doug - off the record

Curating Groundhogs

dougpete — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

It’s pretty hard to keep a secret on the internet when you’re transparent. That came to bite me this morning. I’ve been working on something and had a couple of people uncover what I was doing. One actually tweeted about it.

So, I guess I’ll have to come clean with it.

One of the big events in primary classrooms is Groundhog Day. All kinds of activities happen in classrooms and crafts, drawings, songs, science, etc. all make the day for the big event. I’ve always maintained a list of resources for this day that I update. This year, I thought that I would migrate the otherwise boring website to one of the online sites that I’ve been using to curate things. But, which one?

I was just monkeying around when Tim happened to stumble on it. He must have been looking at my Scoopit account and noticed that I had this work in progress. It’s a collection of my resources for Groundhog Day – scooped. But, I don’t think he’s seen the others! I’ve also started to curate the same resources at Pinterest and LiveBinders. I was looking for the best possible scenario.

Scoopit
This was one of the sites. I have the Scoopit bookmarklet stuck in my bookmarks bar and adding resources was just as easy as going to the page and bookmarking it. Scoopit identifies images on the page as well as a short descriptor. To use it, just click the title and you’re at the target site. For this purpose, Scoopit did a nice job although one of the sites wouldn’t allow the bookmarklet to work.

Pinterest
Pinterest similarly has a bookmarklet for finding and bookmarking resources. You get to choose up front which of the images will be the face of the pin. Rather than the two column format of Scoopit, Pinterest takes a pin to wall approach so that none of the sites are lined up. It’s an engaging approach. Sadly, Pinterest absolutely requires an image on the page in order for the pin to work. So, not all of the sites ended up getting pinned. But, find a story that looks good, click it, and you’re there.

LiveBinders
LiveBinders takes a different approach. Instead of giving you one of the catchy images on the target website, you get the entire website embedded in the binder. The URL is presented at the top and a click leaves the LiveBinder and takes you to the actual website. Since the actual website is embedded each time, everything that I wanted to include appears in the binder.

In all three cases, there are more resources than would fit on an entire computer screen. Well, unless you had a big honking screen, I suppose. Scoopit and Pinterest scroll up and down to see all of the resources. LiveBinders requires that you click the navigation arrows to move left and right unless you organize the tabs by categories. I suppose I could have all the Wiarton Willie’s in one tab, the Punxsutawney Phil’s in another, science in another, arts and crafts in another, and so on.

LiveBinders also has the advantage of the presentation mode so that you can visit the sites and not lose the curation page. That’s handy if you are browsing your way through everything.

Anyway, all three did a nice job of bringing them together into one spot. Feel free now to use or share with anyone who might take advantage of the resource this Thursday.

OTR Links 01/31/2012

dougpete — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:31:00 +0000

Twitter

Forgot your password?
Type your email address or Twitter username below to reset your password. Learn more.
If you’ve been using Twitter via SMS only, complete signup by clicking here.

tags: twitter reset password
What do I do if my Twitter account is hacked? | Naked Security

Many Naked Security readers email our tips email account every day asking for help when their online accounts are compromised.

I thought it might be a good idea to provide a step-by-step guide to recover from some common attacks people fall victim to, beginning with Twitter.

tags: security twitter hacked password
MentorMob – Learn What You Want, Teach What You Love – MentorMob

Learn Anything For Free!
Organizing the How-To’s of the web, so you don’t have to.

tags: learning playlist education tools
Redolfi – Play music online

Online music player

tags: music player Música reproductor playlist streaming
Best Educational Wikis of 2011

With the announcement of the 2011 Edublog Award winners, there are now two more award-winning wikis in the Wikispaces community. And we couldn’t be prouder!

tags: wikis
Google Chrome: Dear Sophie – YouTube

A father uses the web to share memories with his daughter as she grows up in this video depiction.

tags: google google chrome chrome dear sophie youtube
Path

The smart journal
that helps you share life with the ones you love.

tags: path iphone social app application mobile journal Web2.0
Twitter Upgrades Will Include Analytical Tools

Twitter will unveil a series of new tools in the next few months, including sophisticated analytical tools, according to Erica Anderson, Twitter’s manager for news and journalism.

Anderson said the analytical tools will better help publishers track the reach of tweets sent through the microblogging service. She made her comments Saturday at Columbia University’s social media weekend in New York.

tags: upgrades will tools
Education Week: Europe Seen Leading the Way in Hand-Held Computing

Europe Seen Leading the Way in Hand-Held Computing

tags: education europe leading way computing
5 Signs of a Great User Experience

If you’ve used the mobile social network Path recently, it’s likely that you enjoyed the experience. Path has a sophisticated design, yet it’s easy to use. It sports an attractive red color scheme and the navigation is smooth as silk. It’s a social app and finding friends is easy thanks to Path’s suggestions and its connection to Facebook.

tags: signs great user experience
FBI to monitor Facebook, Twitter, Myspace | ZDNet

FBI to monitor Facebook, Twitter, Myspace

tags: fbi monitor facebook myspace zdnet
12 Ways To Learn In 2012: The eLearning Coach

12 Ways To Learn In 2012

tags: ways elearning coach learning
Announcing the 2012 Free Education Technology Resources eBook from EmergingEdTech | Emerging Education Technology

Announcing the 2012 Free Education Technology Resources eBook from EmergingEdTech

tags: free education technology resources ebook emerging
Crack this: How to pick strong passwords and keep them that way

Crack this: How to pick strong passwords and keep them that way

tags: crack how to passwords keep way
The Ed Tech Blog Carnival 2012 #1 | The Whiteboard Blog

A few weeks ago I asked for educational bloggers to share some of their posts as part of a Blog Carnival. The idea would be that they would write about aspects of technology in education, and I would then collate into a single post that points to them all. Hopefully you the reader will discover some blogs you haven’t seen before.

tags: ed tech tech blog carnival whiteboard
Free iPad Notes – Handwriting, drawing, typing, audio recording and speech to text! | iGo With My iPad

The folks from Nuance Communications, the provider of Dragon voice recognition, have released their free iPad notes app – PaperPort Notes. A notes app that has a little bit of something for everyone. The app is light enough to be happy with it if you where to only use one notes capture method while still offering all the options without complicated endless menus to go through.

tags: ipad recording apps notetaking notes audio
What You Need to Be Successful At Online Education

As online education continues to grow and become a more respectable route to achieving a degree, more and more people are flocking to the internet for their education. However online education isn’t for everyone, and before you jump headfirst into it you need to make sure that you’re fully equipped for what online learning really entails, other than not having to show up to an actual classroom or interact face to face with other students.

tags: online online education education
Educational Technology Guy: 10 Important Skills Students need for the Future

10 Important Skills Students need for the Future

tags: education digital_literacy educon edchat skills
World’s Largest One Stop Shopping for Free Online Courses! : Dean’s Corner

World’s Largest One Stop Shopping for Free Online Courses!

tags: world largest shopping free online courses dean corner
Google, Facebook and Microsoft in Anti-Phishing Alliance

Google, Microsoft, Facebook and more team up to tackle email spam and phishing

tags: google facebook microsoft alliance
Diagnosing a Blue Screen of Death Error in Windows

Diagnosing a Blue Screen of Death Error in Windows

For many years now the famous Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) has been the ultimate indication that something disastrous has happened to make your computer die, but how useful is the information in the BSoD and the respective crash dump file that Windows produces?

tags: blue screen death error windows
Blogging Tips 101: How to Write Less and Post More

Attention time-poor bloggers: You don’t need to slave away for hours to publish regular, high quality posts.
If you feel like you’ve never got enough time to maintain your blog, you’re probably not taking full advantage of your own output.

tags: blogging tips how to post

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Pathetic Internet Speeds

dougpete — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Have you ever noticed that there are some times that I make a blog post and there are no images contained in the posting to spruce it up or to illustrate the point? It’s not that I’m lazy; there are some days that I swear that I have the worst internet service provider. Yesterday was a day when I was bemoaning the fact that modern laptops don’t have built in modems. Even on the worst days, dialup at 300bps was like blinding speeds compared to bad days now.

Yesterday was just brutal. I spent over an hour on the phone with technical “support” only to walk away frustrated all to pieces. The determination on her end was that it was just network congestion. Grrrrrr.

How bad was it? Well, a common way to test your network speeds is to use Speedtest.net. I tried to give it a test over the net and here’s what I got!

It’s so slow that I couldn’t even load the test!

Thankfully, the iPad version was a little more tolerant of slow speeds.

Try it on your current connection and please feel sorry for me! Later in February when I host an OTF Webinar, I’ll be doing it on the road. There’s no way this type of connection would be suitable.

At least I can watch the Pro Bowl game without the internet distracting me!

Fortunately, things are better in the early morning hours and that does let me do some reading and online work.

OTR Links 01/30/2012

dougpete — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:31:19 +0000

History Pavillon

You have just entered one of Squidoo’s largest history pavilions. As you stroll through its corridors, you shall find many rooms to quench your thirst for knowledge of the past. This is a 3 storey building and an elevator will take you from floor to floor. In the back of the building, you will find our outdoor amphitheater where you can watch and listen to important historic events.

tags: history
The First Kiss in Cinema, 1896 | Brain Pickings

How Thomas Edison made the kiss Hollywood’s favorite audience-courting device.

tags: kiss cinema brain
20 things that happened on the internet in 2011 [image] – Holy Kaw!

Designer and art director Peter Jaworowski teamed up with SYZYGY London to illustrate and mash-up 20 of the most notable things that happened on the old webs of inter in 2011.

tags: internet graphic things events
Lion Full-Screen, New Tab Page Sneak Into Early Firefox 12 Build

One of the next versions of Firefox, Firefox 12, may feature a series of new interface elements and functionalities that should both appeal to OS X Lion users and introduce new navigation options for those who dont’ want to save their-most accessed websites in a bookmarks bar anymore. As first noted by ExtremeTech, an early version of a proposed new tab page design snuck into a nightly version of Firefox; per Mozilla’s multiple channel releases, users of Firefox can test different versions of the browser, which range from Nightly to Aurora, Beta, Stable, and those uploaded directly to Mozilla’s FTP servers.

tags: lion tab page firefox build
How Apple Can Solve Its China Problem | Cult of Mac

Apple is on the brink of becoming the poster child for worker abuse. Journalists and rights organizations are starting to draw attention to the enormous contrast between Apple’s quarterly billions in profits, and the desperate plight of abused workers in China.

tags: apple china problem cult mac
Your next laptop could have Microsoft’s Kinect built into it | ZDNet

Microsoft is finally delivering on its promise to bring Kinect to the PC with official support, but most people would probably assume it would be most useful with a desktop. Nonetheless, it appears that the motion-control technology could also show up on portable systems,

tags: laptop microsoft kinect zdnet
Free lightweight Anti Virus Software – Microsoft Security Essentials | ESX Virtualization

The Microsoft Security Essentials is free for use on genuine Windows systems.
The Microsoft Security Essentials is free anti malware software which can be found on this page here. As said it’s free if runs on genuine system. As I was pleasantly surprised that the soft is quite lightweight, getting few dozens of Mb in the taskbar….

tags: free lightweight anti virus virus software microsoft security essentials virtualization
Infographic: Hollywood’s long war on technology – Boing Boing

Infographic: Hollywood’s long war on technology

tags: infographic hollywood war technology
Firefox Support Ending for Windows 2000, Windows XP Pre-SP2

If you’re one of the few Firefox users still on Windows 2000 or still using Windows XP without Service Pack 2 or later, Firefox is going to have to say goodbye. Yesterday, Mozilla’s Asa Dotzler announced that Firefox team is moving to a newer version of the Visual Studio toolchain. Once Mozilla moves to Visual Studio 2010, they won’t be able to build for Windows 2000, XP RTM or SP1.

tags: firefox support ending windows windows xp
Five Steps to Starting a Class Blog in 2012 | Integrating Technology in the Primary Classroom

Five Steps to Starting a Class Blog in 2012

tags: steps starting class blog integrating technology primary classroom
Textbook of the Future: The challenges | ZDNet

This month, Apple dropped a bombshell on the academic community by introducing iBooks Textbooks and iBooks Author. In combination, the two create a compelling framework for re-engineering the textbook in electronic form for K-12 students, permitting for rich color educational content and possibly an entirely new textbook ecosystem that could be made accessible to tens of millions of schoolchildren.

tags: textbook future challenges
8 Things Teachers Do To Cause Boredom — Smart Classroom Management

When students get bored their minds drift.

And while some settle on daydreaming, tile-counting, and general inattentiveness, other students are drawn to more…ahem…destructive pursuits.

tags: things teachers boredom classroom classroom management management
Why Every Entrepreneur Should Self-Publish a Book | TechCrunch

Why Every Entrepreneur Should Self-Publish a Book

tags: books publishing self-publishing

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Keeping Tabs on the Blog

dougpete — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

There are probably a lot of ways to do this but I think that it’s the responsible thing to do when you’re a blogger. You need to keep tabs on what’s happening on and around the blog.

WordPress has created a Google Chrome extension that does a nice job of that.

Once installed, it just sits in the browser and checks for any activity. If something happens, a little badge with the number of events appears on the icon. That’s a visual to let you know that something has happened.

Prior to this, I would admit that it might be a while between checks to the WordPress dashboard. Now, it’s addictive to look and hope to see a notification!

But, there’s more than just that.

The extension includes a “Press This” button if you’re interested in blogging on a particular page. Plus, if you visit another blog, you’ve got the option to follow that it right in the extension.

If you’re a Chrome user, it’s a very useful extension to have. Download it here.

I keep thinking that I would go in and add all the Ontario Educational Bloggers to it but that list has grown so much, it would take a Herculean effort. But, if I was having a class full of students blogging, I should be able to monitor everything right in one spot while I go about everything else that I’m doing on the web.

OTR Links 01/29/2012

dougpete — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:31:33 +0000

15+ Pinterest Boards Teachers Should Be Following #edchat | Secondary Solutions

15+ Pinterest Boards Teachers Should Be Following #edchat

tags: pinterest edchat teachers
Ideas to Inspire

Inspiring ideas for your lessons, contributed by teachers around the world!

tags: ideas lessons Web2.0 teaching learning presentations writing primarypad
Interesting Ways | edte.ch

The Interesting Ways series continues to be a great example of crowdsourcing good quality classroom ideas and it has been a privilege connecting with all of the people who have taken time to add an idea.
It is remarkable what can be achieved and created together if you give people the right way to do it. Thanks for all the help so far.

tags: interesting crowd-source Web2.0 Tools googleapps Google classroom resources ways
Explore thousands of images from DK’s picture library – Free Clip Art – DK Books

Explore thousands of images from DK’s picture library. Perfect for illustrating homework, school projects and generally being creative.

tags: clipart photos resources dk copyright education clip art Art
Author and Illustrator Birthdays | Through The Looking Glass Children’s Book Review

Here you will find a list of authors and illustrators who are celebrating their birthday this month. Please use the search feature to find titles created by these authors and illustrators.

tags: authors birthdays author illustrator library illustrators literature reading
Skylink Learning Theater

Learning Theatre – Reading, Math, Science, History, Music, Guidance, Staff Development

tags: resources elementary learning science history guidance math reading
21st Century Education Blogs | Scoop.it

21st Century Education Blogs
“Great blogs by innovative and influential leaders in education”

tags: education blogs scoop
Machinarium

Machinarium is point and click adventure game by the makers of web games Samorost and Samorost2.

tags: game flash machinarium gaming design adventure Fun inspiration
Skillshare

Join us! Start learning and discover unique classes in your city.

tags: education learning social Skillshare teaching classes sharing technology
Aurasma – The world’s first Visual Browser, bringing the physical and virtual worlds together

The World’s First Visual Browser, bringing the physical and virtual worlds together.
Aurasma is a free app that lets you discover, create and share amazing virtual content, integrated into the real world.

tags: augmentedreality apps aurasma AR iphone augmented mobile reality
4 Best Google Chrome Extensions for WordPress | Tech18

4 Best Google Chrome Extensions for WordPress

tags: google google chrome chrome extensions wordpress tech
Best free Mac cleaner, Mac cleanup software, Mac cleaner freeware for Mac OS X hard drive – EaseUS CleanGenius Official Website.

Enjoy a Clean and Healthy Mac in Seconds

tags: free mac cleaner cleanup software freeware mac os x os x drive official website
http://www.smriders.net/assets/pdf/BYOT-FAQ-Manualv2.pdf

St. Marys City Schools is committed to prepare all students and teachers to maximize learning by fully integrating
relevant technology into academic content to acquire, share and evaluate information, achieve media and
technology literacy, and maintain a safe and ethical environment

tags: www net assets pdf
Google Music: 7 Things You Should Know

In contention with online music stores like Apple iTunes and Amazon MP3, Google has finally and officially launched its very own Google Music last Wednesday. At first glance, this cloud-based service seems pretty similar to what Apple and Amazon has to offer with their online music storage. However, there are a few subtle differences between Google Music and the rest that might eventually place the former on top of the competition.

tags: google music things know
21st Century Science Teaching: Getting students beyond formula hunting strategies | Powerful Learning Practice

In AP Physics (and many other science studies) the journey to find an answer to a problem is the most important component of the learning process – not the answer itself. Our need to make sure students think deeply about the subjects they study is one key reason The College Board AP Program is undergoing revisions of several courses and exams in history, science and world languages.

tags: science 21st scichat physics
WorkHub

Turn your free time into money, doing digital tasks on your computer or your mobile phone. Anytime. Anywhere.

tags: tool service time working
Breaking Down Apple’s Billions

It’s no secret Apple, one of the most valuable public companies in the world, is making major cash off today’s tech gadgets — but how much?

tags: breaking down apple
A World With No Keyboard And No Mouse | Six Pixels of Separation – Marketing and Communications Blog – By Mitch Joel at Twist Image

It’s all about to change again… it’s all about to get even more complicated.

There has been a tonnage of content produced to analyze the value of Siri (the voice-initiated personal assistant that was introduced with Apple’s iPhone 4S). Along with Siri comes a nascent and emerging new way for people to navigate and engage with content: the voice. That’s not all. While our kids were futzing around with their Nintendo wii or Xbox Kinect, we may have missed another way to navigate and engage with content: kinetics (or natural gestures).

tags: world keyboard mouse pixels separation marketing communications blog mitch joel twist image
3 Ways To Keep Students Focused Amid All The Gadgets | Edudemic

How can we keep students focused on schoolwork with all the electronic temptations surrounding them? By engaging the students completely with our lessons, keeping students actively involved in their learning, and reflecting on our practice to avoid blaming the technology or kids’ short attention spans, in my opinion.

tags: students technology gadgets
Millions Download New Trojan Discovered in Android Market

Symantec has discovered a new Android botnet that is still thriving in the Android Market and has already been downloaded several million times this year.

tags: millions download trojan android market
Canadian teens put a (Lego) man into space for just $400

It was probably a rather small step for Lego but it was certainly one giant leap for a Lego man when he was launched into space by a couple of Canadian teens recently.

tags: canadian teens lego man space
Understand Your iPhone’s Serial Number | Cult of Mac

Did you know that your iPhone’s serial number says a lot about your device? It isn’t just a random string of digits. It reveals the factory in which your device was built, the year it was manufactured, its unique identifier, and more. Here’s how to decode your iPhone’s serial number.You can find your serial number either on your iPhone’s box, or in the About menu within the Settings app. If your device is connected to iTunes on your computer, you’ll also see it on the Summary page.

tags: iphone serial number cult mac
Microsoft Kinect Could Make Its Way to Laptops | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

The ability to control a Windows desktop with a simple hand gesture could become reality sooner than we once thought.

tags: microsoft kinect way laptops gadget lab wired com

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Your school doesn’t need a webmaster

dougpete — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Ever since there was an internet, there’s been a desire for schools to have a website. And, roughly a month after that, there were dated websites. For many schools, having a website was something that was created and done. Fini. A volunteer goes to a workshop on Dreamweaver or Frontpage and then enthusiastically pulls together a webpage or, hopefully, a website for the school. There might be an announcement of an upcoming basketball game or a fundraiser and it draws the educational community in to get the details. Your website URL appears on the district’s directory, on school letterhead, on the sign outside the building, and anywhere you can post http:www.heywegotawebsite.ca.

As the basketball games or the fundraiser becomes a memory, for many schools, it still remains posted on the front page of the website. Why? Typically, webmaster is a volunteer job done with the very best of intentions. But then, life gets in the road. Time can’t be found to make the necessary changes to keep things current. Or, the website was created as a project for a course. Or, the website was created by students for class marks. Or the eager teacher transfers schools taking the necessary skills with her/him. Or, … I’m sure anyone at a school level can fill in their own blanks.

It’s one thing for a corporation to have a dynamic website. They have the resources to hire someone or a team or to farm it out. That’s typically not so for schools; having a webpsite is a desirable thing and becomes a volunteer job. There are some who do a great job as volunteer. You will see some great websites but others, not so much.

How can we fix this? It’s not really a hardware or a software problem. You can go out and implement the best open source content management system or buy the best commercial one but that’s just going to move the problem to a new platform. You could hire a webmaster. Yeah, right. Or, you could rely on so and so’s husband, because “he knows computers”.

I would suggest that there’s a better way. You don’t need a webmaster much. In fact, if you look at your existing website, there’s probably a lot of good material that needs to be there and is valid from the first of September to the end of June. You know, things like bell times, exam days, professional learning days, parent/teacher interviews. Those types of things could be installed once and maybe even be a project for a summer AQ course. Or, just share a template from another school. Instead of their purple and yellow colours, change to your red and white, change the school logo, and you’re good to go. Unless someone holds them up side by side, they are two different sites for all intents and purposes.

It’s the dynamic day to day content that is the challenge. If we remove the webmaster from the mix for any of the reasons above or other, how can it be done? That’s where the webmaster replacement steps in. You don’t need a webmaster; you need a community manager.

The rest of the content can be created daily or, in fact minute by minute, with the right social tools.

Consider all of the great social media tools that are your fingertips. More and more teachers and classrooms are using the independently – why not bring in your community manager to make it work for you. In addition to the static things that you’ve already posted, leave some room to;

incorporate your class, student, and teacher blogs into the mainsite via RSS. A link takes the visitor to your content;
incorporate your class wikis or indeed a school wiki in the same manner. Unlike a webmaster who is the sole guardian of the password and content, build a learning resource with everyone contributing;
use Twitter widgets devoted to each classroom (even with their own hashtags) and every class can update the world 140 characters at a time;
got some great pictures from an assembly or other event? Encourage the audience to take the pictures and post them to Twitter with your school/class hashtag instead of waiting until someone needs to clean out the school camera and finds them;
need to post notes from a meeting or a guest presenter? Embed a Coveritlive session and post your notes as they happen. You could even do a play by play of a basketball game this way;
got some bandwidth? Consider live streaming and recording graduation so that all can enjoy.

The list goes on and on. There’s a not so subtle shift happening. Instead of updates happening when the webmaster can get to it or even if she/he can find and talk to the right person, it’s posted the minute that it happens. Everyone, principal, teacher, student, parent, can be content creators to show how vibrant and dynamic the school is.

Imagine, no more dead websites.

OTR Links 01/28/2012

dougpete — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 05:30:44 +0000

Computer Programming Code Of Ethics

This article attempts to enumerate the key points of proper conduct for Computer Programmers. Much of this is based on the Code Of Ethics of the now defunct International Programmers Guild.

tags: computer programming code ethics
40 Secret iPhone Features and Shortcuts | iPhone.AppStorm

There are lots of things that you can do with your iPhone, sure, but we’re willing to be that there are a few more that you either don’t know about or haven’t used before, particularly with all of the additions in iOS 5. Did you know you can put in typing shortcuts similar to Text Expander? Or that you can make custom vibrations for each person? If you didn’t — or just want to brush up on your iOS trivia — hit the jump and find 40 top secret, ultra-cool tips for the iPhone.

tags: secret iphone features shortcuts
The Teacher Report: 5 Components of a Great Lesso… – WeAreTeachers

Last month, we sat down with a panel of teachers to learn more about their best lesson ideas. Since then, we’ve read through hundreds of lessons and talked to dozens of teachers to help narrow down exactly what makes a lesson great. And, while there is no one factor that makes a tried-and-true lesson work, we did find five commonalities that seemed to be woven through all of our panelist’s favorite lessons.

tags: teacher
50 new tech tools you should know about – CNN.com

New mobile apps, services, social networks and other digital tools pop up so frequently that keeping up with them is a nearly impossible task. Just when you think you’re up to date, something newer and hipper comes along.

tags: apps tools
Microsoft researchers find new type of stealth malware – 26 Jan 2012 – Computing News

Security researchers have uncovered a new type of malware that appears to be benign as it is downloaded, potentially fooling security software, but which morphs into malicious software once it is on a user’s compute

tags: microsoft researchers find stealth malware computing news

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

The Village Gets Bigger

dougpete — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Remember the proverb “It takes a village to raise a child”? I’m happy to note that the Ontario educational blogging village got bigger this week. Check out the LiveBinder or the Scoopit page for the latest. From the Scoopit page, you’ll see the entries in LIFO (Last In, First Out) format. i.e. the latest additions at the top. If you check the LiveBinder site, you’ll notice that there’s a new tab.

This is a new category. While we are all advocates at our various level, there was a whole group on the Ontario scene who had been excluded. With the advice of @ShannoninOttawa, I’ve opened up this new category to recognize the blogs of people who aren’t directly employed by the educational system and yet have a deep interest in making sure that students in the province receive a superior education. Please welcome them to the fold.

OurSchool.ca
Lorna Costantini was keeping an eye on my old stomping groups – the Avon Maitland District School Board and Director Ted Doherty’s inclusion of parents in their strategic planning.

All school districts struggle with all kinds of issues. What a progressive concept to reach out in this manner to invite parents in the process. After all, it only makes sense – they provide the student bodies that make the district what it is.

Safety 4 our Schools
The latest issue here revolves around school districts that don’t require background checks for volunteers in schools. The body of a message from the Minister of Education appears in the latest post and there’s a table identifying which school districts require and which don’t require background checks. Interesting.

SheilaSpeaking

There’s more about parent involvement in schools from Sheila Stewart’s blog. Her current entry is Part II of a series examining the state of Parent Involvement Committees in the province. They are legislated; but how effect are they? Do they even have a significant existance?

I think that the addition of this new group of bloggers will enrich the messages that we have the opportunity to read regularly. Please welcome to the group and certainly feel free to head over to their blogs and comment on their messages. They have some pretty strong messages as advocates and may well be our political friends at some level in the future.

OTR Links 01/27/2012

dougpete — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:31:03 +0000

Why you should NOT install ‘Fun & Entertaining’ Facebook applications | facecrooks.com

We often have readers ask us questions about specific Facebook applications. Some apps generate an enormous amount of spam and can annoy the heck out of your Facebook friends. Others are outright scams and should be avoided entirely. For example, any application offering to show you who has viewed your profile, who your Facebook stalkers are etc., are guaranteed to be fraudulent. Facebook doesn’t allow developers access to the data required to create apps like this.

tags: fun entertaining facebook applications com
E-ngage Live – Welcome to Engagelive

Engagelive is an award winning educational platform used across the world. It provides a secure environment for students of all ages to practise strategies that they will need in the community. The difference between Engagelive and other platforms is that it is truly interactive as subject experts are on-line to answer specific questions to individual student queries as they arise.

tags: engage education
Make School more like Kindergarten – Mitchel Resnick [#lwf12 @mres] | Oliver Quinlan: Live Blogs

I many Kindergartens children are actively involved in designing and creating things that matter to them. They learn some specifics from this, but Resnick says what they learn that is most important is the creative process. Rather than simply imagining, they create, iterating with their creations and learning as they go.

tags: school kindergarten oliver blogs
Google Says Chromebooks Now in “Hundreds of Schools”

On stage at FETC today, Google announced that “hundreds of schools in 41 states” have adopted Chromebooks in one or more classrooms, and some 27,000 students in 3 states — Iowa, Illinois and South Carolina — will soon go 1-to-1 with the devices.

tags: google says hundreds schools
Utah Moves to Open Textbooks | iterating toward openness

The Utah State Office of Education announced that (1) it will be supporting the development of Utah-specific open textbooks for all secondary language arts, mathematics, and science courses, and (2) that the USOE recommends that all schools across the state consider these open textbooks for adoption in their secondary language arts, mathematics, and science courses for this fall (2012).

tags: utah moves textbooks openness
How to Create Your Own Textbook — With or Without Apple | MindShift

How to Create Your Own Textbook — With or Without Apple

tags: ebooks textbooks e-textbooks textbook technology
Top 13 Web 2.0 Tools for Classrooms « Ask a Tech Teacher

Every day in my K-8 tech classes, I use a variety of cloud-based tools to enhance the learning experience for my students. There are more of these ‘Web 2.0′ tools than I can keep up

tags: web2.0 Edchat Tools
Bill Gates discusses Steve Jobs, iBooks and education in new interview | TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog

When you think of Apple, you may think of their longtime rival in the OS space, Microsoft. When you think of Mac OS, you may think of Windows (drawing comparisons between the two since Windows debuted), and when you think of Steve Jobs, you often think of Bill Gates

tags: bill gates steve jobs education interview unofficial apple weblog
10 Designs Inspired by Microsoft’s Metro UI | Fuel Your Creativity

Since Microsoft first unveiled the Metro UI on Windows Phone 7, the rollout has been gradually taking place across every Microsoft product and website. It is the cornerstone of the Windows 8 interface and one of the most notable official uses of Metro UI available now is the excellent implementation on the Xbox 360 dashboard. The new design language has been a refreshing sign that Redmond cares about fixing its messy, bloated and ageing image, and the company is following through and executing.

tags: designs microsoft metro fuel creativity
8 Must-Have Tools for Windows Phone 7 Development – Diary Of A Ninja

8 Must-Have Tools for Windows Phone 7 Development

tags: tools wp7
Around the Corner-MGuhlin.org: MyNotes – #iPads in the ClassroomFive Essential Steps

MyNotes – #iPads in the ClassroomFive Essential Steps

tags: org ipads essential steps
The Classroom Evolved: Creating an Active Learning Environment — THE Journal

In the first of a new series of articles focused on classroom design, we take a look at a private high school in Florida that’s borrowed ideas from two major universities to create classrooms that support interactive, hands-on learning.

tags: classroom creating active learning environment journal
5 Tips For Staying Motivated While Studying Online | Emerging Education Technology

With the continued growth of online education, the challenge of staying motivated in self-directed study is something more students struggle with. Here’s a few tips to help.

tags: tips staying while studying online emerging education technology
HootSuite and Syracuse University partner to build students’ social media skills | Articles

HootSuite and Syracuse University partner to build students’ social media skills

tags: hootsuite syracuse university partner build students social social media media skills articles
10 Tips for Teaching English Language Learners | Edutopia

10 Tips for Teaching English Language Learners

tags: esl edchat ellchat
Introduce Yourself with Evernote Hello | iPhone.AppStorm

You’re at another conference. You hate these things because you’ve always got to try to pretend like you’re having a good time, even with the knowledge that your boss expects you to meet and expand your network of contacts.

tags: evernote iphone
Making Rounded Rectangles Look Great ~ Flyosity by Mike Rundle

Great product design involves thinking about what features to prioritize, planning the user flow from screen to screen, getting user feedback and lots more, but at the end of the day, someone is going to be in Photoshop pushing pixels. The final visual design of a digital interface isn’t going to design itself, and when a designer is crafting the look and feel, here are some elements they’re typically designing:

tags: making great mike buttons rectangles
Photogram: A Beautiful Way To View Instagram On The Web [Review] | Cult of Mac

We love Jeff Broderick’s work here at Cult of Mac. We’ve told you about some of his web app projects, like QuickWiFi and QuickContact, and his latest creation is called Photogram. As the name implies, you can use Photogram to view Instagram in your web browser. The app is beautiful and optimized for both the desktop and mobile experience.

tags: way view web review cult mac
IDroo Whiteboard for Skype

IDroo – Online educational multiuser whiteboard

tags: whiteboard collaboration skype idroo web2.0 tool IWB education
QR Code Addin for PowerPoint | PowerPoint Presentation

This QR Code Addin for PowerPoint helps you to embed QR Code in your PowerPoint slides. You can use this QR Code Addin to generate a QR Code for your contact slide or to be used in many other creative ways.

tags: qr code code addin powerpoint presentation

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