Posted by Steve Denniston on 17th November 2008
A company called Custom Guide provides several training options primarily on software applications, but they have also included on their web site free quick reference guides on a variety of topics. Most of the QRG’s focus on Microsoft products such as Word, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Internet Explorer 7. However, you can also find quick reference guides on Adobe products (including former Macromedia applications), Firefox web browser, and QuickBooks. The QRG they created for basic file management and understanding Windows XP is one of the best I’ve personally seen. To obtain the free QRG’s, go to the Custom Guides (qr.customguide.com) web site. On the left, you will find a large button (see illustration to the left) promoting their product. Click once on the name of the reference guide you want. When the PDF file opens, click on the Save button in the upper left corner. Indicate where you want to save the file, and click OK.
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Posted by Diane Zoellmer on 7th October 2008
Vicki Davis has created a free online workshop, Seven Steps to a Flat Classroom, that is being offered through Atomic Learning for a limited time. What’s a Flat Classroom? According to Davis, creator of the award-winning Flat Classroom Project, it is “the expansion of your classroom to include global communities and different forms of communication like blogs and wikis.”
The workshop consists of over 70 short video tutorials to help you understand what a flat classroom is and how you can connect yourself and your students, create “prolearners”, and communicate. There are also videos addressing online ethics and character, citizenship, safety, and choice.
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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.
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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.
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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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Posted by fcstech on 2nd April 2008
I subscribe to an electronic newsletter from MACUL called the “Big Deal Book of Technology” and in the April 1, 2008 edition I noticed that Atomic Learning has created free video training sessions for Google Docs. It will only be free through May, so don’t hesitate to check it out. This quote is taken directly from the newsletter:
“Atomic Learning recently announced a free tutorial series on Google Docs, the free Web-based word-processing program that allows users to keep documents up to date and allows selected individuals to update files from their personal computers. The Atomic Learning series, titled “Google Docs—A Focus on Docs,” includes more that 60 short, show-and-tell movies that guide users through the creation, implementation and use of Google Docs. Topics include working with documents, organizing files, document options, sharing and publishing, working with collaboration, and utilizing the edit, insert and revision tab options. The series is being offered, free of charge, through May 1, 2008.”
View the Videos Here!
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Posted by fcstech on 27th March 2008
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!
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Posted by Diane Zoellmer on 21st March 2008
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
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