T+L Conference Denver 2009

This afternoon I travel to Denver with a team of teachers from our school district to attend the T+L Conference in Denver. I look forward to attending some valuable sessions, and I will share much of what I learn here and elsewhere. Check back and see what I have discovered!

Skype 4.1, YouTube Downloader, & iSpring Free Tutorials

The following are some quick tutorials I created to help people out with some new features and settings in Skype and how to utilize a neat tool, YouTube Downloader, to download video and convert video too.  I also threw in a tutorial on iSpring Free that allows you to make a flash video of a PowerPoint presentation:

Skype Screen Sharing Feature

Safe Skype Settings

YouTube Downloader the Basics

iSpring Free PowerPoint Plugin

Enjoy!

“Did You Know 4.0?”

Resources and such…

The following is a list of sites that have been shared with me over the past several days.  Generally, you will see all kinds of findings in my Delicious links on the top right hand side of this blog.  Enjoy!

What to read?

Library Thing Suggest

What Should I Read Next?

BookLamp

WhichBook?

Math

That Quiz Math Test Activities (Science & Geography too!)

Social Studies/Current Events

Know Thy Congressman

NewsMap

National Geographic Little Kids

Science/Health

NSF Scrub Club

iSpecies

Digital Citizenship

Creative Thinking Home

World Languages

Foreign Internet Radio

Virtual Field Trips (All Subjects)

SimpleK12

Bob Sprankle I had a dream…

Professional Development

A few odds and ends keep showing up on my blog as I share examples of how to blog in various professional development workshops that I am facilitating this June.  We are podcasting, blogging, doing digital storytelling, video conferencing, trying out online tools, and experimenting with several tech gadgets including the Wii.  We have also been involved in Quest Atlantis professional development too.  It has been quite rewarding so far, and I myself have learned so much.  Our training resources can be found at one of my wikis:  HIT – Hokanson’s Instructional Technology Wiki. Enjoy!

Welcome New Bloggers!

This is a post to welcome some new bloggers to the blogosphere!  It is an interesting world and fun too!  Students can definitely benefit from teachers that blog, and a classroom blog extends your classroom and shares what is happening with the rest of the world.

A blog is simply a type of website that is easy to put together and maintain (See the video clip below!).  Here is hoping that you enjoy blogging!

NETA Conference Notes & Resources…

It has been a few busy days since attending the NETA Conference in Omaha, and I just had an opportunity to look over my notes and add various links I wanted to share.  The conference was very rewarding once again, and despite the sketchy internet connection, I was able to gain a wealth of information.

If you are interested in viewing the resources that my team and I gathered go to the following PBworks page (So long PBwiki in name, and hello to the new name!); plus, we will be adding more notes over the coming days so check back:  http://hokanson.pbworks.com/NETA-Conference-2009

“Not on the Test” Tom Chapin

I had viewed this before and was reminded of it in a recent presentation I attended. Food for thought. Enjoy!

PCMAG.COM: “One Cell Phone Per Child”

Interesting article at PCMAG.com:  ”One Cell Phone Per Child.”

The author’s conclusion states:

“If I sound optimistic, it’s because I am. If anything can derail this movement, it’s that almost all of these efforts have been driven by businesses that are pushing mobile adoption because it’s profitable to do so. So far, letting business take the lead has been pretty effective, but there are a lot of projects that require government coordination. I just hope that governments and NGOs aren’t so infatuated with the OLPC that they overlook the millions of portable computers that are already in people’s hands.”

Reading: Roy the Zebra

Check out this wonderful reading site for young children: Roy the Zebra.

Information from the site:

“The site is home to a package of interactive games, stories and resources that have been developed to help emerging readers learn to read. The site can be used at school or at home. It’s one of the most comprehensive interactive literacy resources on the net that is freely accessible… no area of the site is password protected.

RTZ also aims to make life easier for educators who teach reading skills. We hope you enjoy the site’s simplicity, fun characters and logical structure. You’ll never be more than 3 clicks (…if that!) away from what you need.

Recently over 360 educators assessed the effectiveness of the resources on www.roythezebra.com – 100% of the respondents agreed that RTZ had helped their pupils become better readers, 100% agreed that the site made reading fun and 100% said that they would use RTZ in the future.”

SkyDrive: 25 GB FREE Storage

Appears to be a nice size of free storage space:

“25 GB of free storage on Windows Live

With SkyDrive, it’s easy to store and share your files and photos with almost anyone.

Anywhere access

Get to your online files from home, work, or on the road.

Password-protected

Keep your files to yourself, or share them with anyone you want.

Easy to use

Drag files into your online folders, just like on your PC.”

Map of Future Forces Affecting Education

Now that we are two years in on the KnowledgeWorks Foundation and Institute for the Future 2006-2016 Map of Future Forces Affecting Education where are we now?

Pattie Maes: Unveiling game-changing wearable tech

“No Future Left Behind”

In February I had the opportunity (I took the opportunity and it is there for the taking!) to complete the Quest Atlantis professional development.  The following video produced by Suffern Middle School students utilizes several clips from QA, Second Life, etc. to drive home a very important point!  Enjoy and do!