Tips from your TIS

If you are a user of Google Earth or have thought about using it in your classroom, it might be time to download the newest version released just a few days ago.  Google has added some tremendous features to Earth with this beta version.  Not only are there 3d buildings created in Sketchup, Street View in which you can get a street level view of many places, and Sky where you can explore the stars, Google has added a touring feature in which you can record a “tour” as a video for playback later as well as have your kids record themselves and narrate the tour.  For more information or videos detailing these new features go to http://earth.google.com

Additionally, there is now historical imagery included which allows you to move back in time to see changes in landscape locally and globally.  The final new feature includes being able to explore the oceans including 3D shipwrecks.  It’s all very cool.  

If you’ve been looking to create an interactive timeline for your class, you might want to take a look at http://www.dipity.com.  With this online tool, you or your students can create your timeline, making it public or private to suit your needs.  All timelines are categorized and there might just be one there to suit your needs (They say they have over 20,000).

Enjoy.

If you’d like an online space to store, organize, and access all your favorite web sites or if you have a number of bookmarks on Safari and would like to transfer them easily to a PC, check out del.icio.us.

‘del.icio.us’ keeps an online record of all the web sites you would usually ‘bookmark’ in Safari, Internet Explorer, or Firefox. Because it’s online, you can access your account from any computer, anywhere. Each time you bookmark a site, you have the option of ‘tagging’ that bookmark with a keyword. This creates an organized and cross-referenced list of all the resources you bookmark.

What makes del.icio.us unique is your ability to share your bookmarks with others, and follow what other people bookmark. Each ‘tag’ creates a unique web address to which you can direct colleagues or students easily. For an example, check out the account I created of resources for social studies teachers. To see what others are bookmarking, click on the ’saved by …’ link under each bookmark. This opens up another page where you can choose to browse what other people have tagged with similar keywords. What began with one bookmark connects you with a network of resources organized by people all over the world.

If you are interested in learning more about this tool, visit the help page or contact a TIS.

In this day in age, it seems there is a new web application every day that can take the place of a desktop application. A big benefit of most of these is that they are free. But how do you find out if there is a program you can use? How can you keep up with all the changes? Simple Spark just might be your solution. Simple Spark has cataloged all WEB 2.0 type services that exist and brings them to you through a simple search. They have daily updates of the latest programs out there as well. You can search by key words or use their predefined catagories. The site provides a brief description of each app along with a rating. So, next time you need a quick photo editor or want to find a place that pulls in all the biggest news headlines of the day, start at Simple Spark and simplifly your search!

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

Welcome back everyone, I hope you had a fabulous break. I have three things for you today, a keyboard shortcut, a website and a Firefox add-on.

When you are working on a PC there are many times that you might have a number of windows open. With all those windows open sometimes taking your hands off your keys, finding the mouse, and then finding the window takes time. One way to switch between windows is to use the “Alt” key and then hit “Tab” to cycle through the open windows. Each time you hit tab, it will switch to the next open window.

Now for the website, if you have ever wanted to take a video off of YouTube or wanted to convert a file from one format to another, here’s a free online option for you. Let me introduce you to Zamzar. With Zamzar you can convert images, video, audio and regular document files. It’s not instantaneous, and you’ll have to wait until you receive an email to go back and download it, but I’ve had great success with the files that I have converted. Just to be clear, there are many things/sites that it won’t convert so be patient and do some experimenting.

The final item for this post is for Firefox users. Mozilla Firefox is an alternative browser to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. While there are some sites that you must use Explorer (including some of the district applications), if you’re interested in using Firefox you can ask your CRS to install it for you. Visit the website for more information. However, Firefox is not the tip here; once you have it installed there is an add-on called Auto-Copy. This copies any text that you highlight in your browser to the clipboard ready to be pasted. This can be used for URL’s, or other text that you want to copy alleviating the keyboard shortcut or Edit –> Copy mouse commands when surfing the web.

Again, welcome back and have a great second semester.

Groupwork. It can be a powerful learning experience for students, but a headache for teachers to manage. So much so that I was often tempted to avoid assigning group projects rather than develop new ways to keep students interested and individually accountable. Yet, many companies depend upon results from teams of people working in distant places, and even more so as the world becomes smaller, technologically speaking. Teaching these life skills may be almost as important as teaching our content.

Wikis are a large part of this new global collaboration trend. Many of us may know of Wikipedia, but this extraordinary example is only one of many wikis online. In fact, many teachers are now using wikis as tools for group work in their classes. Lee LeFever and the Common Craft Show provide a good introduction to this Web 2.0 tool. As you watch this short 4 minute film, be thinking about how this tool could be used to redefine groupwork in your classroom.

With a wiki, students can add and modify content to pages you set create. They can have discussions, ask you questions, and post new resources. And, an added managerial bonus, every change a student makes is recorded, easily viewable from their profile or the history of a given page.

Group results, individual accountability.

Two popular hosting agencies for wikis are WetPaint and Wikispaces. Each are now offering ad-free versions of their commercial wikis, with settings that keep your students’ identities and work secure. WetPaint hosts its own education support page and Wikispaces is offering its premium services to K-12 educators free of charge. Visit these sites or contact your technology integration specialist for more information about using wikis in your classroom!

If you would like to view examples of wikis created in each of these wiki providers, I recently created this wiki with a group of elementary teachers in wikispaces, and WetPaint is highlighting this teacher’s work with 9th graders.

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/

Telling a story, in English or a foreign language, is a learned skill. It requires fundamental language skills and creativity. If you’ve asked students to add visual elements to those stories, perhaps you’ve felt some frustration as students concentrate more on their drawing abilities and less on the words that they use.

Kerpoof is a Scholastics website that allows students to create scenes or stories that can be e-mailed or printed. It uses drag-and-drop flash animations that remove the painstaking time students spend sketching and erasing. Students can walk in with their written stories, choose their scenes, drag characters and props to the appropriate scenes, add text boxes and dialog bubbles like those found in comic books, and print out their final products.

Scholastics also provides a teacher resources page with application ideas and lesson plans. Some Kerpoof sponsors, like the Butterfly Pavilion in Broomfield, Colorado, and Northwest Trek in Tacoma, Washington, have sponsored scenes of real places. In these scenes, students can choose pictures of flora and fauna native to those areas, creating accessible reviews of predator-prey patterns or prompting discussions about different environments.

Kerpoof offers a unique educational resource, whether it be to students sprucing up their stories or teachers leading class discussions.

ePals is now offering SchoolMail, Schoolblog, and In2Books free for schools. These services were formerly available only via a subscription. Further information can be found in the article below from THE Journal.

http://www.thejournal.com/articles/21246