Technology
12 Windows shortcuts every educator should know: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_in_education/archive/2015/11/03/12-windows-shortcuts-every-educator-should-know.aspx
blendspace: https://www.blendspace.com/
"blend your classroom. Make the most of class time. Free"
BrainPop: Game Up: https://www.brainpop.com/games/
Click-N-Type virtual keyboard: http://cnt.lakefolks.com/
DuoLIngo: https://www.duolingo.com/
"Learn a language for free. Forever."
Easter Egg: Type "do a barrel roll into Google's search field.
Educational Technology and Mobile Learning: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/
"A resource of educational web tools and mobile apps for teachers and educators"
eLearn magazine: http://elearnmag.acm.org/index.cfm
"Where Thought and Practice Meet"
Florida Center for Instructional Technology: http://fcit.usf.edu/
History of the Car Horn: magazine.northeast.aaa.com/daily/life/cars-trucks/the-history-of-the-car-horn/
How to Change the Keyboard Language in Windows: http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/change-keyboard-language-in-windows/
Internet4Classrooms: http://www.internet4classrooms.com/
"...Internet 4 Classrooms ("i4c"), a free web portal designed to assist anyone who wants to find high-quality, free Internet resources to use in classroom instruction, developing project ideas, reinforcing specific subject matter areas both in the class and at home and even for online technology tutorials."
Lego STEM Activities for a Preschooler: https://yourcub.com/lego-stem-activities/
Many great activities using Legos and most of them are also appropriate for older children.
Livemocha: http://livemocha.com/
"...Livemocha fuses traditional learning methods with online practice and interaction with native language speakers from around the world."
Manage your online reputation:
Google yourself
Update daily: Updated info usually moves to the head of the line.
Claim your name: Purchase all domains containing your name (yourname.com, yourname.net, etc,) even if you're not planning to create a personal website. Doing this will prevent others from hijacking your name and online search results.
Sign up for alerts: When your name appears in a news article or posting, alerts, such as Google.com/alerts, will let you know. Socialmention.com has alerts that will inform you when you pop up in a tweet or are tagged in a photo on Flickr or Facebook.
Office of Educational Technology: http://tech.ed.gov/
"The mission of the Office of Educational Technology (OET) is to provide leadership for transforming education through the power of technology. OET develops national educational technology policy and establishes the vision for how technology can be used to support learning. OET supports the President’s and Secretary’s priorities by:
Ruff Ruffman: Humble Media Genius: https://pbskids.org/fetch/ruff/
With animations and interactive features for early learners, this PBS site explores the dynamic world of digital media literacy focusing on texting, sharing photographs, using search, and finding an appropriate balance of technology use.
Scratch: https://scratch.mit.edu/
"With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations — and share your creations with others in the online community. Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in the 21st century. Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. It is provided free of charge"
Why switch from paper journals to blogs
- unlike a paper journal, the blog can be in both the teachers' hands AND the student hands simultaneously. No longer is it necessary to take the journal "away" from the student to grade or read it.
- Similarly, once you add a comments function to the blog, there is plenty of "room" (a virtually infinite amount, unlike in paper margins) for each discussion to remain concrete where it needs to, and, since comments pop up in a separate window from the blog, teachers can comment without red-penning the journal itself -- making the comments easier to
accept.
-Students learn technology in an integrated manner, rather than as a discrete subject (ideal, since that's how technology works real life).
-Blogs lay a good foundation for web design.
-Students like blogs.
-Blogs allow you to post pictures, links, and diagrams to help you get your idea across.
WordWeb: http://wordweb.info/
"WordWeb is a comprehensive one-click English thesaurus and dictionary for Windows. It can be used to look up words from almost any program, showing definitions, synonyms and related words. It includes pronunciations and usage examples, and has helpful spelling and sounds-like links."
blendspace: https://www.blendspace.com/
"blend your classroom. Make the most of class time. Free"
BrainPop: Game Up: https://www.brainpop.com/games/
Click-N-Type virtual keyboard: http://cnt.lakefolks.com/
DuoLIngo: https://www.duolingo.com/
"Learn a language for free. Forever."
Easter Egg: Type "do a barrel roll into Google's search field.
Educational Technology and Mobile Learning: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/
"A resource of educational web tools and mobile apps for teachers and educators"
eLearn magazine: http://elearnmag.acm.org/index.cfm
"Where Thought and Practice Meet"
Florida Center for Instructional Technology: http://fcit.usf.edu/
History of the Car Horn: magazine.northeast.aaa.com/daily/life/cars-trucks/the-history-of-the-car-horn/
How to Change the Keyboard Language in Windows: http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/change-keyboard-language-in-windows/
Internet4Classrooms: http://www.internet4classrooms.com/
"...Internet 4 Classrooms ("i4c"), a free web portal designed to assist anyone who wants to find high-quality, free Internet resources to use in classroom instruction, developing project ideas, reinforcing specific subject matter areas both in the class and at home and even for online technology tutorials."
Lego STEM Activities for a Preschooler: https://yourcub.com/lego-stem-activities/
Many great activities using Legos and most of them are also appropriate for older children.
Livemocha: http://livemocha.com/
"...Livemocha fuses traditional learning methods with online practice and interaction with native language speakers from around the world."
Manage your online reputation:
Google yourself
Update daily: Updated info usually moves to the head of the line.
Claim your name: Purchase all domains containing your name (yourname.com, yourname.net, etc,) even if you're not planning to create a personal website. Doing this will prevent others from hijacking your name and online search results.
Sign up for alerts: When your name appears in a news article or posting, alerts, such as Google.com/alerts, will let you know. Socialmention.com has alerts that will inform you when you pop up in a tweet or are tagged in a photo on Flickr or Facebook.
Office of Educational Technology: http://tech.ed.gov/
"The mission of the Office of Educational Technology (OET) is to provide leadership for transforming education through the power of technology. OET develops national educational technology policy and establishes the vision for how technology can be used to support learning. OET supports the President’s and Secretary’s priorities by:
- Promoting equity of access by ensuring all learners are connected to broadband internet.
- Supporting Future Ready educators and a robust ecosystem of entrepreneurs and innovators.
- Leading cutting-edge research in learning analytics and data to provide new types of evidence and customize and improve learning.
Ruff Ruffman: Humble Media Genius: https://pbskids.org/fetch/ruff/
With animations and interactive features for early learners, this PBS site explores the dynamic world of digital media literacy focusing on texting, sharing photographs, using search, and finding an appropriate balance of technology use.
Scratch: https://scratch.mit.edu/
"With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations — and share your creations with others in the online community. Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in the 21st century. Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. It is provided free of charge"
Why switch from paper journals to blogs
- unlike a paper journal, the blog can be in both the teachers' hands AND the student hands simultaneously. No longer is it necessary to take the journal "away" from the student to grade or read it.
- Similarly, once you add a comments function to the blog, there is plenty of "room" (a virtually infinite amount, unlike in paper margins) for each discussion to remain concrete where it needs to, and, since comments pop up in a separate window from the blog, teachers can comment without red-penning the journal itself -- making the comments easier to
accept.
-Students learn technology in an integrated manner, rather than as a discrete subject (ideal, since that's how technology works real life).
-Blogs lay a good foundation for web design.
-Students like blogs.
-Blogs allow you to post pictures, links, and diagrams to help you get your idea across.
WordWeb: http://wordweb.info/
"WordWeb is a comprehensive one-click English thesaurus and dictionary for Windows. It can be used to look up words from almost any program, showing definitions, synonyms and related words. It includes pronunciations and usage examples, and has helpful spelling and sounds-like links."