How to use the new Google Reader

I've been using Google Reader for a while now to aggregate the blogs I read daily. I also purchased Reeder, a desktop client for Google Reader, because it is a much more aesthetically pleasing way to read these blogs.

Today however, Google Reader released an updated interface for the web application to match it's other new designs. If you are interested in trying Google Reader out, now is a good time! I've made a tutorial explaining the basics of how to subscribe and organize your feeds online.

Organizing Your Bookmark Bar

Check out this tutorial I made showing how you can organize your bookmarks bar and free up valuable screen real estate.  I am using Google Chrome in the tutorial, but it should work for any browser you prefer.

Coarkboard.me

Coarkboard.me is another way to use a collaborative web space in your classroom.  It does not require a log-in, and is a fairly basic coarkboard system.  Students can create stickies of various colors that can be resized easily.  It also allows you to post pictures to the board by copying and pasting the image URL into a sticky note.  This will turn the sticky note into a polaroid snapshot of the image.

Here is a tutorial on the basics of using coarkboard.me in the classroom



And an example coarkboard

Wallwisher

Wallwisher.com is a great way to have students work together in a collaborative environment.  It does require a log-in, but you can use your Google or Open ID as well as creating an account.  There are options that allow comments to be moderated and the owner has control over placement of the comments.  Wallwisher's can be embedded into a blogpost as well!

Here is a tutorial I created for students to use wallwisher.com to post a collaborative question. 




And the example wallwisher I created

280 Slides

Looking for free presentation or slideshow creation software to use in your classroom?  280slides.com offers a very clean and simple web application for creating and sharing slideshows.  Powerpoint users will notice the similarities although 280 Slides is a much simpler version made for web use.  Simplicity is usually an advantage when we are talking about classroom use.

Unfortunately, you do need to create an account to save and embed slideshows.  The good news is that it is very easy to create an account.  Enter an email and password and you are done! No verification emails or additional information is needed.

I've created 2 tutorials on how to use 280 Slides and embed them into your blog and also attached an example presentation.

Part 1:


Part 2:


Example:

Storybird.com

Here is a tutorial on how to create Storybird stories from the Storybird website. 



And a tutorial I created for students on how to embed a Storybird into their blog.



Here is my example storybird.

The Story of Ten on Storybird

Stripgenerator.com

A tutorial I created on how students can use stripgenerator.com in the classroom.



And a second tutorial on how to embed the comic into a blog.



And here is the example comic.

Hello World by anonymous

Photovisi Tutorial

In looking for a video tutorial for Photovisi to upload to the global learning project I'm in the design stages of [more info to come!] I couldn't find any that I liked.  So, I made my own. 

Enhance Your Curriculum

Creating a class web site with Weebly is a great place to start when we talk about getting non-techy teachers to start integrating tech into their classroom.  The thing about Weebly is that it's a drag-and-drop web application.  The simplicity of this is perfect for a first web site for many teachers.  Go check out the Weebly I created teaching teachers how to publish their own!

enhanceyourcurriculum.weebly.com/