WebSlides + Diigo

Here's a good idea for a 'lesson' to work on this summer while you have some free time.

Go to Webslides

Open an account and start saving a few Web2.0 sites on Diigo that you want your students to use for a project. Maybe there are sites you want your students to use for a video project or maybe they are news sites with articles that you want students to read for a 'current events' class to write an essay. Bookmark any sites of a particular interest for an assignment or project.

When you have saved the bookmarks you want for the 'lesson' begin narrating each site in Webslides. Virtually take your students on a web tour of web 2.0 tools, tell them what you want them to know about each tool for the project they will be working on. If it's news articles you saved record a brief synapses of each article.

Keep bookmarking and narrating the sites until you feel you have provided enough background or technical information for your students to begin the assignment.

By the end of your Webslides presentation your students should have gained the knowledge-base needed to begin the project or write the essay without you even being there. That's called constructivist learning.

This might be a good 'lesson' to save for a day when you need a substitute teacher, your students might not even miss you....Go get started now.