Wordle is an online tool (toy) for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.The Wordle below was created from tags in my delicious account. Wouldn’t this be fun in a Language Arts class? It could also be used in a computer class to demo tag clouds and how the words appear smaller or larger depending on how often they’re used.Try one youself at http://www.wordle.net.

There are dozens of search engines available for public use. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. That’s why I tend to use more than one search engine when researching because one engine may catch a key web site that another engine may have overlooked (or buried deep in the list). One search engine that I reference often is “Clusty”. What makes it so appealing is that when you may type in a keyword or phrase (such as Marzano’s “Cues, Questions and Advance Organizers” strategy), it does more than just list umpteen sites. It breaks the key phrase into smaller groups (clusters). In the case shown to the left, it displays 10 of the 21 clusters available on the topic. Most of the clusters were relevant to the key search.  This is a great tool for narrowing your focus in a timely manner.

In order to embed the video you have created into a Power Point presentation, you first need to convert it to a .wmv file. All movies need to be in that format to play well with Power Point.I have created a video tutorial to show how to do that with a program I talked about earlier, VideoLAN.
Assuming you have downloaded that program, click the tutorial link below, there is also a .pdf file of the steps needed to convert a file using VideoLAN.

Video Tutorial

Converting Flash Document

When that step is complete, you can simply go to the page in Power Point you want to embed the video and follow these steps.1. Select “Insert” then “Movies and Sounds” then “Movie From File”
2. Browse to the file you want to embed and select “OK”
3. it will ask if you want it to play automatically or when clicked, I suggest “When Clicked”.
4. Test your slide to make sure everything works!

Bernie Dodge, best known as the creator of the webquest, has written an article titled Four NETS for Better Searching. It has been available on the web for a few years, but was recently updated. This article shares four key ideas to keep in mind when searching for information on the Internet:

Start Narrow – To use Dodge’s reasoning, “If you know what you’re after, why not start by asking for it as precisely as you can.”

Find Exact Phrases – You will find this most helpful when looking for exact phrases such as proper names of places, people and specific resources. 

Trim Back The URL – Many sites have content within folders, and in some cases, folders within folders. Try removing the last part of the address. You will often find more information on your topic. It is also a way to troubleshoot if you get the dreaded “page cannot be found” message. By trimming back the address, you may find the web site creator simply moved the file to a different location.

Look for Similar Pages – Google has advanced search functions that takes key words and ideas in your search term and finds similar pages.

In the article, Dodge provides some worksheets on which you can test the ideas he presents. Worth taking a look.

In addition to the How To Articles that Steve mentioned in his previous post, TechLearning online also provides How To Videos for quick tips on skills such as mail merge, saving powerpoint slides as digital pictures, understanding web 2.0, using social networking, and writing a blog post in WordPress. They even have a video showing the skill that Steve walks you through two posts ago at Creating Picture Shapes .

Technology and Learning adds a new “Quick Flick” each week and archives previous movies. See them all at http://www.techlearning.com/quickflicks

The people at techlearning.com (also the publishers of the free Technology and Learning magazine) understand the limited time available to teachers. They have produced a series called “How To: Cool Tools” that provides simple explanations on how to integrate technology into the curriculum. Most of the articles are relatively short and include several graphics to illustrate the steps described.

As I write this post, the six most recent articles on this site provide ideas for using multimedia (images, video clips, digital stories) with your curriculum. There is an article on “how to take notes online” written by a west Michigan educator. You can even learn how to create your own interactive CD. 

Sometimes, a little variety can go a long way. Consider placing a picture for your PowerPoint presentation inside a shape (such as a triangle, star, circle, etc).  It will take away some risk of being seen as mundane.

The following tip works with PowerPoint versions 2000-2004, and while I have not personally tested Office 2007, I would assume it is still available in that version.

Step 1:
Click on Drawing Tools from the “Drawing Toolbar” (most likely at the bottom of your screen). Select Basic Shapes (or any of the categories) to select a shape in which you want to place the picture.

Step 2:
Right click on the shape, then select “Format AutoShape” from the drop-down menu. Click on the down arrow next to the Fill “Color” and select “Fill Effects”.

Step 3:
From the “Fill Effects” dialogue box, select Picture from the four tabs presented at the top, and then click on the “Select Picture” button.

Step 4:
Browse to find the picture you want to insert inside the shape, then click Insert. From the remaining dialogue box, select OK.

Step 5:
Select Preview if you want to see what the shape would look like, or click OK to accept your choice.

While every classroom may have different types of technology equipment, the common thread is how to organize the resources you have. Check out the Managing Classroom Technology Resources web site.

The “Hardware” section provides tips for connecting as well as caring for hardware. The “Management” section gives ideas for placement, signage, requesting assistance and more. The “Grouping” category focuses on using technology with whole group, small groups, and partners. The last three sections are geared primarily for teachers in the district hosting the site (Kent School District in Washington state), but you may find a nugget that triggers your creative juices.

There are a couple of ways to do this depending on what Internet browser you use.  The easiest way is to use a website to download the video.  There are a couple out there, this is one I have used most recently because it does many different kinds of video, not just those from You Tube.

Here’s How:

1. Find a You Tube video you would like to save, highlight and copy the URL. (Ctrl + C)
2. Go to this website: http://keepvid.com and paste the URL in the box (Ctrl + V) and click the “Download” button.
3. A new box will open up, click the “Download Link” and save it to a location you can find later. (i.e. your Desktop)
4. The file will download and be called “get_video.flv”.
5. To rename the file, right click on the file, choose “Rename” type a different name, just make sure it ends in .flv (This means it’s a flash file)
6. The file is now downloaded and can be played on your computer if you have a flash player installed.

If you don’t have a flash player, the next post will give you a source for a free one.  If you want to use it in a Power Point presentation, you’ll need to convert it to a .wmv file.  That will be the final post in this series

Now that you have your flash file, you can do a couple of things with it. If you want to simply view or show it, you need to have a flash video player installed on your computer. There are many good ones out there, the one I prefer is called VideoLAN. The reason I like this particular tool, is with it you can view many different types of video files, it’s Open Source (Read: FREE), and with it you can convert a flash video into a Windows Media File.  There is more information about that in the third part of this post.

Here is the link to download VideoLAN.