milasunshine's blog

I was checking the plurks in the afternoon for a change betweeen reading and grading and found an interesting post about a new Web 2.0 service 280 Slides that is web-based (no downloads needed) and allows you creating PPT on the Internet and for the Internet! I can spend a lot of time exploring the plurks and the thing that educators share in their postings... When I find something like this I am inspired to try it right away. My Literacy and Technology students can use this service for their final projects!

I am excited to share the news. I was approached by WiZiQ company to conduct a series of lectures on the topics of my expertise: methods of effective teaching and shifting paradigm, e-teaching. I am in the process of designing a list and scheduling the lectures for the global community.

Unbelievable! A new site has been just created for Teachers and English learners based on the Second Life concept and environment. The designers of this site give away free classroom space in Second Life, named "launchrooms" where teachers can hold group meetings and lessons. It means with this site teachers can get closer to the world of digital natives, they will create their own avatars, arrange a space for their meetings, and will use the virtual equitpment.

I cannot stop thinking --- this tool can be used for Word game, concept formation, sentence building out of the vocabulary of the current topic that is taught... Here is my second wordle for Literacy and Technology class. The task is to choose the words and phrases for the quotes we discussed in class and build sentences about "Learning to create."

When I was plurking today I found out that the participants of the edublogers conference meet in Google Lively Group rooms. What a fascinating experience! It uses Second life interface! Look! It is me in the room:

Visit to view:

I am getting ready for my Literacy and Technology class and was sent to this song that I found absolutely adorable, interactive and educating.

For those who use Firefox I would recommend to install the add-on extension ScribeFire. ScribeFire is an extension of Firefox ®; it enables users to easily drag and drop formatted text from the Web into their blog(s). After you have install it to your Firefox browser,it will appear on the bottom of your screen and when you are browsing through the readings, sites and assigned taks, you will be able to write your blog entries with a click of the button! Make your blogging fast and fun!

What an exciting tool, Plurk! More fun than twitter! I can even send messages in Russian! or German! Here is my widget - a brief image of what Plurk is all about.

I find this amusing to create badges for classes and blogs with the pictures of my students. It brings personality to my classes.Flickr provides this opportunity.