“Did You Know 4.0?”

Keeping up…

Information overload has the potential to overwhelm good citizens all over the world, and I am not immune!  With a busy life that begins with five children and all their great adventures, I am often not reading all my RSS feeds, not checking Twitter, nor updating Facebook.  However, I do utilize these tools and many others to organize information that I find useful, and I know that I will eventually get to the pieces of info that are meaningful to me.

I can’t keep up with it all and that is okay.  There are no laws that require us to keep up to date on every piece of information rolling around on the web, and there are laws that warn us not to neglect our children.  Remember that the next time a little one is trying to pull you away from a digital device screen.

By the way, happy anniversary to my dear wife Dianna.  19 years and still going strong!!! 

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?

“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!

Online Resources…

The following are some new and old online sites that you may find useful as educational resources and fun instructional tools. I have included links to each site, a brief description, and information quoted from each site. I have known about many of these and learned about a few at an Educational Service Unit (ESU) meeting I attended in Ogallala, Nebraska.

Lesson Plans, Resources, and SO MUCH MORE!!!

Thinkfinity http://www.thinkfinity.org/

Remember the Marco Polo site? Thinkfinity is Marco Polo in its new incarnation.

“Thinkfinity.org makes it easy for educators to enhance their classroom instruction with lesson plans, interactive activities and other online resources. Thinkfinity.org also provides a wealth of educational and literacy resources for students, parents and after-school programs.

All of Thinkfinity.org’s 55,000 standards-based K-12 lesson plans, student materials, interactive tools and reference materials are reviewed by the nation’s leading education organizations to ensure that content is accurate, up-to-date, unbiased and appropriate for students.

At Thinkfinity.org, you’ll find primary source materials, interactive student resources and grade-specific research lists to help you tailor materials to meet your needs. Start exploring now!”

Web Tools

Tiny URL http://tinyurl.com/

Have a long web address/url/or web site “number” as VP Biden calls it ? Tiny URL can assist in creating a much shorter url for you to use or remember.

“Are you sick of posting URLs in emails only to have it break when sent causing the recipient to have to cut and paste it back together? Then you’ve come to the right place. By entering in a URL in the text field below, we will create a tiny URL that will not break in email postings and never expires.”

Web 2.0 Sites

Glogster http://www.glogster.com/

This site has some possibilities and there is an education version: http://www.glogster.com/edu/

I envision students using this to create posters, collages, etc. for various classroom projects.

“Mix graphics, photos, videos, music and text into slick Glogs. Glog yourself every day!

Amaze your friends – send others links to your Glogs.

Pimp your profile! – share your creations on Myspace, Facebook, Hi5, Friendster, Bebo or wherever you want…

Find new friends by their style

Have fun browsing Glogs, comment on other people’s Glogs and get inspiration”

MorgueFile http://www.morguefile.com/

This is a place to free photos and there is also a classroom section where you can learn the basics of photography.

“Morguefile, where photo reference lives. This morgue file contains free high resolution digital stock photographs and reference images for either corporate or public use. The purpose of this site is to provide free image reference material for illustrators, comic book artist, designers, teachers and all creative pursuits.”

Gigapan http://www.gigapan.org/index.php

See the “Gigapan” from the Nebraska vs. CU game (For my fellow Nebraskans, click the following link and zoom in to find yourself if you were there!): http://tinyurl.com/88ao9d

“GigaPan consists of three technological developments: a robotic camera mount for capturing very high-resolution (gigapixel and up) panoramic images using a standard digital camera; custom software for constructing very high-resolution gigapixel panoramas; and, a new type of website for exploring, sharing and commenting on gigapixel panoramas and the detail our users will discover within them. The GigaPan website allows hosting and sharing all kinds of panoramas, and so the robotic GigaPan mount is recommended but is certainly not required to be part of this community.”

Picnik http://www.picnik.com/

Online photo editing and more.

“Picnik makes your photos fabulous with easy to use yet powerful editing tools. Tweak to your heart’s content, then get creative with oodles of effects, fonts, shapes, and frames. It’s fast, easy, and fun.”

BeFunky http://www.befunky.com/

Create artwork with your photos.

“BeFunky Photo Effects allow everyday people to easily create photographically rich and artistic results from their digital images without the need for any technical knowledge. These “one-click” photo effect options produce desired results effortlessly and each effect comes with the option to make simple adjustments.”

Charles Leadbeater: “We Think”

Great video that I discovered at my friend Brian Grenier’s blog Bump on the Blog:

Chazzo’s Reading Project

My year 7 son Charlie created the following short film for his assignment on the book The Outsiders:

The Jordening 5th Grade Photo Stories…

The following links are to some of Buffalo Elementary 5th Grade student personal narratives recorded using Photo Story. More to come!!! Enjoy!

Shane

Sidney

David

Elizabeth

Tiffany

Morgen

Alec

Rachel

Courtney

Tanis

Mikeal

Allie

Allissa

Andrew

Middle School HAL student blogs…

The following are links to our HAL student’s blogs. They are off to a great start. I really enjoy working with these wonderful people. I am proud of their efforts. Click, read, enjoy, and after you give them a glance, please respond to our poll!!!

We are using Edublogs as our blogging engine, and it is quite easy to set up student accounts, administer them, and moderate at the teacher level.  Edublogs utilizes WordPress and has many of its features available to students and educators.

http://hal6alexise.edublogs.org

http://hal6alexr.edublogs.org

http://hal6annb.edublogs.org

http://hal6austinl.edublogs.org

http://hal6brandenh.edublogs.org

http://hal6garrettk.edublogs.org

http://hal6logano.edublogs.org

http://hal6myrissan.edublogs.org

http://hal6nathanm.edublogs.org

http://hal6sarahf.edublogs.org

http://hal7alecw.edublogs.org

http://hal7alexise.edublogs.org

http://hal7andrewp.edublogs.org

http://hal7blaket.edublogs.org

http://hal7bryannas.edublogs.org

http://hal7catelynl.edublogs.org

http://hal7charlieh.edublogs.org

http://hal7connerc.edublogs.org

http://hal7graysonf.edublogs.org

http://hal7greggn.edublogs.org

http://hal7hayleys.edublogs.org

http://hal7ianb.edublogs.org

http://hal7kaylar.edublogs.org

http://hal7kristenw.edublogs.org

http://hal7laurac.edublogs.org

http://hal7lilyw.edublogs.org

http://hal7maddief.edublogs.org

http://hal7manuelm.edublogs.org

http://hal7mckennam.edublogs.org

http://hal7megans.edublogs.org

http://hal7mikar.edublogs.org

http://hal7sloanew.edublogs.org

http://hal7timothyd.edublogs.org

http://hal7vincentg.edublogs.org

http://hal8aceh.edublogs.org

http://hal8cameronb.edublogs.org

http://hal8elysek.edublogs.org

http://hal8ettam.edublogs.org

http://hal8jessicab.edublogs.org

http://hal8kyliew.edublogs.org

http://hal8loganne.edublogs.org

http://hal8marcusm.edublogs.org

http://hal8mattd.edublogs.org

http://hal8michaelo.edublogs.org

http://hal8samb.edublogs.org

http://hal8sarahe.edublogs.org

http://hal8shaylenes.edublogs.org

http://hal8tessb.edublogs.org

http://hal8tomb.edublogs.org

http://hal8tylera.edublogs.org

Streaming Video Options…

Stickam

Trying some streaming video experimentation!

More How To Tutorials (USF: Tech-Ease)…

In my continued quest to discover ready made, valuable, computing tutorials for teachers and students, especially FREE resources, I came across Tech Ease in iTunes (I now have a couple of iPods full of these tutorials and will be watching them over the coming days!).  The Florida Center for Instructional Technology, USF College of Education, at the University of South Florida has produced several how to video tutorials for Mac and Windows applications with printable .pdf files and instructions.

The products range form iPhoto, Garageband, Audacity, Windows Movie Maker, Flickr, Delicious, Google docs and so much more!!!  Links to the sites follow:

Tech-Ease Windows

Tech-Ease Mac

Links to Tech-Ease screencasts from iTunes:

PDF (Printable Instructions)

OS X

Podcasting

Digital Video

iPod

Inspiration

Web 2.0

GIS

Blackboard

iLife/iWork

Second Life

Our district does have a subscription to Atomic Learning that meets many of our tutorial needs; however, when programs and applications change it is nice to have resources such as these, produced at the University of South Florida, that prove to be very beneficial especially to teachers and students.

Another wonderful resource I have used for computer basics is Harvard’s Computer Science E-1 (It has graced my iPod since the Fall of 2007).

Harvard Computer Science E-1 Website

Harvard Computer Science E-1 iTunes

Enjoy!

WordPress.com Video Tutorials from H I T

With the new WordPress this past spring it was time to find some basic video tutorials for my workshops. Unfortunately I did not have much luck; so, I have thrown together some of my own.

I used the FREE program Jing to create the tutorials, and they are .swf (Shockwave Flash) files. The tutorials are for beginning bloggers; so, have a look and listen and let me know what you think!

H I T WordPress Tutorials: The Basics

WordPress- Sign Up

WordPress- Logging In

WordPress- The Dashboard

WordPress- Design and Theme

WordPress- Design and Widgets

WordPress- Write a Post

WordPress- Write a Page

WordPress- Comments

WordPress- Settings (Change Title)

WordPress- Other Ways to Sign In or Log In

*Not bad for an old cowboy! 

Project Inkwell…

The beginnings of a project to connect elementary students in our school district, North Platte Public Schools, with a school in Uganda:

Summer Tech Classes…

The August round of tech classes have concluded and several teachers are off and running with some new and improved skills. We focused on blogging and determined that Edublogs.org offers the best utilities when it comes to allowing and monitoring student blogs. The podcasting class looked a the basics of creating podcasts in either First Class, with an iPod and Belkin TuneTalk microphone, and through directly recording into Audacity. Our video class reviewed the keys to basic video taping, and we explored different types of cameras and how to transfer these various formats to a computer then edit them in Windows Movie Maker. In the digital storytelling class we used Photo Story 3 to capture pictures and developed ways to use this program at various grade levels and subject areas.  See an example, created by our foundation director Deb Smith, below: