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.

Isn’t it fun when you can tell someone else to do something for you? Or in this case, telling a computer to do your work for you. For example, instead of manually visiting 10 web sites to see if content has been updated, you can set up a Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feeder that will automatically detect if content has been updated and notify you of the changes.  Meaning… you visit just one web site.

 Google Reader is one of the best RSS aggregators. Here are some instructions on how to set up a free Google Reader account and how to use it.

How To Set Up Google Reader

Glendale Community College (Glendale, Arizona) has published several video demonstration tutorials, including File Management. Click on the preceding link to learn how to: create new folders, rename folders, rename files, copy files, cut files and delete files.