How Do I….
May 22nd, 2008 — Email, Microsoft, TechTips, Education, Resources
Here is my handout. Some of it is covered in other places in this blog. I created it on a Macbook using Pages and exported it as a PDF. Coolness.
Jumpdrive
Create a folder
PowerPoint Backgrounds and creating content in Word
Adding Sound to PowerPoint and making the music play across multiple slides
Creating Screenshots
Creating a group in Outlook Express
Locking your computer
Word Tips
FireFox
End of year grade export
April 17th, 2008 — Education, Resources, General
Interactive Biology Websites
Do you have any favorites to add to the list?
April 10th, 2008 — Education, Resources
What can they do?
For TAKS:
For Vocabulary Enrichment
For Planning For the Future
February 9th, 2008 — TCEA, TCEA08, Education, Resources, podcasts
Presenter Shaunna Buck
The best parts of this session for me were the student presentation examples. It was truly exciting to see the quality.
7th grade writing program meant to grow beyond writing well enough to pass
Develop writing portfolio
Folders for
Rough drafts
Final drafts
Favorites
Reflective place – higher order thinking
“Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe, shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish.” John Jakes
Collections and reflections
Organizational pattern akin to true writer’s notebook
Student’s papers that received a “4” were blown up poster size, a picture sometimes added, laminated and put up on the hall wall
Student’s goal became creating a “wall worthy” paper
Slowed the traffic pattern in the hall but it was kind of hard to get on to a student who was slow moving when the reason was that they were reading.
Reaction “ so and so’s up there?? How did they get a paper up there??”
Students no longer convinced that their first draft is their best work”
Motivation through competition
Students recorded reading their papers using audacity then uploaded as podcast
Incorporated Photostory 3 video to create digital stories enhanced the program
“Photostory like PowerPoint on speed”
Easy to learn and use
Students were motivated to rewrite
“Revision no longer a dirty word”
“Public recognition key”
Public presentation skills – students who were not comfortable getting up in front of class presenting had success in a room alone recording.
Save ppt slides as jpeg and import into Photostory, add music and audio – insert
Reading students used their class novel
Project – two word sentences – subject,verb – subject verb
Great for inclusion kids
Student went to district – made people cry
Photostory presentation about mom being killed in a car wreck – not true just a story but made me cry anyway
“if you make people cry you almost always get a 4!”
Think about their writing visually
Project – study origin of their name – not just definition but what it means to them, who they are.
Beyond thinking literally
Planning
Digital camera to make their own pictures , google images, scans
discussion about copyright
template for storyboard (looks like filmstrip)
require storyboard and script
Note what images go where
Import pictures into photostory
They used the headphones with mic attached
Pairs – one to talk, the other to click buttons, then they switch places
Photostory has a lot of built in music clips
Resource : freeplaymusic.com
Suggested book “Mechanically Inclined” Jeff Anderson
February 8th, 2008 — TCEA, TCEA08, TechTips, Education, Resources
Patrick Crispen takes a sneak peak at what’s just over the horizon. Site: netsquirrel
Thanks to my guest Paris ISD teacher Nancy Bratteli for these notes on the session! This presentation was lightening fast and fun - I was scribbling so fast I could barely read my writing!
Polaroid Zink printer – zero ink – thermal, permanent, $149, about 30cents/print, available 12/08
new hard drives; SSD SATA 5000 1.8” 72GB; uses about 5% of the power of old drives; in 5 years, all will be this way; no spinning platters, less hard drive crash
USB3 is on the way; uses fiber optic cable, ridiculously fast (10X faster than 2)
Wireless USB (short range – speed relative to distance); Belkin has one now;
connects device to device
Eye-Fi SD memory card 2GB for camera; available now for $99; card transfers pics wirelessly to computer, filesharing sites, automatically
802.11n – (IEEE—guys who set global standards) new version of wireless coming April 2008; 540 megabits/sec; look for DRAFT 2.0 (some products out too early)
WiMax (802.16) metro area network – 70 mb/s;
it will be everywhere like cell phone service?
RFID – now in all U.S. passports (concerning?), toll tags, etc.; in 5 yrs. will replace bar codes
LEDs – last so long they will replace light bulbs in 10 yrs.
OLED see how stuff works for explanation - organic light-emitting diodes; bright, thin displays on electronic devices using less power
Recordable media – as of January, Blu-Ray has won, HD is gone
AACS – Advanced Access Content System – if signal is broken anywhere (hacked), may not play HD in the future
Distributed Computing – e.g., PS3 folding at home, Seti
508v2 and WCAG 2.0 – Web Content for Accessibility (504s)
IPv6 – new system large enough to assign an address for every atom in the body of every person on earth
Presentations 2.0 – Crispen used today; cleaner alternative to PPT
TV – original color standard set in the 1950s; showed great diagram of difference between interlaced and progressive signals; 1080p is gold standard, but nobody does it; digital-to-digital connections: cables aren’t important, so get cheap ones (good cheap source: monoprice.com) (get converter box vouchers for schools!)
Also posted at Thoughts Have Wings
February 7th, 2008 — TCEA08, TCEA, Microsoft, TechTips, Resources, Education, podcasts
This was a good session that gave some basic common sense tips on using PowerPoint.
Why would we want to use it (well)?
• This generation has little tolerance for delays or mistakes in delivery of information
• It’s an easy way to get information across in a short time period
Caution:
If well used can be extremely engaging
Tips:
Key - Keep the focus on the presenter
Start with the basics
Consider approaches for presenting
Adjust style elements (easy place to waste time)
Presentations without a presenter
*They did a Distance Learning Day at Good Shepherd. They submitted lesson plans, students stayed home and did assignments via internet. This type of podcast presentation was part of her lesson.
February 7th, 2008 — TCEA08, Web 2.0, TechTips, Resources
If you go to TCEA 2008 and click on Sessions and Workshops, list free sessions you will see the entire list and the session I attend will have the session number in the post as well. You will be able to look for handouts there in a few weeks.
I like Patrick Crispen’s presenting style. He starts on time, tells you what he will cover, moves through the presentation like an east Texas wind. Before you know it he is saying we have to hurry because there are only three minutes left, ties is all up and sends you out as the next group comes in. He must have an incredible amount of energy or sleep for a week after a conference like this.
His website is NetSquirrel and if you go there and click on PowerPoint Presentations on the side you will have access to all his handouts. They are licensed under Creative Commons (he was the first person I heard even mention Creative Commons yesterday) so you are free to download his material. The presentation for this session will be udated in a few days.
Some new things I learned yesterday:
This morning I found a new little snippet in my reader about Google docs - they have added a new little tool. When you share a spreadsheet you now have three choices - collaborator, viewer, and now “to fill out a form”. You can create a form in Google spreadsheets, share it with people and as they respond to the form, the data is automatically added to your spreadsheet.
posted at Thoughts Have Wings
January 19th, 2008 — Web 2.0, TechTips, Education, Resources
A couple of resources I wanted to save here before they fell off the grid (my grid that is). Thanks Denise for telling me about Dr. Bishop - here is his Library 2.0 site with tons of resources. He has some awesome PowerPoints about blogs, wikis, and podcasts.
Joyce Valenza has a great library website and blogs here. There is a link on her library website that takes you toa page called Pathfinders. In her words, Pathfinders are guides to commonly researched topics. One of the rabbit trails I followed landed me at a site called When Is A Book Report Not A Book Report?
There is a list of 100 ways to do a book report besides the old fashioned written book report I remember doing in school. Many of these could be tweaked just a little to fit other subject areas and given a technology boost.
If you are casting around trying to come up wth an idea for a technology lesson plan to help fulfill your commitment for the comp day you just might get some inspiration at one of these sites.
December 26th, 2007 — Web 2.0, TechTips, Resources, General
I love this!
kwout | A brilliant way to quote via kwout
Type the URL of the page, drag your mouse to select the area you want, click the “cutout” button. Kwout then generates the code to embed the image in your blog or post directly to flickr or tumblr.
If you try it out and like it go to the bottom of the page and save the bookmarklet to your favorites or drag it to your Firefox toolbar to make it even easier to use!
You can even make a few little changes in how your image is displayed!
December 8th, 2007 — Reading, Education, Resources
When I was in high school (yes back when you had stone tablets and rode a dinosaur) I actually liked Shakespeare. We went on field trips several times to Detroit to see plays and one memorable trip to Stratford in Canada to see Macbeth. The play was wonderful - I don’t think you can fully appreciate Shakespeare without seeing a live play.
The trip was also memorable because we stopped to have a picnic lunch on the way home. I have tried to find the place we stopped and I can’t be sure. There was a stream and a very short waterfall because the teachers were all watching us like hawks afraid someone would fall and be injured but we were having such a great time wading in the shallow water above the little waterfall. It was a beautiful place and I would love to go back someday.
All this reminiscing started when I clicked on a link to an interactive website that is all about The Bard. The Weekly Reader Shakespeare website opens with a picture of Shakespeare’s head talking to give you an introduction to the site.
As you can see there are lots of activities a couple of pdf files of plays to read aloud Macbeth and a new version called Mac and Beth. There is also a timeline of his life which includes notable events in history that were happening during that time.
There is also a link to a teaching center where you can download some files to use with your students as they stroll through the website.
If you would like some more resources on William Shakespeare you can try BardNet where you will find a list of links.
