Bookmarking the Newest Sites Online
January 14th, 2010
Tips for Creating a Multimedia Project using PowerPoint with Students
December 3rd, 2009
Even though we may have all suffered an overdose of PowerPoint everywhere we go, PowerPoint continues to be an ideal technology tool for our students. As we all know from our CLAD classes, the more we can support our students with non-textual connections to our content the better (through images, pictures, audio, and video). In addition our students will benefit significantly from increased opportunities to speak in front of others.
Use a Template: Creating a blank PowerPoint with all the slides empty with the information you wish them to include is sometimes necessary. Unless you want to spend a lot of time repeating directions in terms of creating slides, adding textboxes and inserting pictures, having a blank template will allow students to focus more on the content and less on the PowerPoint software.
Gather Research Ahead of Time: Students should never start a PowerPoint without their notes and writing completed ahead of time. If they have not written out anything, they will likely copy and paste straight from the Internet without properly giving credit or putting it in their own words. With the content already written down, students will have to rewrite it in their own words as they create their slides.
Questions or Storyboards: To focus students’ research on their topic, they should have a number of research questions they are expected to answer. This provides necessary structure for our students when they visit the library or computer lab to research. You can check their understanding and the completion of their research by their hand-written notes in response to the questions. If time persists, they should even create mockups of their slides by filling in blank slides, sketching what they intend to write on each slide and the images they will choose. You can create three blank slides and print them in Handout form and make copies for students (See attached.)
Presenting their PowerPoint is as important as its creation: Students should be expected to present their PowerPoint presentation in class whether in groups or on their own. Emphasis should be placed on presenting without reading from the PowerPoint; in fact, students should not use full sentences or paragraphs on the PowerPoint, but short bulleted points in PHRASES. PowerPoint slides are intended as a visual aide for a presentation, not in substitute for the presentation. They should select images that best illustrate the ideas in their speech or presentation.
Emphasize Good Slide Design: Sometimes there is a temptation to make students create a large number of slides in their PowerPoint. It is preferable to have students create three to five quality slides than 7-10 mediocre slides. If you have samples of previous PowerPoint presentations, you can show them good and poor examples of slide design.
Well Designed Slides = Short Concise Phrases on Main Concepts, Representative Graphics/Images, Easy to Read Text and Colors, Photographs are Sized Properly/Not Blurry.
Encourage the Tech-Savvy Students to Experiment and Help Others: Some students are comfortable using PowerPoint and we should encourage them to apply advanced features of the software, including animation, slide transitions, and narration.
Great websites and tech happenings to check out
November 23rd, 2009
Over the last month here’s a number of valuable sites worth exploring in more depth.
Literacy: Adolescent Literacy, literacy resources for parents, teachers, and students. Including classroom strategies list and research articles.
College/Career: Interactive 3D and maps-based college search site at Egiate.com
College/Career: Google offers scholarships for minority and special needs students.
Science: University of Utah has developed an interactive website for learning and teaching genetics with animations and simulations.
Science: The journey of Darwin online.
Social Studies: Interactive website on the Lincoln Memorial.
Social Studies: You can now find and read full text legal opinions from U.S. federal and state district, appellate and supreme courts at Google Scholar. Link
Teaching: Outline your classroom floorplan with Classroom Architect. For those who don’t use Easy Grade Pro.
Teaching: Good video created by the Art Institute of Chicago preparing students for a museum visit. Link (YouTube)
Research: 100 Google Tricks that will save you time in School
Research: Search images and see their interrelatedness to each with Google Swirl.
Learning: WatchKnow — Videos for Kids to Learn from – Scouring the web for the best of YouTube and other video sites
Learning: Word Ahead — Vocabulary Videos. Another way to learn vocabulary.
Learning: A list of 20 virtual field trips for students.
Technology: Why is the My Computer Running so slow? This question comes up all the time from computer users. Here’s a list of popular software to help clean up your computer and get it running smoothly again.
Technology: Google OS – the next big thing from Google. Good video for beginners to understand operating systems, browsers, and the future of computing.
Technology: The three easiest ways to blog. Posterous.com, Tumblr.com and now TypePad Micro. And a review of all three.
Creativity: Guide to Tapping into the World of Comics
Reference: World Clock – a clock that tells what’s happening over the passage of time.
Art: Artnatomy: Anatonical basis of facial expression learning tool.
For Fun: Autocompleteme.com shows the bizarre searches of Google users.
Google Services for Students/Educators
November 16th, 2009
I’ve listed the top Google offerings and their potential value to educators and students. Once you create a Google Account, you can save to one account. Sharing of sites, blogs, calendars, etc. gives Google the edge over desktop software. Though, of course, online services will be a bit more limited in functionality than you may be used to.
Blogger
Blogger allows students to journal online. Each post appears on the top of the stream, and students can embed images and video. Blogger supports and encourages student writing and creativity. Informal writing and reflection about any topics.
Books
Google has scanned thousands of books online, and made them available for reading. Though few people want to read on their computer, with new mobile devices, reading books online becomes more appealing.
Calendar
The ability to create a calendar and share it with multiple people allows for easier collaboration. You can have multiple collaborators and updaters. Google Calendar syncs with many mobile devices.
Chrome
Chrome is a zippy fast new web browser like Internet Explorer and Firefox. If you are frustrated by the bloat of IE, you may want to give Chrome a spin. Free download.
Desktop
Desktop is a software application you can download and install on your computer, which indexes all your files and documents, making it easier to search and find what you are looking for. It’s a great option if you are still using XP.
Documents
Google Documents allows you to create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations online for sharing and collaboration. You can have multiple authors and publish them online for easy viewing. Great for students. Avoids the need for having a flash drive and creates a digital portfolio of assignments.
Earth
If you have not tried Google Earth, you are missing out on one of Google’s most compelling products. It allows you to see the Earth in 3-D. Google Earth is a software application you download and install on your computer. You can zoom in and focus on locations on the earth. It is Google Maps in 3-D. Creating lessons and supplementing lessons with Google Earth will be well worth your time.
Finance
Google Finance allows you to create online portfolios of stocks and track their performance over time. You can download the portfolios to Excel and perform comparisons. Great for an economics class.
Groups
Google Groups supports a private or public online discussion forum. It allows you to post topics for discussion and members to reply. You can also post information and documents for easy access to all members. Great for extracurricular classes and groups.
Knol
Knol is Google’s version of a Wiki. It is an online repository of information about a topic. You can create a knoll about any topic and any member of the Knol can edit pages and make updates. It is great if you are creating a guide or a handbook that might often change or require updating. (For example, you can have a Knol for Everything You Need to Know About Graduating)
Maps
Kids love Google Maps. They can spend endless free time exploring the maps due to its interactivity and visuals of places they are familiar with. If you can create an assignment using Google Maps, you will receive definite kudos with your students.
News
Google News searches the web for the top stories from other websites and creates a news page. Great for getting multiple articles on the same topic.
Picasa
Picasa allows you to create and share photo albums. You can upload them online or download software to your computer. You can create public and private libraries.
Reader
Google Reader allows you to subscribe to the top stories of many websites using a technology called RSS. Each day new stories are automatically fed into the Reader. Google Reader is great for educators, helping them to follow their favorite websites in one place regarding news, education, interests, etc. Students could also follow their own favorite websites, supporting non-fiction reading and articles. Great for researching a topic.
Scholar
Google Scholar searches for scholarly articles on a topic. Though valuable, most of the articles are written at a college or post-graduate level.
Sites
Google Sites is a website creator for the non-technical. It requires no knowledge of HTML. Educators or students can easily create new pages, edit the content, and add images and visuals. You can even share and have multiple editors.
Sketchup
Sketchup is a software package that you can download and install and it allows for basic 3-D modeling. Great if you are working with geometry students.
Timeline
Google News Timeline allows you to search for stories about a topic/person over a number of dates. Great if you are writing a research paper that requires covering a large number of dates.
You can access all of these services by typing the name of the service at google.com. For example: calendar.google.com or chrome.google.com or sites.google.com.
Voice
Google Voice creates one phone number for a combination of phone #s. It is still new and not available to everyone yet.
Wave
Wave is the future of email, IM, chat and collaboration. It’s in the rough stages now and needs some time to evolve into its final product. Unless you are a tech enthusiast, you will find more frustration than benefit here at this time.
Worthwhile News, Links and other stuff:
September 30th, 2009
Target is still giving away $800 grants for field trips. Link
If you have heard of Garage Band, try out Myna, an audio editor on the web. Link
“Did You Know? Shift Happens” Videos released a 4.0 version. Check out all versions here
Would you like to have a way to have all your website bookmarks sync among multiple computers? Check out Delicious or Diigo.
Google Docs have added more additional features for academic purposes. Link
Good basic websites for blogging are Tumblr and Posterous and older students are WordPress and Blogger.
Web-based script writing. Test out Story by Adobe. Link
Create 3D models and designs with Sketchup. Worth checking out.
Create interactive house designs with Small Blue Printer.
I use Orbit Downloader for downloading YouTube videos. Download at home, play at school. Check it out. Link
Dirby converts YouTube videos to Audio for listening later. Link