February 17, 2010
This week’s Tech Tip:
Store your web favorites online!
There are several sites that allow you to keep a list of your favorite websites online. If you have ever had the frustration of knowing you favorited a website at home, but now can’t get to it at work, or the other way around, it’s time to consider a web based favorite or bookmark list.
3 Good ones:
http://www.delicious.com
http://www.diigo.com
http://www.google.com/bookmarks
Of course, UEN’s own http://my.uen.org also allows you to store and share favorite websites from any internet connected computer. Just login and add the bookmarks portlet.
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February 9, 2010
UEN Professional Development has long had classes using various Google Tools. We have also taugh Blogger as a tool teachers can usein various classes but especally in Web Publishing for Everyone. That course has had a minor face lift and is now Web Publishing for Teachers and doesn’t place as much emphasis on Blogger. Blogger has been a good tool, but Blogger had it’s drawbacks, too. The tech tip today is all about how those drawbacks are disappearing.
One of the drawbacks to Blogger for Education was the fact that many teachers want to have some static pages with information about their class, rules, guidelines, or even contact information that don’t change. Blogs by nature are very dynamic. Just recently Blogger announced that a Blogger in Draft feature was graduating. You can now add up to 10 pages and a new pages widget that allows your readers to visit them easily.
A second drawback was the fact that due to the public nature of blogs and their social nature many blogs contain content that is 
at best distracting in the schools and at worst…. well they can get pretty bad. Another way the disadvantages of Blogger and other web based blog tools is disapearing is by the continued improvements in my.uen. Utah Educators who register with a school email can now use my.uen’s new blog tool to add blogs to their pages. You can maintain different blogs for different classes and display the same blog posts on multiple pages. The blog tool in my.uen is a great improvement to the services available for Utah Educators. This week on Thursday at 3:30 pm MT visit http://www.uen.org/facultylounge to join our weekly live Webinar and Victoria Rasmussen will be teaching how to use my.uen’s new Blog tool. If you miss the live webcast, you can always check it out in our archives.
Useful links for my.uen
http://www.uen.org/my.uen/help/
http://www.uen.org/my.uen/help/blogs.shtml
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February 3, 2010
Often as educator’s we talk about learning styles, brain-based learning, multiple intelligences, and various methods of understanding learning. We understand a lot about how the human brain processes information, and how we build and maintain memories, but there is a lot more that research and science and new technology teaches us each day. Some of what we know about how the brain works comes from studying when it doesn’t work. We learn what portions of the brain do when someone has damage to those portions.
This website sponsored by the Alzeheimers Association teaches about the different parts of the brain, interactively showing what parts of the brain are responsible for various different activities. It is also filled with fun and intersting facts like: How much of our bodies fuel and oxygen is used by thinking. So go check it out, and if you find the answer, leave it in the comments.
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February 2, 2010
When working with multimedia, one of the greatest challenges is similar to traveling in Europe. In the United States when we go down to the store to buy a new appliance we give almost no thought as to whether our new toaster is going to work with the electricity in our house. The plugs were made standard a long time ago, and so was the voltage. For years, more than many of us have been alive, electricity has been standardized in the United States. Europe is different. Most of Europe runs on the same voltage, but their plug shapes are or at least were different.
Multimedia files are a bit like European plugs. All video files are video, all audio files are audio, but the plug to get them to run may be different. Just like traveling in Europe means you have to carry adapters to use electrical devices designed for another area, using multimedia may require an adapter.
Format Factory is just such an adapter. This multipurpose file converter will let you convert on video format to another, one audio format to another, even convert PDF documents to Word or the other way around. It is a great general purpose tool for teachers, or students who need to get media into a format that will work. For example, Microsoft PowerPoint will not play Quicktime movies directly in PowerPoint, but with Format Factory, you can convert the .mov files to .wmv files and PowerPoint will nicely play the Windows Media format.
Try out Format Factory for free. If you like it then the developers appreciate Donations.
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December 30, 2009
We’ve talked about Google Books here before, but there have been some new developments that make Google Books even more appealing. Along with yesterday’s tech tip, I wanted to mention some great ways to get some books. With the new agreement between the publishing industry, authors, and Google. Even more books will be available through Google’s Book search and now there will be options for purchasing books even those that are out of print otherwise. You can read more about the new agreement here: http://books.google.com/googlebooks/agreement/
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December 29, 2009
Something happened last year. It was a tipping point. For years there have been eBooks. All kinds and varieties of eBooks. An eBook is a digital version of a regular paper and ink book. An eBook is the literary equivalent of an MP3 Audio file. There have been two troubles with eBooks in the past. First of all multiple players have been involved in creating different formats. Microsoft, Adobe, and independent groups have all created text formats for reading. It would seem simple to convert text to text, but it hasn’t been the text that is a problem, but rather how do you navigate through the text in a way that feels as intuitive and simple as reading a book. This vast variety of formats and software to read the formats has created the second problem. The second problem has been distribution. Because there are a variety of formats there have also been a variety of stores. Different online stores have sold or distributed these eBooks.
The tipping point? Amazon’s Kindle. By creating not only a format that was useful but also a distribution mechanism that was simple and easy and importantly: vast, eBooks became viable. I have been an eBook reader for years, but I am probably the exception and I have used several different formats and softwares for reading eBooks. But now, that there is a distribution portal for the books eBooks became truly mainstream. But of course as soon as somebody starts making some serious money, somebody else is going to compete. There are now several different eBook reader devices but importantly there are several distribution sources. Barnes and Noble launched their Nook reader just in time for Christmas, Borders bookstore has formed a relationship with Sony and markets books for Sony’s Reader.
But the best of all of this in my mind, I don’t have to buy their readers at all. When Barnes and Noble launched their Nook, they also made Reader Software available for the iPod Touch/iPhone, for the Mac, for Windows, and for the Blackberry. Amazon, not to be outdone also has an application for the iPod Touch/iPhone, for Windows, and are working on versions for the Mac and Blackberry. The Sony Reader uses a format that also has software available for other devices.
An important element of all these new distribution outlets is that they usually offer free books for older books that are in the public domain.
So what are you waiting for? Read a book!
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December 16, 2009
Pioneer, Utah’s online Library has been around for more than a decade. It has been the source for relaiable results and research for students from kindergarten through Doctoral work. The Utah Education Network has helped develop and manage this resource for the state. Pioneer provides Database searches, instructional media and access to subscription services like CultureGrams for the whole state. This has ensured that every student and every School District has access to the same high quality materials.
Now, Pioneer has a baby brother (or sister or sibling if you like) Pre-School Pioneer brings together some of the best resources around for pre-school age children. These resources are available to pre-school teachers, and parents to help encourage early learning. One of the prime indicators of success is positive early experience with learning and reading. Pre-school Pioneer is there to help Utah’s youngest learners get that positive push from learning.
Check out the variuous tools available including: Pre=media, PBS Kids Island, and fun activity calendars for timely learning.
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December 15, 2009
Using video in class is a fantastic way to teach difficult and abstract ideas. If a picture is worth a thousand words a video must be worth 10,000. Learning to effectively consume and learn from video resources seems as useful today as reading was in generations past. In order to help students use video effectively to learn we should use it to teach. Specifically, we can use video outside of class instead of or in addition to textbooks and reading assignments.
The third eMedia tip is to assign some video as homework. Spending a few minutes to teach students how to access the resources in emedia and how to view them will make it possible to assign enrichment assignments outside of the classroom. One, caution, be conscious o the digital divide and that not all students will have video ready internet at home, or internet at all. However, having said that, if we give students a week or two to view a video or two, then they have time to visit a public library, the school media center, or even the computer lab before or after school. As a teacher, we can assign a video or one of a series to students and ask them to report on it. It becomes really about the same as a reading assignment. Then instead of using two class periods to watch and discuss a video, we can focus on using the time face to face for those activities that can only be done face to face. Discussion, skill acquisition, feedback and the direct interventions that students need.
This is the end of this mini-series of eMedia tips about video, but feel free to post some comments about how you use video or suggest using video. Also, as new tools, resources and techniques become available for eMedia we will revisit it with new suggestions.
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December 9, 2009
Web Address: http://office.microsoft.com
If you are one of our readers chances are you’ve taken one or more of our UEN Professional Development courses. If you have you may want to know where UEN’s trainers learn all that great stuff. One of the places is Office.microsoft.com. On this site you can find resources based on the Product: PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Access, or OneNote. The help and how to has text based tutorials with audio enhancements. These tutorials are quick and very well writtten, and being text-based they don’t require as much bandwidth (or as fast a connection) to use. You can download great templates, with dozens and dozens if not hundreds specifically designed for educators. If you are a registered Microsoft 2007 user you can also join the community and share your own templates, designs and resources. The Clip art gallery expands your library to an almost limitless size with images, line-drawings, animated picturess and audio.
So try your hand at something new. Learn a trick for Excel, or download a new holiday image.
For Apple Mac users: www.mactopia.com is the place to go for tutorials, help, hints and tips on the Mac version of office. Downloading clip art is still available on http://office.microsoft.com but is best accessed with Safari. Errors occur when using Firefox and the downloaded clips don’t open properly.
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December 2, 2009
When you are searching for just the right images, sometimes what you want is the ability to look for more pictures like the one you have found. Whether it’s a specific kind of fault or images of Jim Crow era segregation, Google’s image search is a big help. Well currently in the works is Image Swirl from Google. Google has a ‘labs’ section where they preview new ideas they are working on and the image swirl tool works like Visual Thesaraus or like a Concept Map. You pick one image and related or similar images are show around it.
Give it a try. See what you get.
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