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I have had a busy and productive couple of weeks. I signed up for my own Moodle space at  . It’s a great deal for a teacher whose district isn’t ready to go in that direction: one year, 150 student slots, fully maintained and supported for $99US. I’m going back to work there as soon as I’m done here.

I splurged and bought an ASUS eee PC(registered). It is a wonderful piece of equipment. Pictures don’t do it justice, really.you have to see it in person -  . I wish it had 15 or 20 gigs of storage, but if wishes were horse, beggars would ride. I am waiting the arrival of an XO-1 from MIT - . I’ll keep you posed about that.

MORE TO COME ON ALL THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My colleague, Ron, at ISTE, found this great site that called Teachade: ” It a social networking site for educators that allows you to share resources, create online leaning communities and connect with colleagues.  The site uses Web 2.0 collaboration and social-networking technologies. Teachers can join groups formed around topics such as music, 6th-grade science, supporting educational technology, increasing student and child safety, and so on. Educators also have access to a personal and group calendar and can keep lesson plans or other items in personal ‘favorites’ files.

He thinks it seems pretty useful for students: ” I would use it as a center in the classroom or give the site to students so they could practice at home.  You could allow them to use information loaded by others, or input your own information.  I’m looking forward to trying this.”

http://www.teachade.com

The sixth of January is Western Christianity’s twelfth day of Christmas, The Feast of the Epiphany. It commemorates the visit of the Magi to the stable in Bethlehem. In the spirit of trying to do good, here are some online suggestions:

• Save electricity by searching on blackle.com - http://blackle.com/ - It uses the Google special search engine but it turns most of the screen pixels off - to black - to save electricity. They have a calculator that tracks how much electricity has been saved. When I was there just now, it was almost 405kWh!!;
• Use http://www.goodsearch.com/Default.aspx and funders of the site will give a penny to any charity you choose from their list. THe Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation has received more than $2400 the last time I checked;
• Simply visit the Hunger Site - http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1 - and press a button, and the sponsors of the site will donate 1.1 cups of food to the hungry!!! You don’t even have to shop, though you can if you want; Finally,
• http://freerice.com/ - A vocabulary builder that donates 20 grains of rice for each correct identification. 195 million grains were donated on Friday.

Think about these. Try them. Make some suggestions to us yourselves.