Wake County Board Advisory Council

The Walled Garden

The walled garden approach is a term used to describe walling off an area of the Internet for members only.   The “walled garden” is a term coined by former TeleCommunications, Inc. founder, John Malone to describe a closed network that limits subscribers’ choices to a restricted range of content (Van Tassel, 2006). The concept of the “walled garden” is rooted in giving students the best of both worlds, the resources of the Internet, but in a protected area.

Wikis

Wiki Wiki is Hawaiian word for fast. The word "wiki" was used to imply how fast and easy it would be to create web pages. Multiple users can edit the same page online.

Wikis in Plain English

Wiki Providers:

Wet Paint Education Wikis http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/?zone=thm2&t=anon

Wikispaces http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers

PB Wiki http://pbwiki.com/academic.wiki

Wiki Examples:

AP English Class Wiki http://feld.wikispaces.com/

Elementary Monster Wiki http://monsterproject.wikispaces.com/ Based on the Monster Exchange Project http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr168.shtml

High School Economics http://welkerswikinomics.wetpaint.com/

History Fair project by students http://victoriaaurorahistoryfairproject.wetpaint.com/

The Time Zone Experience

Classroom Book Talk

Microbiowiki

Westwood Schools

Podcasting

A podcast is a digital media file, or a related collection of such files, which is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers. Though podcasters' web sites may also offer direct download or streaming of their content, a podcast is distinguished from other digital media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically when new content is added, using an aggregator or feed reader capable of reading feed formats such as RSS or Atom. Definition via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast

Podcasting Examples:

Mabry Middle School http://www.mabryonline.org/podcasts/

Cary Academy Science Podcasts http://casp.podbean.com/

Periodic Table of Podcasts

Willowcast http://mps.mpsomaha.org/willow/radio/listen.html

West Salem Elementary School http://www.salem.k12.va.us/west/podcasts/index.htm

Voicethread

VoiceThread is an online media album that can hold essentially any type of media (images, documents and videos) and allows people to make comments in 5 different ways - using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) - and share them with anyone they wish. A VoiceThread allows group conversations to be collected and shared in one place, from anywhere in the world. (via http://voicethread4education.wikispaces.com/)

Voicethread Examples:

Science Experiments

Cigar Box Project  - Middle School History

New Federal Holidays

Skype

Skype is a FREE VoIP technology that allows you to make audio and video  calls from your computer.  You can "skype" to connect with experts, educators and other classrooms all over the world! 

Skype in Schools Experiences Wiki http://skypeinschools.pbworks.com/Experiences

Moodle

Moodle is an Open Source CMS that is available for free via download from moodle.org. It is easily customized and has a large array of add-ons that can meet individual needs. Moodle can also be used as your class home page with only certain elements password protected. Moodle is PHP based which allows for editing the page, both content and layout wise online. In fact, according to moodle.org there are currently 40,021 moodle sites with 17,084,794 users!

Ning

Ning is a closed SNS (Social Networking System) that allows for users to create their own mini-networks.

Example Nings:

College of Education @ NC State http://cedncsu.ning.com/

Craven Early College High School http://cravenearlycollege.ning.com/

Podstock http://podstock.ning.com/