Yahoo! For Teachers @ Classroom 2.0 Live SF
On February 1, the Yahoo! For Teachers team will be joining our colleagues from the del.icio.us team at the Classroom 2.0 Live meet up in San Francisco. For those of you who are unable to attend, here’s a copy of the del.icio.us 101 handout.
Classroom 2.0 Live SF is being organized by Steve Hargadon and will feature workshop sessions on using Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom.
We’ll also have some spiffy Yahoo! For Teachers schwag too, so be sure to step up and introduce yourself! We’re really looking forward to attending this event and meeting all of you.
Derek
Yahoo! For Teachers Team
Yahoo! For Teachers 101: Project Points
Did you know that when you search for a project in Explore, the project(s) with the highest number of points are displayed at the top of your search results? Yes, it’s true. But you may be asking yourself: What are these points? And where do they come from?
Here’s the scoop…
The number next to the star is the project rating. The number equals the total number of teachers who have copied the project or left feedback for the author.
These project points will help you gauge both the reputation and quality of a project and/or author. This built in system of “peer review” helps push the highest rated projects to the top of the Yahoo! For Teachers Explore results.
Here’s how to leave feedback on a Yahoo! For Teachers Project:
- Click > “I like this project” button
- Write > Use the default message, or leave your own feedback, tips or suggestions
- Click > “Send My Comment”
You can view comments left by your colleagues by scrolling to the bottom of the project page and hovering your mouse over your icon. To learn more about the colleague who left a comment, click on their name and see what resources and projects they have in their portfolio.
So go ahead and copy projects or leave feedback on your colleagues’ projects! Doing so will help make the Explore results more relevant, save you time, and help build a vibrant and robust community for teachers, by teachers!
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to post your question over in our Yahoo! For Teachers group.
Derek
Yahoo! For Teachers Team
New Release Notes
Last night we pushed a new release of Yahoo! For Teachers Beta. In addition to fixing several bugs, we also added the following new features:
+ You can now publish Yahoo! Teacher Documents outside the closed beta so that you can share them with your colleagues.
+ When you drag images, text or web sites into a Yahoo! Teacher Document, a “Sources” list for the Gobbled assets will automatically be generated and displayed at the bottom of the page.
+ On the Explore page, the Top Rated, Most Copied, and Most Recent project box now displays the author’s name and provides a link to their portfolio. This improvement will help you discover new projects as well as new colleagues to add to My Community.
+ When a colleague leaves feedback on your project page, you can click on their name to view their Yahoo! For Teachers ePortfolio and see what projects they are sharing with the community. You can then add them as a colleague, copy a project or project asset.
Thanks to everyone for reporting bugs and continuing to provide us with suggestions on how we can make Yahoo! For Teachers even better. We really appreciate your feedback–keep it coming!
Derek
Yahoo! For Teachers Team
Downtime Notice
This morning we discovered a wee little bug that is preventing new users from registering with Yahoo! For Teachers. Please know that our crack engineering team is working to resolve the issue and I’ll be posting updates here to keep you all in the loop.
In the meantime, why not check out our Yahoo! For Teachers community outposts on Flickr, Yahoo! Groups or Jumpcut?
Derek
Yahoo! For Teachers Team
Update, Monday January 14
6:32 PST: The bug is squished! Our brilliant engineering team has fixed the registration glitch. If you’ve received an invite to join Yahoo! For Teachers and were unable to register, you’re all set to have another go at it. If you experience any problems, be sure to let us know.
Growing Up Digital
Raised in the world of digital media, Gen Y have irrevocably blurred the lines between their online and offline lives. In the upcoming documentary Growing Up Online, Frontline will investigate “the realities and misconceptions of teen life on the internet.”
But parents aren’t alone in trying to navigate their children through the maze of online identities, social networks, blogs, cyberbullying and digital literacy. Educators too are trying to figure out how to keep 21st century kids engaged in 19th century school system.
Where do textbooks and lectures fit in with a net-centric generation that values their ability to use the web to create a self-paced, customized, on-demand learning path that includes multiple forms of interactive, social and self-publishing media tools?
Most importantly, this episode of Frontline promises to provide parents, teachers, and society at large with a better understanding and insight of what it means to have a “totally wired” childhood.
FRONTLINE presents
GROWING UP ONLINE
Tuesday, January 22, 2008, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS
www.pbs.org/frontline/kidsonline
Related Links
Derek
Yahoo! For Teachers Team
