-
Compare screen type fonts.
-
Interactive Whiteboards are phenomenal tools.
-
"Ten days later I am still feeling the positive energy from the event. My two big take aways from the event were: Humanity and Serendipity. These two words are something anyone can experience at any moment and it was something which many of us felt during the two days we occupied the Kodak Theatre."
-
"We thought we’d compile a beginner’s guide to installing it. The main thing is: don’t be afraid. It’s much easier than you think. And the satisfaction once you’ve done it is… well, you be the judge. But we were punching the air for hours."
-
"Get notified whenever your brand / product / company / … or any keyword
appears in Twitter Lists of your choice" -
"The first thing you notice with Wave is that everything is collaborative. Sure, you could write a gadget that only displays things locally… but then why use Wave?"
-
"The following list of values will help you develop a clearer sense of what's most important to you in life, as explained in the article Living Your Values. "
-
But watch out Twitter. Google Wave is going to take this digitally-enabled conference back-channel a step further.
-
Thinking of getting into blogging? I hope you have a good support group at home. It’s especially helpful if your spouse is someone who “gets” blogging and social media. If not, be prepared for lots of questions.
-
One of the things I hear pretty regularly is that not everyone needs (or wants) to be a programmer. Some people want or perhaps even need to do some programming or more generally programming like activities but they don’t want to be full time programmers or computer scientists.
-
"It has been an interesting week if you are following news about Twitter. After their launch of lists, most people probably figured that Twitter would get fairly quiet for a while. Well, it sounds like this is a different kind of Twitter team. Instead of waiting for a week or a month to go by, Twitter has let some other new items out of the bag."
-
Forty-One Interesting Ways to use your Pocket Video Camera in the Classroom
-
"If you are a corporate trainer, teacher or a professor and would like to reach the growing internet community with your knowledge then the Eduslide public version is for you.
You also get access to over 780 courses from VTC and you can use the individual lessons in your courses."
-
"ZAP Reader is a web based speed reading program that will change the way you read on your computer."
-
Free, easy and secure group sharing
-
"Put an end to endless emails, multiple document versions, unstructured wiki pages and confusing planning tools with a simple, yet powerful and flexible structured thinking tool."
-
"Sylvia Martinez is spot on in her post today, “Students are not the enemy.” Shame on the vendor and vendor representative, Sophos and Chris Ridgway, for sharing an upcoming session at NYSCATE (The New York State Association for Computers and Technologies in Education) conference titled, “The Enemy Within: Stop Students from Bypassing Your Web Filters.”"
-
Site for royalty free music.
-
"Timetoast is a great way to share the past, or even the future… Creating a timeline takes minutes, it's as simple as can be."
-
"The Jobless Rate for People Like You
Not all groups have felt the recession equally. " -
"There is a Chinese saying: When you start well, you are 50% successful. The same goes to the receiving of your new staff on the first day. Building a good relationship from the very beginning with new staff will ensure that they stay with the company for a long time."
-
Helper information for system administrator interviews (and just good reference materials)
GEC Computers in the Classroom- Doug’s Delicious Account
- PIZZAZ! Creative Writing and Storytelling Ideas November 8, 2009
- MagToo - Facebook slideshows, MySpace, slideshow, photo sharing, zoom, panorama, trip, photo, resizing - Magnify Your World November 8, 2009
- Tom Vander Ark: How Social Networking Will Transform Learning November 8, 2009
- Currents - Virtual Classrooms Could Create a Marketplace for Knowledge - NYTimes.com November 8, 2009
- MustExist | What Twitter lists say about you? November 8, 2009
- A simple yet powerful Twitter client for OSX, Windows and Linux - Twitter Thingy November 8, 2009
- KS2009: How Google uses Linux [LWN.net] November 8, 2009
- Typetester – Compare fonts for the screen November 8, 2009
- Interactive Whiteboards November 8, 2009
- The Jeff Pulver Blog: Looking back at #140conf Los Angeles: Words from the Community November 7, 2009
- The Peninsula On-line: Qatar's leading English Daily November 7, 2009
- Free Twitter Alerts within Lists - Listiti.com November 7, 2009
- Ten gadgets to make Google Wave more productive - and fun! November 7, 2009
- List of Values November 7, 2009
- Google Wave vs Twitter at conferences | FreshNetworks Blog November 7, 2009
Subscribe to this blog through FeedBurner
links for 2009-11-07
November 8, 2009 — dougpetelinks for 2009-11-06
November 7, 2009 — dougpete-
"Here’s a complete guide to some of the best tools that will help you track what other people are saying about you, your business or your products on other websites, forums and social media sites. "
-
Downloadable Olympic activities for classroom use.
-
"The iPhone and iPod touch are revolutionary devices which can perform a seemingly unlimited amount of tasks, but some new users may not be aware they can do even more to improve their overall user experience."
-
"After searching some public 'waves,' we came across an educational wave. Entitled 'Wave in Class,"
-
"The materials outlined here represent comprehensive activity and resource kits focusing on particular areas/issues relevant to the teaching of English to Young Learners."
-
"Grab a friend and get ready to perform some magic! The Great Rope Escape is sure to amaze your audience! " Magic for kids.
-
SpicyNodes is a way to visualize online information that mimics that way that people look for things in the real world.
-
"If you’re considering mobile learning in any shape or form, I’d suggest you give these a browse. One of the travails of my paper writing (still continues) was that good web resources were quite hard to find, so be spared the ordeal, this is a good place to start."
-
"Flashcards and Worksheets"
-
"40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes"
Twitter @ ECOO
November 6, 2009 — dougpeteIt’s another #FollowFriday on Twitter and I just sent out a tweet showing my list of Ontario Educators. Great people, great reads when you follow them. I would encourage you to follow them all.
As I posted the message, I also started to think about the ECOO Conference next week. The Educational Computing Organization of Ontario hosts this conference annually. It’s a very special year for ECOO as it celebrates its 30th annual conference. That’s quite a record for longevity for anything.
Things have changed over the years. For those who are regular attendees, you probably have great memories of events good and bad. Remember the year the power went out during a heat wave? Remember the Regal Constellation? Remember Icon presentations? Remember OISE? Take a walk through ECOO history at this link. It is great to see how time and technology has morphed through the years.
I’ve been a regular attendee, presenter, and now on the exhibit floor working the OSAPAC booth. It’s always great to meet old friends and new friends at this event.
At the OTF Professional event last weekend, we started to lay very informal plans for a meetup of Twitter users at ECOO. Conference organizer @brendasherry has promised to book us a room. Somebody, somewhere decided to call it twECOO.
But, who’s coming? As I posted my #FollowFriday list, it occurred to me that we could turn this Twitter list stuff into something productive. So, I’ve created a new list called ECOO-Twitterers. I would encourage all ECOO attendees who use Twitter to get themselves added to this list. I haven’t quite figured out how to automate this yet so I’ve created a Google Form where you can add your details, if you are so inclined. There is a little option to indicate whether or not you’re interested in attending the meetup.
If you’re headed to ECOO, please consider adding yourself to the list. You can do so by clicking here. I’ll look forward to seeing you there.
Social Bookmarks:
Powered by ScribeFire.
links for 2009-11-05
November 6, 2009 — dougpete-
"The Twitter Times is a real-time personalized newspaper generated from your Twitter account"
-
"GradeCam is a student-performance scanner for the classroom.
It is technology that reads bubble forms directly from a camera allowing you to grade multiple-choice tests with up to 100 questions. Because GradeCam uses software to replace the role of moving parts, it is very affordable! " -
"This section is dedicated to celebrate some puzzle packs or collections which we prepare on our site from time to time on some occasions, say holidays or other events"
-
"Whether you are just starting out in college or are a more experience learner with years under your belt, there is always more knowledge waiting to be discovered. One great way to do that is to read."
-
"Come meet the Greeks! We think you'll be impressed! "
-
This mosaic is constructed of real photos submitted by Michael Jackson fans like you!
-
"Can you trust Wikipedia? Most of us have stopped asking and simply bookmarked it. That makes sense when you consider the alternatives: you can explore the first dozen or so Google search results, or you can go straight to the occasionally erroneous Wikipedia entry,"
-
Wonderful collection of old time radio programming.
-
"High school for the Malfi sisters of Burlington Township is the difference between e-mail and a shopping cart."
-
"In Denmark, the government has taken the bold step of allowing pupils full access to the internet during their final school year exams."
-
"Software makers around the world are scrambling to fix a serious bug in the technology used to transfer information securely on the Internet. "
links for 2009-11-04
November 5, 2009 — dougpete-
All of NASA's multimedia content is searchable from here.
-
"Highlights of what's new in Diigo V4. "
-
"This metaphor is based on common physical artifacts from the classroom or office: adhesive notes, bulletin boards, whiteboards, stickers, pens, and markers."
-
"doingText makes writing, sharing and gathering feedback a no-fuss experience.
With elegance and simplicity." -
"50 Educational Apps for the iPod Touch"
-
Don’t you hate to sit down at a computer, just to find the ghetto-tacular IE running? We have all been there.
-
How to Use an Apostrophe
-
Compare, recombine and merge your document versions.
-
The Next Web is the Best of the Web's News, Views, Startups and Culture
-
"Google celebrates 40 years of Sesame Street today by showing different characters of the show in their Google Doodle."
-
Over 30,000 free resources on TES Connect
-
"In this article you’ll find some of the coolest stadiums in the world."
-
"The following web links feature games and activites that could be used in learning centers or during computer time for integration in the lower grades"
links for 2009-11-03
November 4, 2009 — dougpete-
"xtimeline is a free web-based timeline. Easily create and share timelines with pictures and videos."
-
"Store, share
-
Online Thesaurus
-
"Upload and explore data.
As a preview it's rough around the edges, may your love for data guide you."
-
"Dabble DB® helps you create online databases on the web. It’s easy to use yet extremely flexible and powerful."
-
"an interactive tagcloud for your feeds"
-
Revealicious is a set of graphic visualisations for your del.icio.us account that allow you to browse, search and select tags, as well as viewing posts matching them.
-
"My name is Mrs. Hand and welcome to Computer Science. In the Computer Science program, we offer four classes: Keyboarding, Computer Lab, Business Applications Lab and Multimedia Design Lab."
-
Help understand Maps by zooming in to them.
-
"This is an excellent commentary written by Douglas Karr in his Blogging by Douglas Karr I found at MarketingBlog.com."
-
"Wikipedia is about as good a source of accurate information as Britannica, the venerable standard-bearer of facts about the world around us, according to a study published this week in the journal Nature."
-
"Global Voices has an interactive map showing bloggers who have been threatened, arrested, or killed for speaking out online. "
-
"Math song that teaches volume. This song will teach students how to find the volume 3D figures and solid shapes such as a cube and rectangular prism. This is a song for learning volume."
-
"Victor Borge Phonetic Pronunciation"
-
"Considering that I’m only real-life friends with about a ninth of my Facebook friends, I spend a lot of time getting to know my Facebook friends based solely on their profile choices."
-
Lord of the Rings timeline visualization
Another Upgrade
November 3, 2009 — dougpeteI received notice that Ubuntu had released version 9.10 of its OS while at the OTF Conference in Toronto. After all, it is the end of October. The bandwidth wasn’t the fastest at the conference so I held off upgrading until I returned home. Being the dummy that I am, it never dawned on me to do it in the hotel room at night. Oh well.
Normally, an upgrade is just a tweak here and there but when Ubuntu upgrades, it’s pretty serious. So, it was anticipation time to see how this upgrade would work. I had purchased this Dell Mini 10v to take with me to the NECC. I’d also read that people use this machine to install the Macintosh OS on it although I wonder why. A news report yesterday indicated that Apple is looking to an update that will not allow it to run on an Atom processor anyway.
I wanted to do a clean install so I backup and then go looking for a memory key that didn’t have this and that on it. That’s harder than you’d think; I still haven’t mastered the technique of organized memory key storage. For me, it’s just a portable solution that’s failing for me miserably now that I need to create a boot disk. I do find one and download 9.10 to the key.
On the Netbook, I do use the Ubuntu Netbook Remix. Supposedly, it is optimized for the Atom processor and the smaller screen. So, I get the ball rolling and before long, we’re rebooting ready to go. Ubuntu is known for its beautiful designs and so the subtle white friends logo was kind of a surprise. So was the login with the user name just a click away once the first account was created.
Once loaded, though, it was the incredible interface that I’m come to expect.
Like a kid in a candy store, I’m running around checking out the new look and interactions. Everything is so well designed. I like the transparent menuing so that you can see a desktop background. Little things like that count. So, I set a background and a colour scheme. While I like the Ubuntu orange, I also like the New Wave look as well.
So, next to check out the internet.
None.
Say what? I just downloaded the image file. Sure enough, there was no wireless abilities. So, I’m puzzled. I head off to near my wireless and plug in a cable. Ethernet works fine but still no wireless. After spending way too much time, I realize the solution which I should have known right off the bat. The Broadcom card requires restricted drivers. So, I grab them and voila. I’m wireless. Mental note – I need to shake the Macintosh and Windows mindset to completely immerse myself in this field.
Then, I start to think again and notice that the trackpad is working exactly like it should. With previous versions, the cursor would periodically jump for no apparent reason. It seems to work nicely now. I wonder – I wonder – I never could use headphones with previous versions. I plug in a headset and go to RhythmBox to play some MP3s and I don’t have any. Grrr. I plug in an iPod and find one. No MP3 driver. Of course. But, my search this time got me up and running and the music plays nicely through the headset.
I wonder about the camera. My 14 year old tutor from Washington told me that would be the acid test. Cheese works perfectly.
One final test is to see if the Visual effects have been enhanced enough to make them worthwhile. They are enhanced. My windows are snapping and dragging like they might. I’m still not sure that I’m going to like that but it’s nice to know that I can.
Then, it’s off to FirstClass.com to grab my email client. I notice that version 10 is available for Windows and Macintosh but an older version for Debian. No problem; I get that installed and that’s up and running too.
Through Twitter, I read this article about the Perfect Desktop – Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala). Lots of good advice from past experiences are contained here. There are also some new titles. I’m going to have to dig into this when I get a chance.
It looks like another sleepless night. My first impressions are incredibly positive and I look forward to digging into this new upgrade even further. With so much functionality and the price of netbooks, this continues to be something shining brightly on the horizon.
Social Bookmarks:
links for 2009-11-02
November 3, 2009 — dougpete-
In 2009 we saw exponential growth of social media. According to Nielson Online, Twitter alone grew 1,382% year-over-year in February, registering a total of just more than 7 million unique visitors in the US for the month.
-
"Create Your Own Worksheets"
-
"We dare you to put the next song you hear in your novel and have it totally change the course of your story. "
-
"The goal of this project is to provide teachers a list of common terms or phrases aimed at improving vocabulary development of students in Tennessee."
-
"BrainPOP is providing a FREE movie to help explain swine flu that you can add to your own educational website or blog."
-
With ReadCloud eBooks become interactive as students can share their thoughts inside an eBook in real-time by posting annotations as text, links, pictures or video or by making direct posts to Twitter/Facebook.
-
The answer to the question: “What will Google look like in 2015?” may well depend on where Eric Schmidt will be in 2015, writes Andrew Keen.
-
"A KID SAFE environment where kids can be kids!"
-
"Apple is reportedly breaking Hackintoshes — meaning netbooks illegimately installed with Mac Oapple osx hackintoshS X — with its latest update to Leopard."
-
"TeachersFirst is a rich collection of lessons, units, and web resources designed to save teachers time by delivering just what they need in a practical, user-friendly, and ad-free format"
-
"Fifty statements/quotes from panelists taken from my notes at the Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age Forum, Oct 27
-
"This wiki was begun because of a conversation on the Teachers.net music teachers discussion board. Some of us decided we'd like a place to share our Smartboard lessons, and perhaps some other resources we use in our classrooms."
-
"Providing a wealth of resources for K-12 science educators, Science NetLinks is your guide to meaningful standards-based Internet experiences for students."
Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century
November 2, 2009 — dougpeteLast Friday and Saturday, I had the distinct pleasure of being invited to the Ontario Teachers’ Federation’s Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century session. The keynote speaker and facilitator was Will Richardson. In addition to Will doing his work, there were a number of different breakout sessions facilitated by Ontario Educators. It was a marvelous setup and a great opportunity to learn together with some of the great Ontario minds and to learn and reinforce concepts as they would apply in the 21st Century.
The two days was absolutely full with learning opportunities and the change to meet and re-connect with folks from around the province. I even ran into a retired colleague, Mike Budd, who I’ve known for years.
The setup wasn’t quite what I had expected. The learning wasn’t quite what I had expected either. But, perhaps that was consistent with the message of Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century.
So, just some random observations from my perspective that affected our learning and just things to be aware of as we move forward.
Registration – There was a registration bag with the agenda for the two days in it. Although there was lots of information to be gathered during the event, it wasn’t going to be on paper.
Hand Sanitizer – What was in the bag was our own personalized sprayer of hand sanitizer. This was there to help us stay safe, for sure, but it reminds us that the world is changing, getting smaller, and that we have contact with more people from more diverse areas than ever before.
Computers – Not everyone brought one although it was clear that this was an event where you would be connected, online, and learning. Interesting. But, for those that did bring computers (very clearly the majority), there were Macintosh, Windows, and Linux computers spread throughout the room. It’s tough to be nosy and identify dialects of the Macintosh operating systems which didn’t require much support. It was the Windows computers where you noticed Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, and Windows 98 with all kinds of customizations and problems installing software and connecting to the networks. The small group of Linux users just did their own thing and it just worked.
Networking – I would have thought that wireless would have been the easiest way of connecting the folks but each table had its own switch and 8 ethernet cables so that you could just plug in. Networking remains a challenge and will remain a challenge to get a computer to talk to its network. Most of the people were using DHCP which made it easy to connect but assistance was needed for people bringing in machines with a static IP trying to connect to the network. Don’t believe all that you see in television advertisements about easy networking.
Devices – Connectivity means more today in terms of devices than ever before. There were folks using iPhones, iPods, and Blackberries during the connected communication sessions. We must remember that being connected means far more today than it every did.
Protection – This goes along with network literacy and a reminder to folks that computers in schools are not the same as computers anywhere else. It’s fine and dandy to configure a machine to work on a school network but it may not be configured to be portable! I met a whole team whose desktop was mapped to a drive G:\ somewhere beyond the four walls of where we were!
Easy On Ramps – There are easy ways to get started in this business. It’s called your network. When all that you need to do is get connected and then get going, the workshop sessions were easily started. When you had to download or borrow a CD-ROM and install software and then look for activation keys, it gets messy.
Talking is great – There were very few people in the room that you might well know but talking and sharing abounds. In all of this, it’s comforting to know that the person next to you has more to share than their Facebook address.
Communication is great – When it was time to go live, Twitter connected the group. The hashtag #otf09 kept us all on the same page. Twitter lists and exploring friends and followers expanded the connections. Presenters had no qualms showing off their wikis and blogs as proof that they’re ready to go. The new folks got a chance to create these accounts. The challenge will be to see what happens today.
Future communication is great – In addition to the face to face meeting, Elluminate sessions are scheduled to ensure that the conversation continues. This will be a nice support for people trying to get started with their new creations and are in search of some support.
We can vote with our hands – No technology need get in the road when we come to the fork. The power of the masses speaks simply by putting up one’s hand and voting for options.
Copyright is so confusing – We had lots of discussions when it came time to bring in a little music or some clipart. Where do you get it and what do you do with it? How about those people running around the hall with their cameras taking pictures of us? For even this event, we had media release forms that needed to be signed to respect privacy.
Time – Time is such a precious commodity. Can we add more of this stuff to an already full plate? Or, does something have to be pushed off in order to accommodate?
Connectivists and Constructivists – These people can actually work together in the same forum. They had better because I don’t see either camp taking over.
We’re all unique – Just like everyone else. I’m not sure that there were any two people that would have walked away with the same learning. Presenters were careful to differentiate the experience so that everyone was successful at some level.
This, all before we talked about any actual content.
You can read the rest of the November 2009 edition of GEC Computers in the Classroom by clicking here.
Powered by ScribeFire.
links for 2009-11-01
November 2, 2009 — dougpete-
13 ways to raise a non-writer
-
Work with word magnets – great for SMART Board
-
"Reading anything on the Internet has become a full-on nightmare. As media outlets attempt to eke out as much advertising revenue as possible, we’re left trying to put blinders on to mask away all the insanity that surrounds the content we’re trying to read."
-
This is National Novel Writing Month
-
"As our digital and physical lives blur further, the internet has become the information hub where people spend a majority of their time learning, playing and communicating with others globally."
-
"Best of History Web Sites is an award-winning portal that contains annotated links to over 1000 history web sites as well as links to hundreds of quality K-12 history lesson plans, history teacher guides, history activities, history games, history quizzes, and more."
-
"Feedback is rolling in on our Scamville post last night. Even more people are coming forward to talk about their experiences getting ripped off by Offerpal and SuperRewards, or how they were pitched by these companies to add offers to their apps. "
-
"The real story isn’t the business success of these startups. It’s the completely unethical way that they are going about achieving that success."
-
"Chief Diigo Ambassador, Maggie Tsai joined us on this Wednesday evening, late in September. About a month before, we had a lively conversation about research and diigo: Teachers Teaching Teachers #165 – 08.26.09 – Meet Lisa Dick and George Haines: Talking about research and diigo."
-
"Although Alfred Wegener was not the first to suggest that continents have moved about the Earth, his presentation of carefully compiled evidence for continental drift inspired decades of scientific debate."
-
- What’s happening at Twitter?
- dougpete: @garystager Fair enough. Please point me to an alternative article from this weekend's headlines.
- dougpete: @pbeens What a great plan for the day. Fort Erie is one of my favourite places when I'm in your neck of the woods.
- dougpete: Bookmarking "Tom Vander Ark: How Social Networking Will Transform Learning" ( http://bit.ly/29FLhT )
- dougpete: Bookmarking "Currents - Virtual Classrooms Could Create a Marketplace for Knowledge - NYTimes.com" ( http://bit.ly/3XBmzG )
- dougpete: Sombrero cookies. http://twitpic.com/or3e0
- dougpete: @debbdh Yes, she is. I've never vacuumed so much in my life.
- dougpete: The piñata is a little bottom heavy. http://twitpic.com/or31g
- dougpete: @debbdh The guest of honour has been up since 3. She held off calling until 5:30 though.
- dougpete: What Twitter lists say about me - http://bit.ly/4og7DZ
- dougpete: Sometimes the person who needs to give yourself a chance is YOU. (@jeffpulver said)
