Thing #4 Posting Videos and Podcasts

I have used Teacher Tube to find examples of video projects for teachers and students. We showed several videos based on classroom Science experiments on MDE TV to give teachers examples of how videos might be created in the classroom and shared.
I also spent time last year trying to post to theses sites from school. I could only post very short videos without our network quitting in the middle of longer uploads. I ended up having to work from home in order to successfully post a video on Teacher Tube.
Our new web masters have created server space for us to post podcasts and videos on the SBISD site. I worked with our Kindergarten team to post some songs and poems online so that they could listen and practice at home. I hope to expand this effort this coming year. They can be heard at Podcasts. Also, our Spanish teacher has posted some of her songs at Spanish at MDE.
As best as we can tell, these files are running pretty well from this site thus avoiding a third party user name and ID.

Thing #3 Skype

Skype seems to be an affordable option for world wide communication. Our family has enjoyed using Skype while our nephew was in Japan for a year. Our niece is currently in Spain and her parents have enjoyed talking with her AND seeing the room she is staying in.
The audio and video feeds can provide a lot of information for parents as well as our students at school. All real time! Primary resources would be much more accessible. Information can be shared immediately and interaction can take place.
The time zone differences around the world do pose some challenges. Europe is generally 6-7 hours ahead of us. Japan and the Far East are day vs. night which makes them hard to schedule for classroom time.
Also, I am wondering, has anyone actually Skyped from within SBISD? Does our network support this use or are we blocked out of this? (Either by an actual blocking tool or by lack of band width?)

Thing #2

I have spent quite a long time on Thing #2. Especially considering I have already used Animoto and Wordle extensively, so I didn't spent any time there. Word Sift looks interesting. I was interested in the visual aspect, so I put in the lyrics to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" to see what would be generated. The "rainbow" and "bluebird" worked out okay, but the "fly" totally missed the mark with photos of fighter jets. Couldn't figure out a way to work around that.
The Glogster site provides a creative presentation. I can see using it as a quick, summary assignment. I don't think the writing format really encourages "good" writing so wouldn't want to use it for a large project.
Bookr is my favorite of the bunch. I can see elementary students using it for content. I'd like to see some students use it to retell their science experiments using photographs of their experiments. Maybe use it instead of Science journals? BTW - I could never get a Bookr sent through e-mail. I tried sending it to two different addresses. It's been an hour and a half and I still don't see it. Even checked the Junk Mail in case it went there.

Bookr

Glogster 2

Fourth of July Practice Glogster

I am having trouble getting the entire Glogster to be embedded in my page. I have tried reducing the width and height in the html, but is still cut off. Anyone know how to do this?
Also, I was trying to bring in a flash "swf" file, but couldn't find a way to do that. Any hints there?

Glogster

Part 2 - Thing #1

"The Network Student" has a lot of ideas to access loads of resources. Certainly tons of information available. The student would have to analyze and synthesize quite a bit to determine which information is valid and worth mentioning in their own project. The bookmarking sites would be helpful to review where information on the final project was acquired.
On the practical side, I would be interested in another movie or site that gives specific suggestions as to how to instruct accessing these resources and how to monitor content. Especially at the elementary level. What standards are set for evaluation? How do you set up user names, passwords, e-mail accounts for all your students?
I would also love to see a project such as this that is completed by an elementary student.