Don’t let technology get you down!
February 27th, 2009
Sorry the district will not let you view this video on school grounds.
Archive
Archive for February, 2009
Technology Update for 2/22/2009
February 22nd, 2009
Astronomy.net helps you identify all celestial bodies in your pictures of the night sky. Their promise: “Input an image and we’ll give you back astrometric calibration meta-data, plus lists of known objects falling inside the field of view.” Also, a nice selection of photographs of space on the Flicker group.
Lexipedia.com is a free visual thesaurus, providing definitions, synonyms and antonyms in a visual way. This one’s free, so check it out!
100 Ways to Use Your IPod to Learn and Study Better. Did you know IPods are for more than just music?
Tinychat.com allows you to create a chat room on the fly. Just log in and it creates a web address for you. Then send it to everyone you want to join and then you can chat.
Gmail finally allows you to customize the colors anyway you wish. This is a real nice addition to the web interface. Click on Settings–>Themes–>Choose My Colors
Here’s a good blog post for students (and some teachers) prior to going online. “Behaving Well Online”
I’ve been messing around with embedding different objects into our school website. One useful tool is the ability to embed a RSS feed easily using WidgetBox. Any teacher can embed this by simple copying the embed code into Plain Text (or HTML code) of a page.
Also, Embedr allows you to embed video playlists (haven’t tried this one yet.)
Tech Enthusiasts:
Interested in building a computer from scratch, check out this overview of the process.
Need to create a favorite icon for your website? Here’s a website worth trying out: FavIcon Generator. The Fav Icon is the small graphic that appears to the left of a web address in your browser.
A two-part article and interview defining the term “cloud computing.” I tend to refer to cloud computing as simply: doing what you do on your computer without an Internet connection only on the Internet.
In the News:
Pennsylvania has a bill to ban all electronic devices in schools. Good luck on this.
If you are a Netflix user, Queued allows you to manage your Netflix cue from your desktop.
For Fun:
50 of the Most Insane Things Never Seen on Google Maps
Google Proves Humanity is Sick and Sad, and Absolutely Hilarious
Until next time,
Skramstad
Technology Update for 2/8/2009
February 9th, 2009
New Kindle is expected out this week. Pictures and info available here.
Google Book Search is offering 1.5 million books accessible on an IPhone or Android device.
I primarily use Google Docs as my primary online word processor. A new one is on the scene called Shutterborg. Great for students who want to have their documents wherever they go and avoid having to pay for Office.
StumbleUpon is a popular service for finding out about cool new websites. Sign up and press the Stumble Upon button and you will find some new websites based on your interests.
Another book is banned. This time Bless Me Ultima. If parents were a little more aware (if they read more), I’m sure more books would get axed from the curriculum.
Mystery readers: Interesting idea for SSR. Though I think most teachers prefer no PA announcements. But it’s a nice idea anyhow.
GoAnimate.com allows you to create simple animations. You can embed these on your webpages if you can make anything worth sharing with your students.
Real world math lessons using Google Earth.
For fun: Paul Smith is planning to travel across country on the kindness of Twitter users.
Software picks: Texter and Fences. Texter looks useful for creating simple macros for commonly repeated text strings like signatures or code excerpts. I haven’t used this one yet, but I think it has a clear value. Fences is another Stardock product that I’m using for organizing icons on the desktop. Avoids that cluttered desktop I fear so much.
Hands on: Google Earth 5.0 goes under the sea, back in time
February 3rd, 2009
Be sure to check out the new version of Google Earth. Adults and teenagers love using this simulation program. It can be an excellent complement for any geography lesson (i.e. a book you are reading (“Night”) or a subject in history (“World War II”).
This newest update provides historical overlays to the Earth, so you can see particular places in their historical context, as well as details underwater areas of the Earth.
Check out these two articles about the changes to Google Earth.
San Francisco Chronicle
Ars Technica Article
Google Earth is installed on all computer lab computers and would be great for an English, science, and social studies class.