Akidemia - Educational Technology

Social Bookmarking is a wonderful way of both keeping up with your favorite websites and sharing them with your peers.

Listen to this podcast on social bookmarking:


Would you believe that social bookmarking has actually been around since April of 1996 when itList launched the ability to save both private and public items?

Social bookmarking has its advantages. Tag-based classification of websites is being done by people who understand the content on the page, as opposed to software (like web-crawlers) that does not know the content within the page but tries to determine the meaning of a particular site. People also tend to tag websites that are often missed by the software systems. It can be much more meaningful to see how many other PEOPLE have tagged a particular site rather than how many other websites are pointing to it to drive traffic.

What websites do you find valuable?? Do you use social bookmarking? I have created a del.icio.us page at http://del.icio.us/wkilgore. If you have favorites saved on a social networking site that would be useful to other educators please post your social bookmarking page in the comments below!

Blackboard hosted their world conference in Las Vegas this year, at the Venetian. In two short days I attended 11 sessions, 3 keynote speeches and visited over 50 vendors at the exhibit hall! The best session I attended this year was:

"Extreme Makeover" Blackboard Edition - presented by Erin Soles of the University of North Florida

Erin is the Coordinator of Instructional Design and a fantastic presenter. She shared her expertise in course design, evaluation instruments, faculty support, course banners, and much more.

In this 50 minute session (more geared toward the advanced user or instructional designer) she shared a number of high level skills like...

how to add a link to del.icio.us

how to add horizontal rules to the Bb menu

the creation of an Audio Glossary within Blackboard

steps to create and add content to Blackboard

If you have not attended a session by Erin Soles from UNF, and you have the opportunity to do so at the upcoming Educause conference, I highly recommend it!!
All of the materials from this session are available at: http://www.unf.edu/~esoles/Bb_makeover.html

There is a new group on Yahoo Groups!

Join the Umajin users group to share files and see how others are using this great digital storytelling tool.
There is a new group on Yahoo Groups!

Join the Umajin users group to share files and see how others are using this great digital storytelling tool.



Click to join umajin


See you there!

VoiceThread - Group conversations around images, docs and videos

If you are a educational technology enthusiast and have not yet explored Voice Thread it is the new MUST have collaboration tool for sharing images, documents and video. Viewers can comments as text, audio, and video.

They have launched a new web-based collaborative network for K-12 educators and students called Ed.VoiceThread.

Share your voicethread posts in the comments below for others to visit.

http://voicethread.com/?#q+umajin.b163649

I added the Umajin green screen video to VoiceThread as a demonstration of how this tool works. Visit the link above and leave your comments. Consider how you would be able to use this tool with your students.

When introducing a new digital storytelling project with students, it is usually best to begin by showing them examples of finished products so that they have a clear understanding of what they are to accomplish. It is also best to remind them that the primary goal is to create a successful writing project and that they must successfully do this first and that the technology provides a fun and exciting way to produce their creative work as a digital story.


There are some important issues to consider before attempting a digital storytelling project in the classroom.

Focus on the skills: digital storytelling is a great way to motivate learners to focus on the writing processes of pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing and publishing.

What are the expected outcomes of the writing process and how do they align to the curricular objectives?

How will I manage the writing process (i.e. as a homework project, in centers, during writer’s workshop)?

Sue LeBeau’s website is a great place for assistance with the writing process, evaluating writing, prompts and ideas, online publishing sites, and the mechanics of writing.


This is a starting point…


People can sometimes get lost in the use of technology and think that we are teaching the use of computers to kids. Technology is really nothing more than a new and exciting way to create and share our thoughts, ideas and work and present them to new audiences in new ways. The use of these approaches will also enable the students to be better prepared for the world they will live and work in their lifetimes.

I recently found a new software tool that students love to use called Umajin. Umajin is a digital storytelling tool like no other. It has a very easy to use interface, it is reasonably priced, and it has built in 3D digital content, images, sounds, video, and more.

One of my favorite features of Umajin is the green screen capabilities. If you take pictures of your students in front of a green or blue screen (bulletin board paper) then the software allows you to completely remove the background and insert the student into the story!

Watch this video to see how easy it is!!!

Students get really excited when they can insert themselves into a story.

Can you imagine??
You can check out Umajin at www.umajin.com.

Has anyone else used Umajin?

Listen to the podcast below for more information on Digital Storytelling.