Tips from your TIS

In July of 2007, Jane Hart, head of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technology, asked experts about their top 10 productivity and teaching tools. You can look at the 2007 list as well as contribute to the 2008 Tool List at the following web site.

http://c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/top100.html

You may be interested in taking a look at this CrossWord Puzzle generator.
It allows you to
*import your own word lists and clues
*save word lists
*save PUZZLES (to use from year to year or class to class)
*Make multiple puzzle designs from one word list
*Print your puzzle
*Insert into your webpage-with INTERACTIVE features–GREAT FOR
PRACTICE)
*Choice of giving your students the WORDS or CLUES only (great for
vocabulary words and spelling)
*Saves in a variety of formats
*Having students create clues gives teachers another option for project/assignment

It is called ECLIPSE CROSSWORD. It can be found at
http://www.eclipsecrossword.com/

Ever try to explain something over the phone? It just doesn’t compare to actually showing someone what they should do — it isn’t as effective as being there.

When I would introduce students to a task I wanted them to complete with the computer, I sometimes felt stuck with a similar dilemma. If I explained it to them in the computer lab, many would be off task, distracted by the computer. Yet, if I explained it to them in my classroom, often I was required to use a chalk board and then some would inevitably forget what they should do. What if there was a way for me to record my audible directions, visually demonstrate the required steps, and provide those directions at the click of a button?

Jing makes this possible.

The Jing Project has created a tool that allows you to take pictures of anything that is displayed on your screen. It can also take video, capturing sound from a microphone (often embedded into your machine if you are using a laptop). What sets Jing apart from other screen capture tools is that it can …

1. Store the image or video on a remote server space, and
2. Create a link to that image or video that you can easily include on your web page or in an e-mail.

This means that you don’t have to worry about e-mailing large videos to people and that the videos you create are easily shared with others.

In the scenario above, if I was going to have students complete a number of activities on one or two websites, using Jing I could record myself navigating to those activities and dictating directions. I could put a link on my web page and direct the students there for directions. Their first task when they get to their computers would be to listen to my directions, as I take attendance.

Jing can be used to share anything you can see on your desktop. Here’s a link to their online tour.

This post is more geared towards parents of young children and possibly elementary school teachers who are looking to control what content kids can access on the Internet. What’s different about this as opposed to other filtering systems is that parents and teachers pick the content themselves rather than relying on a third party.

Glubble is a free tool for the Mozilla Firefox Internet browser. It permits each member of the family to have their own custom environment, so that when kids use it they only see the very best parts of the Internet based on selections made by their parents or supplied by trusted family brands.

Glubble enhances Firefox to make sure kids can’t see the whole World Wild Web instead they can only see family friendly parts of the web, its like their own little world on the web. The company calls it their Glubble World.

On the site you’ll find a tour that will show you how it works. One thing to remember, this doesn’t work with Internet Explorer. For those of you still running Internet Explorer, maybe it’s time to try Firefox.

Links:
http://www.glubble.com
http://www.getfirefox.com

Everyone likes free. Problem is, a lot of free programs out there just aren’t up to the challenge of being useful in the classroom or having the quality to be worth our time. Here are a couple, though, that are more than worth the time of a download!

Google Earth

Ever find yourself in need of a map of the United States? France? How about Iraq or Egypt? Ballwin or Chesterfield? Google Earth is your one stop tool for anyplace on the globe. With powerful features like zoom and 3D, give your students a whole new view of their world and the world around them. Curriculum uses? Seeing the correlation of resources and populations, measuring distances between real world destinations, looking at your local community, exploring the settings for stories or their authors, looking at landforms of the world, and now you can even explore space with the new sky view! Never buy another wall or book map again.

Art Rage 2

Finally a painting program that actually allows you the experience of painting! Art Rage 2 is an incredibly powerful art program that allows you to work with a wide variety of mediums on an array of surfaces while maintaining the look and feel of the real thing. Paints actually mix instead of overlaping, pressure and saturation can determine individual brush strokes, canvas choices effect appearance. While the full version costs 25(and is probably worth it!), the free version offers more than enough options to show off your student’s creativity and talents. Imagine giving your student a dry paint brush and having them paint on a Smart Board! Import images and trace over them with pastels before removing the original image and being left with your interpretation of the original. Can you say Finger Paints!

Sketchup

Now here is a great tool for your visual learners. Sketchup is a 3D modeling program that allows you to easily create shapes and other objects in well, 3D. Sure you could use it in a design class or architecture, but how about math? Studing area, volume, perimeter, angles, ratios, perspective, geometry in general? Bring life to your lessons by creating and modifying objects or having your students present their own interpretations of what they have learned. Measurements are in metric and standard form.