Technology in the Education Arena

Periodic Table of Visualization Methods
Contains Data, Information, Concept, Strategy, Metaphor, and Compound Visualizations

Tech Savvy Educator points us to a site that allows us to view an African watering hole.  The site streams live video and audio, allowing you to hear the birds, insects, and animals.  I have been peeking in for the last several days and have seen many animals and lots of birds.  Many times nothing is going on but you can still close your eyes and listen to the birds and insects.  Site is found at http://www.africam.com/.  Click on Nkorho Stream in the upper left-hand corner of the page.

Wesley Fryer has created a well-documented post for setting up home Internet connections.  I have set up a home wireless network but this goes into some good detail on the security which I need to check. 

Another link Wesley Fryer posted about is ProfCast software for Macintosh.  The cost is $29.95.  Software can record presentations, create enhanced podcasts, use screen capture. 

Thank you Wesley Fryer for yet another tool — Dropload.  This is a site you can use to store your large files.  Others (with an e-mail address) can then pick up the file at Dropload.  I was just working with a vendor a couple weeks ago and this is how they sent me some patches.  Recipients you specify are sent an e-mail with instructions on how to download the file at Dropload.  The file will stay on their server for 7 days.  The file limit is 100Mb each and can be any type of file — mp3, movies, pdfs.  

Vicki Davis, Cool Cat Teacher Blog, posted a link the other day that will certainly be a help at our school — online typing software.  Great for students that have a few minutes to work on their typing skills.  I like that you can type in what you want to practice also.

Another cool tool she wrote about is a tool called Rasterbator.  Rasterbator creates huge, rasterized images from any picture (max file size is 1Mb).  You upload your image, select your size, and the result is a multi-page pdf file.  You can then assemble the file in the correct order.  I fooled around with this yesterday and took a photo of a colleague.  When I looked at it, it just looked like a bunch of huge dots.  I figured I would print out the first “row” of photos (consisted of 4 sheets of paper — the whole file was a 4 x 4 square).  I taped the sheets together, hung it in their office, and asked if they knew what it was.  Knew right away and when you step back from the photo, you can see the image very clearly.  Close up it still looks like dots but it is very cool.  Now, I am waiting for the right image to use for this.  It was very easy to do.  I read more on this tool and found out you can play around with the dot size to make it a finer image.

Post by Miguel Guhlin focused on a tool called dumpr.  This tool allows you to change your Flickr images.

…you grant it access to your Flickr account, then select a picture, select how you want it represented/framed, and it works it’s magic. But that’s not all…then, dumpr gives you the option of UPLOADING your picture back to Flickr. So, everything is done online using Flickr!

Another post at Around the Corner is a tool to convert various file formats to PDF.  Entitled PDF Online.  You can download a free trial.  Not sure whether the trial expires, but even at $14.95 it is a good buy.

Beth Knittle posted about a painting package entitled ArtRage.  There is a free edition of this software.  This might be fun with the students I am working with in an Enrichment cluster where we are blending technology and art.

I am glad this post is over.  Been working on this one for a while to get all these great tools documented.  Thanks to everyone for all the great posts.