Keeping Perspective...

Not too much focused on tech, but interesting to consider:  http://web20classroom.blogspot.com/2010/12/passion-for-real-education-reform.html

Animoto

As I've been mentioning, I was waiting for my classroom code for all-access Animoto.  Well, it came and I'm pretty pleased with the results.  I've been making videos for myself just to try it out (which have really worked well).  Going through the Animoto education site, you can sign up for the all access pass for you and your kids (one code works for all of you).  Animoto is very easy to use.  Just upload the photos you want in your video (as well as videos, too), choose a style and music and Animoto does the rest.


I have my first student assignment ready to go using Animoto.  I'm excited to see the results.  


Anyone used Animoto?  Things you'd share?  Cautionary tales?  Something better?

No Thank You.

Do you like spam?  Does anyone?  I know I don't.  If you get an obscene amount of spam in your email, there are ways to control it.  You can start with the spam controls that are automatically part of many email programs and services.  If that doesn't work for you, sites/services like boxbe.com can further control what comes into your email inbox.  


Essentially, when a message comes to you, Boxbe replies for you and asks the person to identify themselves to you.  If they can, the email moves along to you and if they can't (like when a bot is sending you spam messages from the Prince of Nigeria who wants to share $32,000,000 with you if only you'll send him $4,000 to get out of the country) then it moves to a junk folder, thus not cluttering up your inbox.  


It can be a little off-putting to get these messages from someone's email (I've gotten them, and they can be annoying), but I suppose if you're then one they're being sent for, you appreciate it.  The service works with pretty much any email.

Wading through your email each morning can be a pain, so here's your Tylenol.  


Would you use this?  Do you use something else?

Print This...Not That!

In times of shrinking budgets and the increase of 'green' society, the importance of not wasting paper has grown  increasingly important.  In addition to having your students print things at home (which works surprisingly well) as well as doing work/submitting work digitally, you can trim down what you're printing, too.  Many times, I only want a small part of a webpage, but when I try to print it, tons of other (often ink-wasting) graphics, ads, information are printed-often cutting off what I actually wanted.

Never fear, Print What You Like is here.  Just enter the website of the page you want to print.  Then, just click on the part you want to print:

Your options are to: 


You can select a part and then add more to it as well.  This is what isolate goes to:

When you have what you want, just click print on the left and you have it.  No ads, no graphics no annoying cut offs.  

Enjoy!

Too long? Not anymore!

Many of my colleagues like to use YouTube videos, especially after we found that most of the History Channel videos (including our beloved French Revolution video) have been included in the Youtube catalog.  However, we frequently hear the battle cry of the administrator..."No Whole Videos!...Only Clips!...Keep it Short!"  Woe to the teacher whose administrator walks in as the credits are rolling on Gandhi.  Some teachers have tried to move away from video playing (which is a shame, especially in history) as to not incur the wrath of administration.

But happy days are here again thanks to TubeChop.  The Chopper (as I affectionately call it) is quite a handy little utility that allows you to edit YouTube videos you wish to use-TubeChop gives you the weblink as well as the embed code for you to view it.  You could then use something like Zamzar, to download it if you wish.

Click each one and it will grow.

What do you think about The Chopper?  Useful?

5:30 AM Comes Fast.

So today was the first day back to school and heavens was I suffering this morning.  As I joked with one of my new students, 5:30 comes awfully quick when you're used to getting up at 11 (I was referring to me, not her). 

This site-Wakerupper, made me giggle a bit when I saw it this afternoon.  I wanted to think that I could use it to help me wake up in the morning, but when I give it serious though, I know that it won't make any difference.  I did, however, think of a fantastic use for it- to aggravate my colleagues during their classes.  

Seriously though...I could see people using this to remind themselves of things, especially if they don't have a smartphone.  It's extremely easy to use-just put in the phone number and the message.  

What could you see using this for?

Google for the classroom

As you can probably tell from previous postings, I really appreciate all of the products Google has come out with.  I use Google products many times each day at work.  I'm especially pleased that Google has branded a series of these as Google Apps for Education.  

Here's a video from Google that speaks to their work in cloud computing for education and other organizations:

If you have some time this summer, I highly recommend trying some of these out.  All  you need is one Google ID (like a Gmail address, which is free) to use them all.

My favorites for the classroom are GoogleDocs (no surprise there!) and Google Talk.  I use both of them pretty regularly.  Try them out-especially Google Docs-it works great with Twitter to keep in contact with your kids, and the best part is that iTouches can access GoogleDocs content.