & Book Clubs List! I’m Kate Messner, the children’s author and educator who maintains this site. I started it because I’ve found that virtual author visits are a great way to connect authors and readers, and I realize that many schools facing budget troubles don’t have the option of paid author visits. With that in mind, this is a list of authors who offer free 15-20-minute Q and A sessions with classes and book clubs that have finished reading one of their books. As an author, I offer Skype chats for all of my titles – check out the “Books” tab above for a list! If you’re interested in booking a “virtual visit” with me, please visit my author-Skype page for current availability and directions for requesting a visit! How does a Skype virtual visit work? Authors Who Skype With Classes & Book Clubs (for free!) The following authors offer free 15-20-minute Skype chats with book clubs and classes that have read one of their books!
TodaysMeet 50 Awesome Ways to Use Skype in the Classroom | Teaching Degree.org Written By: Jillian Terry Skype is a free and easy way for teachers to open up their classroom and their students to a world way beyond their campus. With Skype, students can learn from other students, connect with other cultures, and expand their knowledge in amazing ways. Teachers and parents can also benefit from Skype in the classroom. Read below to learn how you can take advantage of the power of Skype in your classroom. Promoting Education These great ideas are all about teaching students in dynamic ways. See Me, Hear Me: Skype in the Classroom. Promoting Community Using Skype in the classroom can promote communities within a school or globally. Inclusion — helping a classmate join the classroom from home. Skype Ideas for Teachers and Parents Teachers and parents can benefit from Skype in the classroom, too. Professional development. Resources for Getting Started and Using Skype Find out how you can take advantage of Skype with the advice below. Finding Others Using Skype ePALS.
Dimdim 25 Important Twitter Guides and Apps For Teachers Diving into a rich and overwhelming social network like Twitter can be difficult. I know of many teachers and academic-minded people who are still unsure about the merits of the tool or are simply unsure where to start. The following 10 (+1 bonus!) beginner’s guides to Twitter each do a tremendous job at informing without confusing. If you’re not new to Twitter and just want to take a refresher course in why you actually joined the network in the first place, you may want to check out any one of these guides. Clear & Helpful Guides To Twitter There are video tutorials, etiquette discussions, and even an entire introduction to the rules for newbies on Twitter. The Beginner’s Guide to Twitter . Great Twitter Apps For Teachers Now that you know what Twitter is and what it can do for education, why not try it? GroupTweet . Help Expand This List!
TypeWith.me: Live Text Document Collaboration! » 100+ examples of use of social media for learning C4LPT EmailShare 0EmailShare Note: this page dates back to 2011. More up to date information is to be found in my Social Learning Handbook 2014. Here are over 100 ways that different social technologies (and tools) are being used by learning professionals worldwide – compiled from the comments of those who have contributed to the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009 activity. Blogging (1) “Blogs are great for learning from others, reflection, story sharing, facilitating connections among people, philosophizing, and much more” Janice Petosky, Instructional designer,West Chester, Pennsylvania (2) “Writing a blog is a learning activity, of course, but reading the best blogs that are available is one of my most productive learning experiences.” (3) “Blogging is my chief way of making sense of things“ Michele Martin, Freelance Learning Consultant, USA (5) “While everyone seems to get the blog thing now, few are leveraging the technology for what, at its root, it really is: a very quick web page creator.
Research - Turning Ideas into Reality Microsoft Azure and cloud computing Predicting ocean chemistry using Microsoft Azure Introducing LiveOcean: A cloud-based predictive system from the University of Washington and Microsoft Research of ocean acidification properties that may help the shellfish industry survive changing conditions by providing forecasts about ocean water. Open source AI Computer vision Academic research and computer science news Research News is a new service from Microsoft Research that develops, curates and summarizes news, publications, and events related to computer science research.
How to Get a Classroom of Kids Blogging in Under 5 Minutes! Kidblog.org is a service designed by teachers for teachers. They have made the process of creating and monitoring a class blog safe and efficient. Sign-ups are fast and simple, making it easy to co-ordinate a whole class of new students. At the same time, the blog’s privacy and security is protected by default. This makes life incredibly easy for the teacher, allowing you to get straight in to the fun bit of blogging! The primary differences between Kidblog and any other free blogging platform is the default class-only privacy level and the superbly easy way of bulk-adding user accounts for students without requiring email addresses and confirmation of invites. Setting up a teacher account The teacher account is a straightforward sign-up: choose a password, add a few details and you’re in. Create a New Class The blog creation is controlled by “classes”. The class name is the blog name, which becomes part of the URL for the class blog too. Privacy and Security Add Users Groups For Kids Overview