Posted by Steve Denniston on 28th April 2008
Google Tools for Educators are a great way for students and staff to collaborate on documents, presentations or spreadsheets. And now, there are simple tutorials from Atomic Learning available to help learn how to use Google Tools for Educators. The godo news is, while Atomic Learning usually charges an annual fee to use their tutorials, these are free. Check them out at Google Documents, Google Presentations, and Google Spreadsheets.
Posted in Free Tools, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Posted by Steve Denniston on 23rd April 2008
Dena Faust has compiled a resource that lists some common Web 2.0 tools (such as wikis, blogs, podcasts, discussion boards, voicethread, and social bookmarking) and shares ways to integrate these free tools into the classroom. In addition to some general ideas for integration, she lists some of the best web sites on these topics.
If you have the time, consider exploring the Classroom 2.0 social networking site that contains this resource. You will find numerous topics relating technology integration.
Posted in Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Posted by Diane Zoellmer on 22nd April 2008
I own more digital cameras than I care to admit and, since I’m a camera addict, I get asked by people all of the time which camera they should buy. My answer is always the same, “It depends…”
It really does depend on several factors. One of the first considerations is your budget. After that, there are several things you should ask yourself.
- How are you going to use the camera?
- Is size/weight/portability an issue?
- Do you want a point and shoot camera?
- Will you be taking action shots? kids/sports/animals?
- Do you want to take close-up photos?
- Will you be traveling outside the US taking pictures?
There are several web sites that can help you determine which camera might be a good one for you. One of my all-time favorites is Digital Photography Review. This site can help you compare cameras and look at brands of cameras. It also has reveiws of cameras as they appear on the market.
The REMC Association has a pdf on their web site to help you make decisions when purchasing several products, including digital cameras. Click on this link and then on Digital Cameras.
Another site to help you choose is A 9 Step Guide to Buying a Digital Camera.
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Posted by Diane Zoellmer on 21st April 2008
If you’re looking for an easy paint program packed with features, ArtRage is your tool. The full version of ArtRage 2.5 is available to download for Windows and OS X for $25, ArtRage 2.5 Plus CD with an 80 page full color manual is $39.95, but a Starter version is FREE!
In the Starter version, you can paint with oils, sketch with pencils, chalk, crayons, and markers. As you move your cursor across your “paper”, you run out of paint and chalk just as you would using real paint or chalk. You can also see the texture of the paint on the paper and can manipulate it with an artist’s palette knife.
In the Full version you can use an airbrush, sprinkle glitter, paint with gold leaf, silver foil and other metallic colors. You can even load in your own photos as Tracing Images to help you recreate them as paintings. The full version also allows you to use stencils and rulers.
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Posted by Steve Denniston on 20th April 2008
Earlier this month, all of the second semester grades for students in Evansville, Indiana were lost through an unfortunate turn of events. And while that was unfortunate, it raised some questions in the mind of Jeff Giddins, author of the Southeast Georgia Tech Integration Blog, on how assessment is documented.
Even though a technology glitch can result in lost grades, other kinds of technology can act as a back-up. For example, if all the teachers in a school were able to make digital publishing tools available to students so that each pupil could maintain a digital portfolio of work in a variety of formats and a variety of locations (i.e., Moodles, blog posts, wikis, websites, podcasts, et cetera), the likelihood of losing everything would be minimized. There would always be artifacts of student learning handy if assessment and grading had to be revisited. In the event of a loss of grades, the availability of well-understood rubrics and examples of student work would mitigate a great deal of anxiety.
If you were looking for another reason to justify the use of blogs or other online means of assessment, here is another reason worth considering.
Posted in Assessment, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Posted by Steve Denniston on 16th April 2008
Edutopia magazine, published by the George Lucas Education Foundation, publishes several articles about education in general as well as articles about the role of technology in education. This article, titled Voice Threads: Extending The Classroom With Multimedia Interactive Albums, gives an excellent overview. Participants in the Muskegon ISD’s Tech Integration Series have been (or will be) trained on this cool resource, but if you want to learn on your own, there are some excellent tutorials on the VoiceThreads web site. It also points out (in the third paragraph and at the end of the article) that there is now a web site where you can find VoiceThreads specific to K12 education.
Posted in Free Tools, Multimedia, Tutorials | No Comments »
Posted by Steve Denniston on 10th April 2008
For each day of the week, United Streaming provides links to videos highlighting something of significance that happened on that day in history. Links are provided for all of the primary subject areas. To see material for a given day, click on the underlined number on the calendar.
Posted in Resources, Tutorials | No Comments »
Posted by Steve Denniston on 9th April 2008
The writing prompt builder is a tool that helps you create writing prompts for your students based on materials available in United Streaming. On the homepage, look in the Teacher Center on the right, and click on the Writing Prompt Builder. You have two options – search the writing prompt library for existing projects (note the four options), or create a new writing prompt.
Complete the information requested (including a title, type of writing prompt, subject area, and grade level). Click Save. You will be prompted to save the file in a folder. You can save it to an existing folder, or you can create a folder. On the next screen, find and select the appropriate image to use with the writing prompt. Click Save, then click Continue. On the next screen, select a font, size, color and style for your writing prompt title. The writing prompt caption appears below the image, and is where you would type the writing prompt question/statement. Again, select a font, size, color and style. Click Save, then click Continue. On the fourth screen, you are given an opportunity to preview the writing prompt. Click Save, then click Continue. The next screen provides instructions for providing students with access (or it can be displayed using the data projector in the classroom).
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Posted by Steve Denniston on 8th April 2008
The Quiz Builder feature allows you to provide materials for students to view, then answer questions about the material. On the homepage, look in the Teacher Center on the right, and click on the Quiz Builder link. You have two options – search the quiz library for existing projects (note the four options), or create a new quiz.
Complete the information requested (including a title, subject area, grade level, quiz instructions, the quiz objectives and teacher notes. Click Save. You will be prompted to save the file in a folder. You can save it to an existing folder, or you can create a folder. At the next screen, select full-length videos or video clips upon which the quiz questions will be based. Click on Save, then click on Continue. The third step is to create questions. You can create new questions or select questions from the databank. When finished, click Save, then click Continue. You will be allowed to preview the quiz. When finished, click on Save, then click Continue. The last step (Quiz Summary) provides instructions on how to access the quiz.
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Posted by Steve Denniston on 7th April 2008
The Assignment Builder feature in Discovery Streaming (formerly called United Streaming) allows you to pull together resources in a central location, from which students conduct their work (in class or as homework). An important caution about Discovery Streaming. To be compliant with copyright law, you cannot post a video from Discovery Streaming on your blog or web site. However, you can create an assignment and post the link for access. During class, you can provide students with the password needed to access the assignment.
On the homepage, look in the Teacher Center on the right, and click on the Assignment Builder link. A screen like the following appears. You have two options – search the assignment library for existing projects (note the four options), or create a new assignment.
When creating a new assignment, click on the “Create New” icon. Complete the information requested (including a title, grade level, assignment instructions, the learning objectives and teacher notes. Click Save. You will be prompted to save the file in a folder. You can save it to an existing folder, or you can create a folder. From this location, you can add media such as video clips, activities (such as quizzes or writing prompts), or relevant web sites. When finished, click on Save, then Continue. Enter the instructions that would appear with each material type (i.e. what you want students to do with the video clips or web sites). Click on Save, then Continue. You can preview the assignment (as it would appear to students). Click Save, then click Continue. This final screen displays the location of the assignment within My Content, as well as instructions on how students can access the assignment. Note that when a student completes an assignment, you will receive an email notification.
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