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The best collection of open source software close at hand « Marcel’s Blog
I’ve stumbled upon what seems to be the best collection of open source software for the Windows platform, made to be close at hand.
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Some thoughts & ideas about QR codes. « TJ Houston.com
There are several people out there that are talking about using QR codes in the classroom. I do not see QR codes being a fad that is going away. QR codes are everywhere. I think you will find QR codes to be a great way to share information with others, as well as a cool way to change up your lessons. Below, you will find the tools necessary to create QR codes, as well as some ideas on how to use QR codes.
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Full List – The 50 Best Websites of 2011 – TIME
We honor the scrappy newcomers and established players that make the Web so useful, entertaining and just plain indispensable
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Everyone’s Web is a little bit different. Though we’re all pulling from the same grab-bag of Internet stuff — travel blogs, political commentary, cat videos — it’s unique choices that create your personal Web. Now you can see what your Web actually looks like. All you have to do is answer 20 simple
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Safari Omnibar adds search to Safari’s location bar | Browsers | Macworld
Omnibar is free, and runs as a SIMBL plug-in; it works with the latest versions of Safari in both Lion and Snow Leopard. After you install the plug-in and restart Safari, the search box in Safari’s toolbar will vanish. Now, when you type search terms into the single location field and press return, you’ll trigger an immediate Google search.
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10 Google Chrome Apps for Increased Productivity
Since Google launched its Chrome web store in December, extensions have sprung up to speed up and simplify the messy world of Internet browsing. If you’re a member of the club that spends more time looking at screens than people, some simple browser add-ons can streamline many of your daily processes on the job.
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Microsoft develops most advanced 3D modeling system for the human face – Microsoft
Computer graphics are steadily becoming more realistic in both movies and video games, but Disney’s Brave and Rockstar Games’ L.A. Noire will one day look like amateur’s work. Microsoft researchers have taken 3D modeling a step further with a new technique that leverages both motion capture and 3D scanning. It creates high-fidelity 3D images of the human face that depict not only large-scale features and expressions, but also the accompanied movement of human skin (such as wrinkling).
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Hacker group Anonymous threatens to destroy Facebook Nov. 5 | VentureBeat
Notorious hacker collective Anonymous on Tuesday threatened to “kill” Facebook on Nov. 5, according to a YouTube video spotlighted on official channels used by the group.
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Summer PD: Use a Web Site to Help Manage Your Classroom | Edutopia
Many view classroom management as how a teacher runs the day-to-day operations of the class. In the 21st century, classroom management goes beyond the classroom walls. To keep students working and focused on the tasks at hand, a Web site can be utilized to make class time more efficient.
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WRDSB iPods / iPads in the Classroom Project – Favorite Apps
Collection of iPad and iPod resources from the WRDSB iPod/iPad Project.
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New Feature Log | Prezi Learn Center
Do things look different? That’s because Prezi developers are constantly designing new features to make your Prezi experience better. Check back periodically to see what’s keeping us busy.
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100+ Google Tricks for Teachers | TeachHUB
Now, we can use it a little more easily. With classes, homework, and projects–not to mention your social life–time is truly at a premium for all teachers, so why not take advantage of the wide world that Google has to offer?
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A Box You Want to Uncheck on LinkedIn « Connection Agent
Apparently, LinkedIn has recently done us the “favor” of having a default setting whereby our names and photos can be used for third-party advertising. A friend forwarded me this alert (from a friend, from a friend…) this morning.
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Out with professional development, in with professional learning. | Powerful Learning Practice
Consider the last time you experienced professional development offered by your school or district. Were you engaged in learning? How do you know? How did your learning impact your practice and influence student learning outcomes?
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10 things to know before teaching | Personnel | eSchoolNews.com
From school of education experts to veteran teachers with decades of experience under their belts, eSchool News readers weighed in by the dozens with their best or most useful advice for beginning teachers. Based on these suggestions, here are our readers’ top 10 pieces of wisdom for those considering teaching (edited for brevity).
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There are many applications out there, but getting by free and good ones is not that easy. Today, we are sharing 21 Excellent Google Chrome Applications Worth Checking Out. Read each entry in the list and see which web application suits your needs best.
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Students love tech and Twitter enabled classrooms produce better grades [Infographic] – Shareables
We all love technology, it makes our lives better, it gives us access to better ways to plan and it makes learning easier, but the next generation of students are becoming more reliant on it than ever, perhaps too reliant.
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The State of Mobile Malware [INFOGRAPHIC]
Malware specific to Android devices in particular has been making headlines as of late. In March, Google removed 21 apps from the Android Market after the blog Android Police alerted the company that the apps contained malware and were being used to collect user data.
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Career Quizzes – Canada – Training and Careers
These quizzes will help you explore your work abilities, learning styles and work values. Login to save your quiz results.
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Ten Tell-Tale Signs that It’s Time to Get Back to the Classroom | Edutopia
As we move deeper into August, teachers start to get antsy as the first day of school approaches. Some teachers are thrilled and others are despondent. But most of us are somewhere in the middle — sad about the end of summer, but ready to get back in the saddle.
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Google Unleashes Photovine, a Slick Photo Sharing App
Photovine is a new iPhone app by the Slide team that Google acquired sometime ago if you remember. This app has been under the radar for sometime, spotted first by The Next Web early July. That app is now open to all.
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Rogue websites | School pupils warned against cut-and-paste
THERE are images of a pregnant man, a Victorian-era robot used to solve disputes and websites denying the achievements of US civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King.
An increasing number of rogue sites with political or racist agendas has prompted a warning to schoolchildren against becoming the cut-and-paste generation.
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MoMA | Talk to Me | The Hierarchy of Digital Distractions
Digitial distractions
Monthly Archives: August 2011
Hear More
Yesterday, Stephen Hurley posted a reply to the post that I made about a recent professional learning event. In conclusion, he had indicated that he wanted to hear more.
"Sounds like a pretty rich experience! I’m very intersted in learning about the faction of participants to th wide variety of tools available to them. Was ther any discussion/realization that changes to their teaching approach may be necessary? Would love to hear more!"
That’s gold to a blogger like me. First, someone actually read a post and commented! Secondly, he wants to hear more. So, here’s more.
In particular, I focussed on the "discussion" part and I was reflecting upon various opportunities that are available to teachers for professional learning. Over the years, I’ve taken part in many as both a participant and as a facilitator. There are some that work well and others not so much. These were rolling around in my mind all day and I’m going to use Stephen’s prod as a way to try and collect my thoughts.
First, professional learning when using technology is considerably different than most. There is the learning that must happen, of course, but there are so many other things that have to fall into place in order to make this learning successful. If you’re doing something on the internet, the internet must cooperate. If you’re working with a piece of software, it must be installed successfully and working. Then, of course, there’s the different versions of the software. The latest version typically has more functionality but it can have all the functionality in the world and it’s useless if the participant is working with an older version! In education, we have so many variables…there’s usually a big difference between the technology in use at schools versus what’s in use at home. Throw in computers with i7 processors versus Pentium 2s, Macintosh versus Windows, Netbooks versus laptops versus desktops versus virtual environments and it’s almost an impossible battle at times. Even something as simple as clicking on a submit button can be difficult if it’s not up front and visible but requires some additional scrolling or navigation on a different sized screen. Throw in different skillsets from the learners and – oh my!
There are a number of different ways that the professional learning environment can be structured and I’d like to touch on some that come to mind.
Some rights reserved by One Laptop per Child
I think that the least useful method is one that you’ll see people spending hours and hours developing. In fact, the term "training" is often used instead of learning! I had a superintendent once who called using it with students "barking at the screen". It’s the concept that you can sit back and watch a video on your computer screen and somehow learn all that you need, in your context. It’s almost laughable when you think about it. It’s not devoted to the end users’ learning; it’s devoted to the fact that someone is showing what they can do and are making the assumption that you’ll somehow acquire the skills by watching them. In fact, the only thing that honours the learner is the ability to move the scrubber bar on the video back to replay the video! So, is it completely useless? No, but if everyone has the same layout to their desktop and you’re working with a rudimentary "click here and this happens" approach, it’s an efficient way of saying that you’ve got it covered! Consider that there typically is no mechanism for feedback and that there’s no room for guided individualization in the process. I will, however, turn to this myself if it’s well designed with the learner in mind. For me, that means short 30-45 second snippets to perform one particular task. If there’s an activity that best shows off the power of Web 1.0, this is it.
The appeal though is the ability to do it once, publish, and potentially reach a big body of people. Move up a bit and we come to the world of blogs and MOOCs. This excites me much more because it introduces the concepts of discussion. No more is the learning just one way. The ability to comment and ask questions and interact with the author or other contributors opens a discussion. Even a comment like "it doesn’t do that here" is an invitation for further discussion and clarification. Well crafted blog tutorials will include screen captures and sometimes the important area is highlighted with a spotlight or an arrow so that the learner can zero in on the topic at hand. Participatory learning is powerful.
As we move up the functionality chain, the big difference is the ability to have a discussion about the learning. When all is said and done, we need to remember that we’re human and social by nature. For me, that means having a conversation as the initial learning takes place. Questions are immediately addressed and feedback comes back immediately. This is the way that we’ve always learning and you know what? It works. I used to offer 2-3 workshops a week in the very attractive 4-6pm timeslot! In this case, the focus of the learning was cut back to manageable chunks. I had a discussion with some friends once and we agreed that attending one session was only helpful if you were looking for that elusive one skill you’re missing. Where it was particularly helpful was with repeated attendance so that you could develop a continuum of learnings. Learners and facilitators both function better when questions can be posed as they are needed. The most useful sessions involve learners bringing their own computer so that they can learn in their own reality.
It’s the variations of this that I’ve been involved with over the past year that particularly intrigue me at present. The word "social" just keeps resonating as I think about these.
In the case of the recent OTF event or the CATC Camp event, there were two components that are so valuable. First, you’re removed from your daily routine and plunked into an environment devoted to learning. Secondly, in both cases, there were computer skills share, to be sure, but there was also the conversations to make things so much richer and relevant. I can’t count the number of times that a discussion started with "In my class, I want to …". The task then escalates from simple skill acquisition to a sophisticated approach to implementation. Unlike the static learning that comes from simply watching a video, our discussions wandered into the kindergarten or Grade 9 Science classroom as the learning became customized. In both cases, three days of continuous learning allowed for the construction of a meaningful project that was user driven and not some activity contrived to show some particular thing. CATC Camp showed off an even more unique extension because the teachers come from the same geographic area. There was a group that promised each other to get together just by themselves to extend their learning. Wow.
The Minds on Media is the ultimate coaching format. It’s learner driven as it’s truly the learner who knows where the gaps in understanding exist. You can’t beat a discussion that starts when someone sits beside you and says "I want to learn" or "I want to learn more about". The premise is as simple as that but there’s no limit to where you can take it.
There is an element to the better environments that puts it over the top. Sure, there are discussions about "how do I embed this" but we went far beyond that. Questions like:
- how do I assess this?
- can I exchange files in a different format using this?
- can I involve parents in the learning – can they see their child’s work? can they check homework? if they have some skills and knowledge, can they comment?
- can I use this for groupwork? how do I keep one group from another’s work?
- what happens when things go wrong? how do I fix unfortunate things?
- hey, I could use this for class calendars! hey, I could use this for class newsletters! hey, I could go paperless!
Paperless is big!
Anyway, Stephen, there’s my current thinking. Thoughts?
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OTR Links for 08/21/2011
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Google offers stay-at-home adventurers Street View images of the Amazon – Yahoo! News
In a partnership with the Sustainable Amazon Foundation, a team from Google has taken it upon themselves to map out the endangered South American rainforest as well as collect photo data of the communities of people that live there.
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Twitter: How to Respond to a Negative Tweet
In the area of reputation management, we spend a lot of time talking about how to reply to negative reviews and complaints. But, what happens when someone posts a negative comments about your brand on a site like Twitter?
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ICT Magic Wiki – put a bit of ICT Magic into your lessons
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Interesting presentation of Chrome applications
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Welcome to Your Poplit Station: Using Popular Culture and Media to Enhance Literacy Learning! Media content provided by YouTube.com. This website & questions created by J. Johnson, teacher. This site is not an endorsement of any content provided herein. It is strictly for educational purposes!
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Links to help integrate technology into the classroom
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Every notice that teaching never makes these lists?
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Great concept dealing with the horizon.
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Hills of Sanfransisco – ReflectionOf.Me
Hills of San Francisco
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Put your business on Facebook
More Summer Learning
It’s nice to be back home again. For the past three days, I have been in London facilitating a workshop for Ontario educators with my friend Kelly. The OTF/FEO workshops have to be the greatest deal in professional development. For fifty bucks, you get the session, you’re fed and watered at every location and accommodation is covered. In this case, we stayed in dorm rooms on campus. There was a nice walk over the Thames River to get to the workshop location.
We were working with about 25 educators dealing with wikis and the incorporation of this and other Web 2.0 applications to ramp up the use of new technologies in the classroom. Our goal was to take folks from wherever they were to leaving with a learning space ready for their classrooms, rich with multimedia components and content customized for their reality. Talk about your differentiation!
The impressive thing about learning events like this is the diversity of the class. Since the OTF makes opportunities equally to the four federations, we had a nice collection of elementary and secondary, English and French teachers in the class. We had experience from folks who are technology teachers who use computes daily to motivated newcomers. They were checking in from Windsor, London, Toronto, Penetanguishene.
Home base for all of the learning was PBWorks. Our agenda for the event was very simple.
- Day 1 – Wiki Setup
- Day 2 – Exploring Web 2.0
- Day 3 – Making it Your Own
Those were pretty generous and liberal starting points. From working on sandbox pages on the class wiki, participants moved from wide open exploration to a pretty focussed and personalized experience. Over the journey, we used tools like Embedit.in, Google Documents and Forms, Jing, Pod-o-matic, YouTube, TeacherTube, Voki, VoiceThread, Bitstrips for Schools, Wordle, Tagxedo, and more. The goal was to find the best tool to address the design and engagement needed for each individual.
Even the technology was diverse!
We were located in a music lecture hall with desks literally screwed to the floor so it was up and down the raised levels to work with people using Windows XP, Windows 7, Macintosh, and even Macintosh on a netbook on their personal devices which pretty nicely attached to the UWO network. For the most part, we were working on the web and so the computer type played a small role (although there sure is a great deal of scrolling on a netbook).
At the end of each day, we all were tired from this intense learning. But, it was a good tired. I’m looking forward to hearing success stories as these professionals turn their efforts into the classrooms in a couple of weeks. Throughout the three days, conversations were focussed on going paperless and using these technologies as ways to engage students and inform parents.
You can’t ask for much more than that. Ontario Educators need to keep their eyes open for OTF/FEO flyers announcing further professional development events or keep an eye on the online PD calendar.
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OTR Links for 08/20/2011
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Making a Podcast With GarageBand for iPad | iPad.AppStorm
With GarageBand installed, an iPad is a powerful and portable tool for musicians. However, just like its desktop version, GarageBand for iPad can also be employed by non-musicians too, as I’ll highlight with a step by step guide to making a podcast on your iPad, complete with accompanying music.
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The 6 Dumbest Things Schools Are Doing in the Name of Safety | Cracked.com
We don’t envy public school teachers and administrators. They have trying jobs, and nobody seems to give them enough credit. Maybe it’s no wonder that schools sometimes go a little crazy and traumatize students.
But sometimes, the craziest things schools do are done in the name of keeping kids safe, all logic be damned. Things like … -
What Messages Do We Give Students with Our Classroom Library Design?
In the article Room for Beliefs: Linking Classroom Design and What We Value, Debbie Miller helps us think through the ways that our room design reflects the things we value about student learning. She provides three important questions to think about when we map out our classroom designs that we want others to be able to answer when they visit our rooms:
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Websites offer tools for making an app without knowing code – USATODAY.com
Thousands of folks have found their way into the Apple and Google app stores with homemade apps that do everything from share contact information by bumping phones together to finding the best price for local gas.
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How a Book is Made: From the Middle Ages to Today | Brain Pickings
I love books, their past and their future. Yet, while ubiquitous and commodified, books and how they come to be remains an enigma for most of us. No longer. From Discovery comes this 5-minute microdocumentary on how books are made
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10 Different Ways To Use Twitter! | Bit Rebels
Twitter has evolved far beyond people updating their status messages with what they are doing. Twitter has even changed that question, “What is Happening?” When I started seriously tweeting, most of the time people were simply small talking with each other.
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The Innovative Educator: Discover what your digital footprint says about you
Does your digital footprint convey the message you want? If you don’t know you should spend time figuring this out. In the 21st century our digital footprint conveys an important image and people should know what that is. Below are ideas that will enable you to explore and consider if your digital footprint conveys the message you want to share with the world. It will also give you ideas for activities you can do with your students so they can do the same.
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Andy Losik – Keynote Address – Hamilton Day of Innovation 2011 (part 1)
From the Hamilton Day of Innovation, Andy Losik’s keynote address.
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Andy Losik – Keynote Address – Hamilton Day of Innovation 2011 (part 1) – YouTube
Andy Losik kicks off the Hamilton (MI) Day of Innovation Conference with this keynote address about bringing great con tent to life and making school work for all kids. Learn more about Jerome Burg at googlelittrips.com. Explore what Dan Meyer offers math instruction at blog.mrmeyer.com.
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Ten Tips for Classroom Management
As classrooms gear up for September, this would be a nice read.
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Ten Tips for Classroom Management | Edutopia
Learn how to improve student engagement and build a positive climate for learning and discipline for grades K-12.
Facebook Security
If you have ever tried to ensure that your privacy settings have been set up properly on Facebook, you know that it’s not an easy task.
It’s not just a matter of an ON/OFF – it’s a matter of a lot of ON/OFFs, pictures and photos, gaming, and then you need to understand the implications of a "friend of a friend" and just what that means. It’s a pretty involved process.
Then, there’s the spammers and the scammers and the hackers and the lot who wish you ill. What’s a person to do? Recently, Facebook has tried to help the cause with the release of the document "A Guide to Facebook Security".
The document is big – 20 pages big. Just the fact that it took that much room to cover the issues confirms that protecting yourself isn’t a simple task. But, the authors seem to have covered it all and dig into the corners of the online service to try and help understand how to set your options and understand what it all means.
I think that Facebook is doing their best to be a responsible online provider by making this available. For education, if you’re going to use Facebook in the classroom, this would be a terrific resource. If you’re not using or allowing Facebook in your schools, it’s still a reference worth sharing with students and their parents during a family internet safety night. It is an important issue that all need to understand and it’s here all in one place rather than scattered throughout the internet.
Follow the link above and grab your copy of this PDF document and take the time to read it. You’ll be glad that you did.
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OTR Links for 08/19/2011
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Better control in Google Sites with page-level permissions – Docs Blog
Using page-level permissions, you can make some pages private for certain users while keeping other pages public for everyone to see. For instance, let’s say you have a Google Site that you’ve shared with your team and your manager. You can allow your team to see one set of pages, let your manager edit another set of pages, and keep yet another set of pages private for only you.
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Facebook Issues Security Guide for Teens, Parents, Teachers
Should be required reading for teens using Facebook.
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Facebook Issues Security Guide for Teens, Parents, Teachers | PCWorld
Facebook has published a free, 20-page guide aimed at teens, their parents and teachers that explains best practices for protecting their safety and privacy on the site.
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PLN Explained By Will Richardson – The Educator’s PLN
This is an explanation of what a personal Learning Network is.
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Free computer science classes online
Stanford Engineering professors are offering three of the school’s most popular computer science courses for free online this fall, and at the same time launching an experiment that could transform the way online education is delivered.
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SlideSushi – Classroom Presentations for Busy Teachers
Classroom Presentations for Busy Teachers
No Signup. No Download. Just Use! -
Twitter Chats and how NOT to swamp your followers
This is a bit of great advice that would work nicely if people had the discipline to do it.
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Occasionally you may want to get involved in a Twitter ‘chat’. These
are a great way to participate with a group discussion but doing so can also swamp your followers with irrelevant tweets. -
Watch television online.
Entertainment
So, what do you do for entertainment? As I type this entry, I’m in a university dorm and there’s no television in my room. I’ve been through my iTunes library a few thousand times so I check to see what’s on the Internet.
I decided that I would do something that I can’t do at home with my incredibly slow internet connection and that is watch a little television online. I remember that I’d installed the Crackle Application in my Chrome browser and so decided to give it a try now that I could.
So, what’s on?
The online guide divides the content into a number of categories and like at home, I had the remote! To be honest, there were many shows and movies that I had never heard about but I flipped into the television category and saw one of my favourites childhood shows – Bewitched. I hadn’t seen that for years!
I was off to the races. Like regular television entertainment, this will keep me amused until something better comes along.
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OTR Links for 08/18/2011
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Many students’ first instinct might be to head to Google’s image search and use the first image that they see, but it is important for all of us to make sure we are following all laws and protecting the rights of others. This includes learning about and following through with attributions and acknowledgements of the source of an image when required.
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Crackle – Watch Movies Online, Free TV Shows, & Original Online Series
Crackle is the place to experience pure entertainment: full-length movies, TV shows, and original series from genres that embody cool — all uncut, uncensored, and unbelievably free. We’ve had enough of “disposable entertainment” that is as relevant as a laughing/dancing baby — we are here to watch and talk about the videos that really matter.
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The idea is simple — You submit a letter, word or phrase and we’ll make it look beautiful with type.
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Gamifying Education.org | Home
Gamification is the use of game-like thinking and elements in places that aren’t traditionally games. The use of game mechanics and dynamics like badges, leaderboards, and actions can be useful for improving motivation and learning in informal and formal settings.
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Adobe® BrowserLab is an online service that helps ensure your web content displays as intended. Accurately preview web pages across multiple browsers and operating systems, navigate links, and use diagnostic tools to optimize websites efficiently.
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BBC – History – How to do History Trail
The historian – detective, judge or analyst?
The clues that uncover past lives
Making history talk through oral history -
Archiving Early America: Primary Source Material from 18th Century America
Here at Archiving Early America you will be rewarded with a unique array of primary source material from 18th Century America. Scenes and portraits from original newspapers, magazines, maps and writings come to life just as they appeared to this country’s forebears more than 250 years ago.
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Geography Report Card Finds Students Lagging – NYTimes.com
Even as schools aim to better prepare students for a global work force, fewer than one in three American students are proficient in geography, with most eighth graders unable to explain what causes earthquakes or accurately describe the American Southwest, according to a report released Tuesday morning.
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How to Use Twitter (and Why It’s Not a Waste of Time) « Indiana Jen
Oh Twitter… How misunderstood you are. You are the semi-colon of social media – people have an idea of your existence but many have not fully grasped your usefulness and beauty. I love twitter and find it immensely valuable for a myriad of reasons: yes, it can be a time waster, however, it can also be a news source, a way to gauge public sentiment, and even a research tool.
Canadian History
I really like serendipity. Just when you think that you’ve got things nailed, something comes along to change the way that you might use a tool.
Such a happening occurred yesterday. I got a new follower – @canadatimeline.
Just the day previously, I had a conversation with a friend about the amount of non-Canadian content that’s available online. If you’re looking for Canadiana, you really have to work at it. Not anymore.
With the addition of this account to my followers, it should be considerably easier to find things. The account appears to broadcast “This day in Canadian History” twitter messages. As I checked its timeline, I notice the following…
and
and
I am excited about this find. The bio provides a couple of supporting websites: http://canadachannel.ca/HCO and http://northernblue.ca/canadianbirthdays to provide event more information. It looks like a great resource and one that would provide that morning bit of trivia for classroom discussions. Why not follow this account yourself?
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