Technology in the Education Arena » General Technology http://jzcolby.edublogs.org My thoughts and ideas on Technology in Education and how we can all benefit from our use of technology in the classroom. Tue, 19 May 2009 12:53:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 en hourly 1 Note on Wordle http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/08/29/note-on-wordle/ http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/08/29/note-on-wordle/#comments Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:04:25 +0000 jzcolby http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/?p=154 In my prior post, I wrote about Wordle.  This is a great tool; however, as with anything on the Internet, you need to be aware of the inappropriate content.  There is a Gallery with Worlde that, as mentioned before, can contain inappropriate words.  On the Wordle home page, the latest Wordles created are shown.  To bypass the home page for the students, go to http://wordle.net/create.  This will allow you to go directly to the “Create” page.  It really is worth investigating.  Simple but effective!

]]> http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/08/29/note-on-wordle/feed/ 0 Great Beginning of School Year Project http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/08/29/great-beginning-of-school-year-project/ http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/08/29/great-beginning-of-school-year-project/#comments Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:14:28 +0000 jzcolby http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/?p=153 Discovered this site the other day and thought — wouldn’t this be great for students to use the beginning of the school year?

http://wordle.net

Wordle is a tool that looks at the text you provide (students can type in words that describe themselves; words that describe their choice for presidential candidate; words that describe what they want to learn about this school year; words that describe a time in history they are learning about; their vocabulary words they are having a difficult time with; words that describe a country they are learning about, and on and on) and generates a “word cloud” from those words.  The word cloud gives greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.  You can change the font, change the layout, and change the color scheme.  Once you have created your “word cloud” the students can take a screenshot to save and paste into an application or save to Paint/Photoshop to then save as a jpg image to use in a project — PowerPoint, Slideshare, PhotoStory, Blog, Wiki, etc.  Or, they can choose to print it out and make a bulletin board in the classroom of the words.  So many uses for this very easy tool.  Caution: The Wordle Gallery — if they browse through the Wordle Gallery, could be inappropriate content; but they don’t have to browse to create.

For frequently asked questions: http://wordle.net/faq

]]> http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/08/29/great-beginning-of-school-year-project/feed/ 4 Photoshop Express http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/03/28/photoshop-express/ http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/03/28/photoshop-express/#comments Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:09:27 +0000 jzcolby http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/03/28/photoshop-express/ psexpress.jpg

On Thursday, Adobe released a free basic version of Photoshop entitled Photoshop Express.  It has been launched in a “beta” test version.  It is completely web-based so it can be used with any type of computer, operating system, and browser.  You need Flash Player 9 to run.  It offers free 2 Gb of storage.  More information from CNet.

Can’t wait to try this one out.  FUN, FUN, FUN.  So many tools — so little time!

]]> http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/03/28/photoshop-express/feed/ 0 Apple 21st Century Learning http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/02/28/apple-21st-century-learning/ http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/02/28/apple-21st-century-learning/#comments Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:58:14 +0000 jzcolby http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/02/28/apple-21st-century-learning/ A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about attending the Apple Tour of 21st-Century Learning.  As I am going through the material we received, I feel I need to comment on all the great sites we talked about.

Apple Learning Interchange (ALI) is a social network for educators.  You can find items as simple as a lesson idea to in-depth curriculum ideas.

Apple iTunes recently launched iTunesU available through the iTunes Store.  This features free audio and video downloads from universities across the United States.  Universities such as Stanford, Duke, MIT, Arizona State, and many more. 

LearnOutLoud.com has picked out the best lectures, courses, and audio and video programs that are available through iTunesU.  The University of South Florida has a free collection of stories and poems available in podcast format.

Lastly, we talked about the Framework for 21st Century Learning which contains a vision for 21st Century student success in the new global economy.

]]> http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/02/28/apple-21st-century-learning/feed/ 0 Quite a Productive Week http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/02/23/quite-a-productive-week/ http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/02/23/quite-a-productive-week/#comments Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:03:28 +0000 jzcolby http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/02/23/quite-a-productive-week/ Had winter break this week and had quite a productive week.  Finally recovered from the flu by Wednesday and didn’t have to spend most of the day in bed.  Having a laptop sure comes in handy when you aren’t feeling well.

 

I am enrolled in an Immigration course and am reading the book “The Inner World of the Immigrant Child.”  It is a very good book and a must read for any teacher dealing with immigrants.  An assignment in this class was to watch the movie “In America.”  What a great assignment and well worth the time.  Had to go to an ethnic restaurant for one of the assignments, so I chose “The Brazilian Grill.”  It was an interesting experience and thoroughly enjoyed it.  It is nice to take a course that doesn’t always focus on technology.

 

For my Millennials class, my final project is focusing on professional development in Second Life.  I created a PowerPoint as a tutorial on Microsoft PhotoStory, then saved the PP slides as jpgs so I could upload them to the whiteboard in our school’s building in Second Life.  So far so good.  Then I took one of the student projects that they did in PhotoStory and turned it into a QuickTime movie (through the use of Zamzar).  This allowed me to upload it to the media player in Second Life.  So, now I had the slides for the professional development and the movie for a sample product.  Was hoping to present this at the DEN in Second Life, but they are all booked up for March.

 

Another project I worked on was the new Google form creator.  It was very easy to make the form, fill it out, and view the results.  Nice part is that you can share the form results (which are in the spreadsheet) with others if you choose. 

 

For my Universal Design for Learing/Assistive Technology class, I was able to (finally) post a movie on TeacherTube and YouTube.  Created a great polygon diagram in PowerPoint.  Saved the slides as images and put them, again, into PhotoStory.  Put narration to each slide describing the polygons and then turned it into a QuickTime movie using Zamzar.  Uploaded to the Internet and it worked great.

 

So, it was quite a productive week – even got some cleaning, baking, cooking, shopping, bills, income taxes, and movie watching done.

 

Love having time to do whatever …

]]> http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/02/23/quite-a-productive-week/feed/ 4 21st Century Learning with Apple http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/02/08/21st-century-learning-with-apple/ http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/02/08/21st-century-learning-with-apple/#comments Fri, 08 Feb 2008 22:45:25 +0000 jzcolby http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/02/08/21st-century-learning-with-apple/ Attended a session sponsored by Apple yesterday entitled “Tour of 21st-Century Learning.”  It was a great day.  I knew about a lot of the tools but they not only focused on the tools, but focused on project-based learning with the tools and integrating areas of the curriculum.  We, as students, did research that we posted on our wiki, then created a summary podcast and posted the podcast on our blog.  We moved on to another session and did scientific research using digital probes and microscopes.  With the microscopes, we took digital images and created an iPhoto book where we also posted the data from the digital probe.  It was a great day and I had good company — Nancy and Beth.

]]> http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/02/08/21st-century-learning-with-apple/feed/ 0 First Meeting of Technology Team http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/01/29/first-meeting-of-technology-team/ http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/01/29/first-meeting-of-technology-team/#comments Wed, 30 Jan 2008 02:13:16 +0000 jzcolby http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/01/29/first-meeting-of-technology-team/ Today I held my first meeting with everyone who works in our district’s secondary schools in the Technology Labs.  It went very well.  We had some professional development — a little overview of Atomic Learning and went over www.picnik.com, a great site for teachers/students to use to edit photos and resize photos.  We shared tips and techniques used in the labs.  There were some who started this year, while some had 20 years.  It was nice to see the collaborating among them and I was glad to be a part of it.  I hope that they benefitted from the meeting.  We will definitely continue these meetings.  I think maybe I will start focusing the professional development I give on Web 2.0 tools — I think they would find it interesting (as I do).  My goal is to start next year with a plan for our meetings, lots of professional development, and lots of collaborating.

We also started a “tip” sheet.  Everyone provided a tip to share.  There were some great tips collected and I hope we can continue with this — I learned a lot from the tips.

]]> http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/01/29/first-meeting-of-technology-team/feed/ 0 National Geographic Photos http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/01/08/national-geographic-photos/ http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/01/08/national-geographic-photos/#comments Wed, 09 Jan 2008 01:36:32 +0000 jzcolby http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/01/08/national-geographic-photos/ Great Student Site for Photographs from National Geographic

 

http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photogalleries?nav=TOPNAV

 

Categories such as Adventure & Exploration, Nature & Weather, Science & Space, Underwater, Animals, People & Culture, and Travel.
Most Popular Galleries Include: Snowflakes, Valleys, Northern Lights, Relentless Enemies: Lions and Buffalo, Brain, Coastlines, Clouds, Lungs, and Jurassic Period.

 

Added benefits of the site: You can sign up for free newsletters where you get new photos and expert tips once a month; Photo of the Day; and Digital Photography Tips.

]]> http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2008/01/08/national-geographic-photos/feed/ 0 Benefits from Reading Blogs http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2007/12/31/benefits-from-reading-blogs/ http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2007/12/31/benefits-from-reading-blogs/#comments Tue, 01 Jan 2008 01:13:24 +0000 jzcolby http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2007/12/31/benefits-from-reading-blogs/ Spending my time trying to get better and catch up on my feeds in Bloglines.  Was about a month behind so I had a lot of posts to read.  One of my favorite blogs to read is Around the Corner by Miguel Guhlin.  He posts frequently, so I was really behind on his.  I really enjoy Miguel’s thoughts, his tips, and his postings of Web 2.0 tools.  Found a lot of good information and thought I would post on some of the information not only for others but for my reference as well.

Miguel noted a site containing free open source software for kids at: http://junauza.blogspot.com/2007/12/freeopen-source-educational-software.html.  One of the schools I work at has a planetarium, so these two sites I found interesting:  Free open source planetarium for your computer.  Set your coordinates and go.  Site at http://www.stellarium.org.  Also, free space simulations allowing you to explore the universe in three dimensions.  Celestia doesn’t confine you to the surface of the earth.  You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galazy.  Site at http://www.shatters.net/celestia/

 postit.jpg

Free PostIt Notes Generator available at http://notes.mastervb.net/

Since I have been promoting Google Docs at my school district and I have been invited to present with Beth Knittle at a MassCUE SIG on Google Tools, I found the following post interesting where he links to three blogs that discuss using Goodle in Education: Google Docs in the Classroom by Tom Barnett, Google Docs in Schools by Art Gelwicks, and Google Docs in Schools by Tonia Johnson.

The Power of One on YouTube — A Video Worth Watching and Thinking About

Miguel pointed out some helpful information on Twitter: HeyJude Blog has posted a Twitter Guide written by Caroline Middlebrook; from Educause Learning Initiative, 7 Things You Should Know About Twitter; and Twitter Collaboration Stories for using Twitter in the Classroom.

Free Software for Educators.  I have been looking at SnagIt and Camtasia and now as an educator you can download both software products for free.  They are not the latest versions but you can't complain when it is for free.  

Owners of Camtasia Studio, TechSmith, are offering the full version of Version 3.1.3 for free dowload.  Great educational tool.  This offer is only valid a little longer. 

Download Camtasia 3.1.

Get the serial # for Camtasia 3.1.3 

SnagIt Pro is now giving away retail editions of SnagIt screen capture software for free. Follow these steps to download SnagIt for Free: Download the demo version of SnagIt 7.2.5 at ftp://ftp.techsmith.com/pub/products/snagit/725/SnagIt.exe Request a SnagIt 7 Software keyI have already downloaded both software programs and have spent some time playing with SnagIt.

Thank you Miguel for blogging.

  

]]> http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2007/12/31/benefits-from-reading-blogs/feed/ 0 The Year Comes To a Close http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2007/12/28/the-year-comes-to-a-close/ http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2007/12/28/the-year-comes-to-a-close/#comments Sat, 29 Dec 2007 02:07:00 +0000 jzcolby http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2007/12/28/the-year-comes-to-a-close/

hpotter.jpg

 
Sitting here watching the Harry Potter movie we got for Christmas and since I have spent the last 3 days sick in bed, I have been thinking about the past year, the future year, things I am thankful for, and things I want to change.Many things happened this past year. 

The year started off very badly in January with the death of my mother who I miss so much.  Of course, the year had to go up from there and it did.  I did much more with the Macintosh computer, did podcasts with students, worked more on my blog (but still not as much as I should), reviewed and updated my feeds in Bloglines.  I love having my blog and my Bloglines account.  When I want to unwind at the end of the day, I get out my laptop and open my Bloglines account and start learning — just read and learn with no pressure.  I also created my Technology Resource Wiki which was a goal of mine for a couple years.  Gave professional development to the teachers and several teachers started their own wiki.  Started a new job with another school district the beginning of the school year.  I left the elementary environment and am now working in the secondary environment.  It was a great move and I am learning a lot of new tools and meeting a lot of great teachers.  I miss the teachers at my elementary school but have been keeping in touch with them and hope to continue to do so.  I have learned a lot about my video iPod.  Now I have an iPod Touch and have been working with that.  Today, I subscribed to several technology podcasts that I am going to transfer to my Touch.  Love the wireless on my Touch.  Have learned to love “books on tape” because I have a 30 minute commute now, so I rely on my books on tape.  I am going to work on using my iPod in the car and listen to my podcasts also.

In August, I got involved with Second Life.  It has been a very different and interesting learning experience and I am enjoying it.

Last January, I attended and presented at the National Accelerated Schools Plus Conference in Memphis on 25 Ways to Use Technology to Promote Differentiation.  I also presented with Beth Knittle at the MassCUE Technology Conference in November on Second Life. 

So, what about the new year? 

discoveryedstreaming.jpg

Well, of course, want to blog more.  Keep up the resources on the wiki.  We have Discovery Education Streaming at my schools and I would like to become very knowledgeable with this tool so I can give professional development to the teachers. 

secondlife.jpg


I would like to give some more serious thought to Second Life.  I have been taking and giving professional development in Second Life, but all the sessions have focused on Second Life.  It is time to move on and expand the sessions to go beyond Second Life.  Aftr all, that is why I am in Second Life — to use it as a venue for professional development for teachers and ultimately for students.  I would like to start thinking about what kind of presentations to do in Second Life.  Time to start brainstorming.I am enrolled in a few Masters courses in order to continue learning and earning credits beyond my Masters.

Personally, I would love to start to include exercise in my schedule and bring back pleasure reading instead of just “technology” reading. 

It is going to be a busy year and hopefully an exciting (in a good way) year!

newyear.jpg

]]> http://jzcolby.edublogs.org/2007/12/28/the-year-comes-to-a-close/feed/ 0