September 1, 2010 Constitution Day is just a few weeks away. What better way to celebrate than with newly updated resource page from UEN. The web page has resources sorted by grade level for a true smorgasbord or agglomeration of wonderful materials. So do some ‘xploring!
Posted in Mitchell, Wednesday Web of the Week 
No Comments »
August 31, 2010 Nope, not digital literacy, but this will be a lesson in that as well, today we are talking about Digital Literature. My first device for reading was an eminently portable, inexpensive and 100% recyclable device called: a book. Now, the problem was that I soon had many of these portable devices, ones that I liked to refer back to and read again. Sort of like getting together with old friends.
Fast forward 20 some odd years. I got my first PDA (no, not Public Display of Affection, I am a techie, I didn’t even know that meaning until someone told me about it. I am talking about a Personal Digital Assistant) I had a PalmPilot IIIxe.I tinkered and toyed with getting my books onto this device and found a few things that worked but nowadays there are a vast jungle of options for reading books digitally.
When you go down to the store to buy a new appliance, you never stop to think about whether it will work with your electricity at home. Why not? There are different ways electricity can be delivered and if you have traveled out of the United States, you know that plugs aren’t the same everywhere in the world. Why don’t we worry? Because of standardization. Someone somewhere (or probably a group of someone’s in a meeting) decided that one style of plug was going to be required either by law or by consensus. This is slowly happening with cell phone adapters, among other things.
It however hasn’t happened with books. Why does that matter? Well, if you are deciding on a device that is dedicated to reading books, or you are decided to buy books that you want to use with multiple devices it’s worthwhile to know what you are looking at it. With books, there are still a bunch of different widely adopted formats of eBooks. Below are three and where you are most likely to encounter them.
This is the file format for the Amazon Kindle. You probably won’t ever see it because if you have a Kindle your books are delivered via Cell phone or Wi-Fi and they live on Amazon.com and your device. But it’s good to know it exists. Also, since Amazon is interested in selling books, the software needed to read the .azw format is widely available on multiple platforms.
This is the format of choice for iBooks on the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. It is an open format that while a little heavy on resource use, it is still a very good format that is being supported. The fact that it is the format chosen for the iBooks app means that it will be strong for as log as Apple is strong and supports it.
These two file formats are variations of each other. The .prc format was created for the Palm™ devices. MobiPocket is a reader you can still use on many portable devices and the .mobi format is still commonly used.
To learn more you can start with the really great wikipedia article on eBook formats: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_formats
Posted in Digital Literacy, Mitchell, Online Literature, Tech Tip Tuesday No Comments »
August 25, 2010 That’s right. Google introduced a new feature in GMail earlier today. Now you have the ability to call anywhere in the US and Canada for free using GMail. Ever since Google released Google Voice a year ago they keep adding new ways for people to communicate with one another for free. Chalk this up with the other cool GMail feature of video conferencing and you’ve a tag team winner for talking with your contacts.
Posted in Cell Phones, Google, Jared No Comments »
August 18, 2010 SweetSearch is a search engine managed by Dulcinea Media. This organization is committed to providing reliable resources for educators, students and all other learners. SweetSearch searches only reviewed credible websites and returns the results. From the main search page you can also find links to various versions of SweetSearch. SweetSearch2Day provides daily learning. SweetSearch4Me is focused on emerging learners. And of course SweetSearch provides excellent results itself. Add this one to your list of search engines.
Posted in Uncategorized 2 Comments »
August 11, 2010 This week’s web of the week came via an article: http://www.findingdulcinea.com/guides/Education/Plagiarism-Prevention.xa_1.html The article there does a fantastic job of explaining how to avoid plagiarism and help students avoid plagiarism. The only thing I can add is the resources available on UEN’s website: http://www.uen.org/policy/copyrightguidelines.shtml
Posted in Uncategorized No Comments »
August 10, 2010 Last Week was all about Teacher uses for Flip video. This week it’s the kids turn:
If you can think of other ideas leave them in the comments. It would be great to get some more ideas.
Posted in Mitchell, Tech Tip Tuesday, Video No Comments »
August 3, 2010 There are several different brands of highly portable simple to use video cameras on the market. Probably the most popular are Flip Video cameras. These super small, portable and affordable video cameras are becoming popular in schools. Teachers are finding creative and effective ways of using these cameras to help students learn and to make things easier for themselves. Here are some quick tips and ideas for using your video camera:
Next week student project ideas!
Posted in Mitchell, Tech Tip Tuesday, Video 1 Comment »
August 2, 2010 A lot of you have wondered about how GPS units would work as part of the curriculum in your classroom. Here’s a fun video of an elementary school in Texas using Geocaching as part of a lesson involving the science core.
Posted in GPS, Jared No Comments »
July 26, 2010 Many of us have received an email with the following subject, “Most Amazing Story Ever.” The email goes on to share a truly unique story, sometimes including images to further provide evidence of the truth of the tale. Unfortunately too often, these tales are just that – tall tales. I’m sure many of you have heard of a website called Snopes.com where Internet stories and emails are brought to light. This week I found a great interview from David Pogue with David Mikkleson, the founder of Snopes.com. Check it out and be sure to go to Snopes.com to find out the truth about that recently emailed photo or amazing story.
Posted in Digital Photos, Jared, Web No Comments »
July 21, 2010 Web Address: http://bingle.nu
Sometimes our biggest problems with searching for information aren’t about not finding what we want they are about finding too much of it. Google returns millions of results in microseconds, Bing does the same. Which you choose is often determined by what you like. But what if you are bilingual and speak both Microsoft and Google? And what if you are like many others, “Too much is just enough?” Bingle might just be the thing for you. Bingle is a website that creates a quick frame and displays the results from both of these search engines.
So go ahead, give it a try
Posted in Mitchell, Wednesday Web of the Week No Comments »