Social networking sites have been getting a lot of bad press over the last year. The media coverage has put social networking on every one's radar. This in turn has created a challenge for schools that has never been experienced before with previous technologies. Now, which ever side of the fence you sit about social networking, there two things that I think we can all agree upon; these web 2.0 tools are not going away and if used properly, they can engage our students in the learning process because they are the tools of the digital generation.

With that being said I am excited to share with you an incredible Web 2.0 tool, that can truly change the way teachers teach and students learnÃ?¢?Ã?¦..and at the same time allow schools to safely use the tools of digital learner.

I am talking about Digication Campus & Digication Spotlight. For more information, please visit their site at: http://www.digication.com

In the past the ability to participate in educational conferences was probably not an option for many of you due to the inconvenience of being away from the classroom or the cost of travel. I am excited to inform you that these barriers have been overcome with the unveiling of a new concept in educational conferences.

The first annual "K12 Online 2006" is a convention for teachers, administrators and educators. The conference unites educators from around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice. It is a FREE online conference that is scheduled to be held over the course two weeks, Oct. 23-27 and Oct. 30- Nov. 3 with the theme of "Unleashing the Potential". What makes the conference so unique is the way that the events will be presented. The events of the conference activities will be both synchronous and asynchronous. Presenters may use web casts, podcasts or live discussion; then released via the conference blog and archived for posterity.

There will be four conference strands - two each week. Two presentations will be published in each strand each day, Monday - Friday; thus, four new presentations will be available each day over the course of the two-weeks.

For more information about this historical conference, please visit: http://k12onlineconference.org

Using recording devices in the classroom is nothing new. Teachers and students have been using tape recorders for years. But the traditional cassette tape content was not always the easiest media to edit, store and share. Well, the times have changed with the introduction of MP3 digital recording devices. Here are 23 ideas that I have come up when using these wonderful devices.

1. Use these devices to record and then evaluate students decoding and reading fluency skills.
2. Keep a digital reading portfolio for students- keep an audio history of their progress. Then at the end of the year these can then be transferred to CD so students have a copy.
3. Have students create an audio book library.
4. Let's take that last idea one step further;  allow students to take home the audio recordings of a book or passage along with the book itself so they can practice guided reading.
5. What about having speech therapists record students for evaluations and keep an audio portfolio. They could also create recorded activities and strategies for students to take home and practice. This can also support strategies like self-correction and ongoing self-assessment.
6. Teachers can record audio instructions for students who may struggle with reading the instructions, but not with the actually activities or tasks themselves.
7. Do you ever have students who have been gone for extended periods of time because of illness or on a trip? What about recording students assignments with oral instructions and also to add that personal touch.
8. Students could use these portable recording devices and act as roving reporters for school podcasts or newspapers.
9. Students record the thoughts  for writing activities so they can capture their ideas and not get bogged down with conventions and grammar. Then students get listen to their recoding and transcribe their thoughts and when finished, let them begin editing process.
10. Students lead interviews of  local historical figures? Once these recording have been collected, they can then be achieved for future generations.
11. Recording of field trips to create a sound seeing tours of local museums or historical sites - these files could either be kept for classroom projects or given back to the museums or historical sites so future visitors can enjoy this special audio guided tour.
12. Let children interview relatives about family history or create an audio family tree.
13. Have students create "Reading Rainbow" style books reviews.
14. Instructors can wear a device like the iRiver and record lessons, instructions, and lectures so students have access this content later.
15. Recording assignments or activities for foreign language courses
16. Teachers with ESL students could record written text along with possible definition of words and vocabulary lessons
17. Use these device to quickly create audio books for students with learning disabilities
18. Audio directions to accompany assignments for students who are home-bound.
19. Create audio test-casts or audio study guides to help students review for test.
20. Students  could use the recorder to create digital storytelling projects- students can then create final projects with multi-media software like Microsoft's Photo Story or PowerPoint
21. Let students record pod-pal messages
22. Use these devices to create classroom podcasts. These MP3 files can be uploaded as is, or brought into Audacity or Propaganda to be clean up.
23. Use these devices to make it easy to document School Board and academic meetings. Use the recordings to produce meeting minutes and provide the audio to the entire community.

Please feel free to either add your ideas by clicking on the comment link below or feel free to e-mail them to me at: niessen@cox.net

Announcing the first annual "K12 Online 2006â?³ convention for teachers, administrators and educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice. This year's conference is scheduled to be held over two weeks, Oct. 23-27 and Oct. 30- Nov. 3 with the theme "Unleashing the Potential.â?? The K12 Online 2006 blog has just gone live.

On the conference blog you will also find the web form we will be using for the submission of proposals. Everyone is encouraged to submit a proposal. More details are on the conference blog: www.k12onlineconference.org. The blog will be updated regularly with everything you need to know about the conference.