SMURL-Have you tried this yet?

I found a way to take a looooong URL such as:
http://campaign.constantcontact.com/render?v=001zhxIANf2OP4KNrc-H8q1Bk
En9pQeZBOcq4xvd8HARAn0VxhTKK3hSRayyBtqbQmBK4yzd_P2D2tORwQkxAcA-eIsUvFH J3cCKgQJ34ZpkaR0chWcmttgxJhFLXSLYN5BQePC1-iUMX-p4GAc3i-70I2ayohj2KLlAq
aBmnB1XSxDey6x95U65ZMGBONcwf9EWA4nrjgAulFotr0pWUT5YZ9oPIz_xGlWNTyvOW5v EJk%3D and have it converted to http://smurl.name/gv79

Use SMURL! http://smurl.name/

Certainly makes your Blogs, emails, etc., look so much cleaner!

Copyright Questions?-Creative Commons Can Help

I know that I had several questions about copyright issues. I came across an article, written by Glenn Wiebe at social studies central that may help clear up some of those questions.

He explains, "Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright."

The article provides some great links to Creative Commons and other articles that explain what is legal and what isn't. In addition, he provides several links that incorporate Creative Commons images or provide Fair Use access:

To see the article, go to http://smurl.name/gv79

P21 Earns Spot on AASL Top 25 Sites for Education

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) has selected http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/ as one of the Top 25 Websites for Teaching & Learning, specifically in the category of Curriculum Sharing.

The Sites listed by the AASL are all free and are designed to encourage "exploration and discovery". Each topic covered also provides the Standards for the 21st-Century Learner they address. Topics includes: Organizing and Managing, Content Collaboration, Curriculum Sharing, Media Sharing, Virtual Environments, Social Networking and Communication.

The Permissions needed for the new AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner

For more information about the permissions needed to publish the new AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner, check out Christopher Harris' blog: Informancy: http://schoolof.info/infomancy/.

My email has been going all weekend with conversations from very unhappy LMS regarding the permissions needed to use the new standards.

Wikis in Education

While looking for reasons to use wikis in education, I came across this article:
Wikis In Education and other tools for Collaborative Writing

http://tep.uoregon.edu/shared/blogswikispodcasts/WikisBiblio.pdf

The article provided some great reasons to use a wiki in your classroom:
Students can focus on what they need to write about rather than how to create it as required by a website, teachers can follow the progress of their students throughout the project, wikis can be used to track the progress of a group project, and projects can be revised by each member of the group making it a truly collaborative effort.

The article also lists a number of both free and paid wiki hosting sites.

Here's my technology quote for this week:

The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do. ~B.F. Skinner, Contingencies of Reinforcement, 1969

Unitedstreaming by Discovery Education

This is a great site that allows educators to create visually appealing classroom presentations and assignments for their students.

It is extremely user-friendly and would be a great tool to use in any classroom, especially those with SMARTboards.