ATEC, the Appalachian Technology in Education Consortium has released a free resource in PDF format called the Teacher's Technology Handbook: A Resource to Support Effective Technology Integration. I printed it out and it is full of good information. At 190 pages it sure makes me appreciate having a networked copier. Sections include:
Section 1: Technology Integration Lessons
Section 2: Why Integrate Technology
Section 3: Effective Technology Integration
Section 4: Planning Technology Integration Lessons
Section 5: Technology Tools for Learning
Section 6: Implementing Integration Lessons
You can download individual sections or the entire book.
Showing posts with label links. Show all posts
Showing posts with label links. Show all posts
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Captured....at long last....
Detectives from Interpol celebrated today after security cameras captured a picture of the elusive Carmen Sandiego. Although Interpol has not yet apprehended their subject they feel confident that they may at long last capture her. I have my own doubts.
Image found at BoingBoing (link not always safe for work)
Blabberize....
I can't stop with the video...now that I've started. Not trying to pick on JW, I just happened to have his photo on hand for other (not nearly as devious) purposes. What about making one of these to get your students' attention. Upload a picture and position the jaw for talking and that is pretty much it. This was made at a site called Blabberize.
Fuzzwich...another fun video tool...
Video will certainly get your students attention...especially when it is silly video. Why not make a little video using Fuzzwich and link to it in Blackboard....it might just get someone's attention.
My embedded video might show up, but just in case here is the linked version.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
New way to get their attention....
Plain text is so boring....well, at least it is to our students. Remember....they are the digital natives and prefer video/audio over plain old text. What about using a video message to get their attention every now and then.
BombayTV network has marketing campaign right now that allows you to add subtitles of your own to their short video snippets.
Take a look at my sample video....what happens when someone has problems with the indicators.
My Movie (no teachers were hurt in the production of this movie)
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Links for Week of October 9, 2007
OLPC
David Pogue writes about technology for the New York Times. He recently wrote an article about the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative to bring technology to 3rd world schools. Be sure to check out his video too. The laptop was originally planned to be $100, but things happen and the price of the laptop is now a “whopping” $188. As a fundraiser, OLPC is offering people living in the United States the chance to buy one of the laptops. For $400 you are actually buying two laptops….one for yourself and then the second one is donated. The laptop is small (it is for children after all) but it is packed with innovative features. The machine is rugged and suffers no ill effects with brief drops. It is also self contained….so nothing can get into the laptop….even spilled liquid does nothing because even the keyboard is sealed. The organization has even engineered a new battery chemistry which is much cheaper than regular laptop batteries and lasts much longer.
http://www.edsupport.cc/mguhlin/share/index.php?n=Work.VideoGrab
Basically you download the video as a flv type file. That is a flash video file. By default your machine probably doesn’t even know how to play that. Don’t give up yet….you just have to help your machine. You can download a piece of software (such as VLC media player) that will open those flc files. You can also use other tools that will try to convert the flc to a more common format like avi or mov. YouTube Catcher is a piece of software that I came upon last week. It is housed at sourceforge. Sourceforge provides server space for groups of people developing open source software. I tried out YouTube Catcher and it downloaded and converted my YouTube video to avi all in one action. Once in avi I can play it for the class, edit it in Movie Maker, or even include it in a Powerpoint presentation. Hah….no YouTube blocks for me (or you).
Looking for Intervention Ideas?
If that is the case then you might be well served to check Intervention central. This is a great place for teachers to share with teachers about what is working in their classroom. This site not only has teaching ideas…they also have assessment ideas. Check out the Curriculum Based Measures (CBM) link to find ideas of measuring student growth. They even include some Excel templates that you can plug in your own numbers and get different graphs with show growth over time.
David Pogue writes about technology for the New York Times. He recently wrote an article about the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative to bring technology to 3rd world schools. Be sure to check out his video too. The laptop was originally planned to be $100, but things happen and the price of the laptop is now a “whopping” $188. As a fundraiser, OLPC is offering people living in the United States the chance to buy one of the laptops. For $400 you are actually buying two laptops….one for yourself and then the second one is donated. The laptop is small (it is for children after all) but it is packed with innovative features. The machine is rugged and suffers no ill effects with brief drops. It is also self contained….so nothing can get into the laptop….even spilled liquid does nothing because even the keyboard is sealed. The organization has even engineered a new battery chemistry which is much cheaper than regular laptop batteries and lasts much longer.
Don't Let that Block stop you from playing YouTube
Have you ever had a video that you really wanted to use with your students? Me too. When you are working on your lesson plans you come across just the right video (yes, YouTube has all types of videos, not just people lip synching popular songs) to get the extra umph to that lesson. You come to school, start working thru the lesson and now to really get the students’ attention you try to pull up the YouTube video. Ugh…that’s right, YouTube is blocked here at school. Well, with a little upfront work you can overcome come that. All you need to do is download YouTube from home and then play it at school. Videos are big so using a flash drive or even emailing yourself the video will work. Heck, if you have your tablet, you can attach to YouTube from and download the video to your machine and then play it from the saved location the next day. Here are some tools that will help you with the process.http://www.edsupport.cc/mguhlin/share/index.php?n=Work.VideoGrab
Basically you download the video as a flv type file. That is a flash video file. By default your machine probably doesn’t even know how to play that. Don’t give up yet….you just have to help your machine. You can download a piece of software (such as VLC media player) that will open those flc files. You can also use other tools that will try to convert the flc to a more common format like avi or mov. YouTube Catcher is a piece of software that I came upon last week. It is housed at sourceforge. Sourceforge provides server space for groups of people developing open source software. I tried out YouTube Catcher and it downloaded and converted my YouTube video to avi all in one action. Once in avi I can play it for the class, edit it in Movie Maker, or even include it in a Powerpoint presentation. Hah….no YouTube blocks for me (or you).
Looking for Intervention Ideas?
If that is the case then you might be well served to check Intervention central. This is a great place for teachers to share with teachers about what is working in their classroom. This site not only has teaching ideas…they also have assessment ideas. Check out the Curriculum Based Measures (CBM) link to find ideas of measuring student growth. They even include some Excel templates that you can plug in your own numbers and get different graphs with show growth over time.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Links for week of 9.24.07
So I'm taking a tech course and I need to come up with some project to share with the group also taking the class. I've done the data piece that I really wanted to check out (comparing our home grown reading assessment with the OAT as a predictor) and the results are very encouraging.
But I think there are so many other great things happening on the web that I want to share with people. For the past three years I have been reading quite a few blogs. Most of the blogs are edtech related...but some of lifehacks and a few are even music.
When I'm teaching my summer courses, people always ask me how I learned about some fo the different things I teach. Many times the answer is by reading my blogs online. Blogs are the best way to stay up to date with what is current on the web. I would like to try sharing some of these links on a regular basis with a few comments about them. I hope some people will find something valuable for their students or even their own life. So off to the links....
35+ Spectacular and Practical Time Saving Tips
Everyone (especially teachers) feeled pressed for time and need to feel like they are making the best use of their available time. This list of helpful tips gives some useful ideas on time savers. Some of my favorites are their tips for the parents. Getting your children to help out when possible is big. Everyone needs to do their fair share before bed. They also have some great ideas about handling the clutter that toys eventually become.....rotate them out! I wish my wife would take advantage of one of their shopping tips and that is to call ahead. Don't drive all over town to see who has what. If you are looking for something specific and you aren't sure the store will have it....but all means call them and ask. Of course, this is assuming you actually get someone at the other end that knows anything about customer service....but that will have to be a later post.
http://www.trymango.com/
I'm not sure how they do this but Mango is a new service that tries to teach you foreign languages over the web. I registered and it appears to be free....no idea how long that will last but pretty neat. Among their languages are Spanish, Russian, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Greek. They also have English for Spanish speakers and Polish Speakers. The world is shrinking and we are witnessing it. There was a time when we could get by not speaking multiple languages....but I'm afraid that time is fading fast. Get a leg up by learning with Mango.
http://lifehacker.com/software/how-to/get-32-aa-batteries-from-a-single-6-volt-battery-301237.php Lifehacker is one my favorite blogs. They post ways to use technology to enhance or simplify (not usually) your life. I just love the above little video they share. Did you know there is a difference between a battery and a cell? Well, I guess a battery is a set of cells. Check out this video and the hack they share for you to save some money on battery purchases. Turns out some of our batteries are actually just shells that hold smaller batteries. The big 6 volt batteries (you know the heavy ones) actually contain 32 AA batteries. You can save some money by buying the 6 volts batteries and just using the AAs.
http://pikiwiki.com/
I'll call this one the cool tool of the week. A wiki is a shared website....multiple authors can add content. Well, pikiwiki takes the wiki concept in another direction. It allows people to easily add text, videos, photos, and audio to the pikiwiki page they create. How cool is that?! A student can post a visual or perhaps a story they've written (with audio, of course) and ask others to comment on it. What a great way to work the editing process!
But I think there are so many other great things happening on the web that I want to share with people. For the past three years I have been reading quite a few blogs. Most of the blogs are edtech related...but some of lifehacks and a few are even music.
When I'm teaching my summer courses, people always ask me how I learned about some fo the different things I teach. Many times the answer is by reading my blogs online. Blogs are the best way to stay up to date with what is current on the web. I would like to try sharing some of these links on a regular basis with a few comments about them. I hope some people will find something valuable for their students or even their own life. So off to the links....
35+ Spectacular and Practical Time Saving Tips
Everyone (especially teachers) feeled pressed for time and need to feel like they are making the best use of their available time. This list of helpful tips gives some useful ideas on time savers. Some of my favorites are their tips for the parents. Getting your children to help out when possible is big. Everyone needs to do their fair share before bed. They also have some great ideas about handling the clutter that toys eventually become.....rotate them out! I wish my wife would take advantage of one of their shopping tips and that is to call ahead. Don't drive all over town to see who has what. If you are looking for something specific and you aren't sure the store will have it....but all means call them and ask. Of course, this is assuming you actually get someone at the other end that knows anything about customer service....but that will have to be a later post.
http://www.trymango.com/
I'm not sure how they do this but Mango is a new service that tries to teach you foreign languages over the web. I registered and it appears to be free....no idea how long that will last but pretty neat. Among their languages are Spanish, Russian, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Greek. They also have English for Spanish speakers and Polish Speakers. The world is shrinking and we are witnessing it. There was a time when we could get by not speaking multiple languages....but I'm afraid that time is fading fast. Get a leg up by learning with Mango.
http://lifehacker.com/software/how-to/get-32-aa-batteries-from-a-single-6-volt-battery-301237.php Lifehacker is one my favorite blogs. They post ways to use technology to enhance or simplify (not usually) your life. I just love the above little video they share. Did you know there is a difference between a battery and a cell? Well, I guess a battery is a set of cells. Check out this video and the hack they share for you to save some money on battery purchases. Turns out some of our batteries are actually just shells that hold smaller batteries. The big 6 volt batteries (you know the heavy ones) actually contain 32 AA batteries. You can save some money by buying the 6 volts batteries and just using the AAs.
http://pikiwiki.com/
I'll call this one the cool tool of the week. A wiki is a shared website....multiple authors can add content. Well, pikiwiki takes the wiki concept in another direction. It allows people to easily add text, videos, photos, and audio to the pikiwiki page they create. How cool is that?! A student can post a visual or perhaps a story they've written (with audio, of course) and ask others to comment on it. What a great way to work the editing process!
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