"Many people, one voice" is the tagline for MixedInk's quick and easy online document collaboration. While it may seem similar to Google Docs, a wiki, or Adobe's Buzzword, MixedInk has a few special features that make it unique.

From their website: 1) An organizer proposes a topic and invites people to participate; 2) Participants contribute ideas and opinions addressing the issue. They also edit and remix other people's submissions; 3) At the same time, people rate others' submissions, so the ideas and opinions that best capture the group's viewpoint rise to the top and get fused together. In the end, the highest rated text - created jointly by many different users - represents the group's collective opinion.

The interface is simple and clean so it would appear to be suitable for possibly 4th or 5th grade and higher. Advanced moderation and removal of advertising are available for a fee, but under good supervision in the classroom/lab MixedInk is a great way to get small groups or your whole class collaborating together.

Mentioned in the March/April 2010 issue of Learning & Leading with Technology.
Diana Fingal. (2010, March/April). Mixed ink gives voice to the crowd. Learning & Leading with Technology, 37(6), 35.

Edmodo is a private micro-blogging platform built for use by teachers and students for use in the classroom. With a familiar "facebook-style" interface, it appears to be easy to use and setup. Edmodo provides a way for teachers and students to share notes, links, and files while maintaining student privacy. Teachers also have the ability to send alerts, events, and assignments to students. At the teacher's discretion any item can be put on a public timeline.

Teachers sign up for accounts, and then create groups. Each group has a unique code which is distributed by the teacher to the class. Students then sign up (no email address required) and join the group using the code. Looks interesting for any grade level, but especially for Primary and Middle.

Cost? The basic Edmodo service is completely free. However they do plan on adding premium features that will be for-pay on top of the basic free service.

Todd Kassner's class at the Middle School has been predicting and reporting the weather with Edheads' Weather Activities. A teacher guide is included, but the site is incredibly intuitive and fun. Kassner's students also make use of the WCPO website for local current weather reports and NOAA for daily national weather maps that show fronts and high and low pressure systems. Kassner notes that Edheads has multiple topics on science, health, and math that are "interactive and that the kids seem to enjoy" (Chris Fiehrer has also used the site for some health related activities).  Below, Sydney from Mr. Kassner's class describes her use of Edheads' weather activities.

Webinars on integrating BrainPOP begin at 4:30pm on the dates below. Learn more and RSVP here.
- Music Webinar (March 3);
- Interactive Whiteboards, Student Response Systems & BrainPOP (March 10);
- Beyond BrainPOP Walls - 21st Century Tools (March 17);
- BrainPOP Loves Library Media Specialists (March 24);
- Classroom Games? Why Not? (March 31)

New movies and curricular tie-ins also available. BrainPOP is quick digital content ideal for both group and one-on-one settings. Use it to introduce a new lesson/topic or to illustrate complex subject matter. It's a great way to level the playing field for all of your students. Content is aligned to state standards and easily searchable with their online state standards tool. Find this months curricular tie-ins and more about BrainPOP on our BrainPOP page. Monthly curricular tie-in are under the"Integrate it!" heading.

Assist students in communicating effectively with the Center for Children and Technology's "Digital Literacy Toolkit." The interactive website is designed to help teachers and students evaluate multimedia authoring when using different media such as sounds, images, video, and commands that create movement. Activities help in understanding how to use media as examples, evidence, opinion, decoration, illustration, context, or to create focus within a presentation. Some basic planners and checklists/rubrics are included under the Resources section of the website. Additional resources for assessing student use of multi-media are available on our Methods and Assessment page. Just scroll to the bottom.

The cct website was mentioned in the February edition of Techniques magazine from ACTE. e-connect. (2010, February). Techniques, 85, 60.

Adaptive Release is tool within Blackboard (called selective release in WebCT) that allows the instructor to create custom learning paths for students based on certain criteria established by instructor. The criteria could be user name or group membership, grade on a previous assignment, assignment type, or status of the assignment. The tool could be used for individualization/differentiation of work, a cohort group, or make-up work. Scenarios such as this allow students the opportunity to master content before moving on to the next topic or step.

So in the end Adaptive Release is about creating rules to release content in a prescriptive way to address student needs. Create adaptive release rules by first creating a content item in your Blackboard class then use the drop-down menu of the item and select Adaptive Release or Adaptive Release Advanced. Note: you must create all content first, then go to last content item and work backwards to create rules.

Tutorial video and handout are available on our our Blackboard page (look for Adaptive Release under the Learn It! section of the page) or contact us via a ticket or HelpDesk to set up an appointment and look at it together.

Information presented at the Ohio K-12 Blackboard Day: Moving Education Online, February 24th, 2010.

"Shmoop will make you a better lover of literature, history, and life. See many sides to the argument. Find your writing groove. Understand how lit and history are relevant today... show your brain a good time."

Written by experts from Ph.D. and Masters programs at Stanford, Harvard, UC Berkeley and other top universities, Shmoop puts together Learning Guides for literature, history, people, music, and more. Their mission is to "make learning and writing more fun and relevant for students in the digital age." Each Learning Guide is written in a relaxed manner with humor and references to pop culture that make it relevant to high school students. Learning Guides are free, but for a one-time fee of about $6, teachers have access to the Teacher's Edition that includes related activities.

Looks like fun - http://www.shmoop.com/