Thinking and Learning

SafeShare

2012-01-27T15:16:00.000-08:00

Share Youtube videos in class without all the extras.

Youtube has many great clips that can enhance a class discussion or serve as a springboard to a lesson. Sometimes the "related content" is just not appropriate. SafeShare allows you to view just the clip without the "extras".

"Our service provides a unique combination of the ability to view the video with minimum distraction as well as the ability to crop distracting scenes within the video !"

Example: http://www.safeshare.tv/w/kPQWdwTOIB

picoDoodler - quick draw artist!

2012-01-17T10:29:00.000-08:00

What can you do with just 10K? The site "10K Apart" sponsors a competition to see who can create the most interesting webapps, with the smallest footprint. These apps run in your browser window and let you play games, doodle, look up stuff, calculate, run animations, etc. One I like is quick draw app called PicoDoodler. This basic draw program lets you select pen size and colour, erase mistakes and save the image to your desktop, and it's only 4.97K - wow! Perfect for a quick little sketch to show off an idea or illustrate a concept. Launch it is a sec, draw your image, and move on.

Spiderscribe

2012-01-10T14:37:00.000-08:00

Spiderscribe is an easy-to-use mindmapping application that allows you to upload pictures and documents to enhance your "web". From the site: "It lets you organize your ideas by connecting notes, files, calendar events, etc. in free-form maps. You can collaborate and share those maps online!" Maps can be private or public, and can be a way to marshall resources needed for a presentation. Students simply login to their account and all their material is in one place.

Intervue - get video feedback on topics you post

2012-01-04T12:48:00.000-08:00

One of the key features of the Web 2.0 world is the ability to give feedback to posts and webpages. In most cases, the feedback takes the form of a text comment. "Intervue" by particleteam allows you to create a video response wall where people can be invited to leave an AV comment to a question or issue you post. As the owner of the intervue, you can choose to set the video responses to Hidden. (When you do, only you will be able to see the videos.) Or you can allow them to be visible to the world. Compose a set of questions, post them for your class, gather the responses publicly or privately, download the responses as mp4s or embed them. Use Intervue to get student responses to a test question, practice public speaking or as a placeholder for your own video clips.

A fast, handy way to take minutes

2011-12-14T11:58:00.000-08:00

So, you're in a meeting with your iPad and you want to take some brief notes. But there is no wifi. Why not take advantage of this "web app for ipad" creation? Minutes.io is an elegant easy-to-use tool. Browse to minutes.io with your ipad or laptop Create an account. If you've visited the site once previously, then you will be able to take notes and sync with your account, or even take notes off-line for synching later. (Here's a quick write-up on the desktop interface from MacLife.) You can take notes without an account, but having an ID makes it even handier.

MagCloud - Magazine Printing for fun and profit

2011-12-07T19:30:00.000-08:00

Publish Student Work - Share it with Parents!

MagCloud (an HP affiliated site) allows you to upload your student work and create glossy, professionally printed magazines. They can make a wonderful addition to a class or school library. The bonus is that parents and far-away relatives can order their own copy (or copies) printed and delivered to their door. A modest mark-up can even turn it into a fundraiser for classroom supplies. (Jim Vanides has a good overview of the site.)

There is no up-front cost to upload and publish your PDF. Printing costs 20 cents per page for Standard size and 16 cents per page for Digest size, plus $1.00 per copy for perfect binding. There is no additional cost for saddle-stitch binding. (As the publisher, you can add a markup to your MagCloud publication beyond the cost of printing and binding, and MagCloud will pay the full markup back to you for all print sales of your publication.) All orders of 20 or more print copies receive a discount of 25% off the printing costs.

Take a look.

Twiddla - collaboration tool

2011-11-21T10:54:00.001-08:00

Twiddla means collaboration

Twiddla is a "web-based meeting playground." It allows you to use the great features of Titanpad, and more! Mark up websites, graphics, and photos, or start brainstorming on a blank canvas. "Browser-agnostic, and user-friendly." Create a Twiddla session, invite users and begin. You can save the results of your collaboration to revisit another time. (Unfortunately, like the other Etherpad-based sites, it doesn't work with the iPad.)

Web Clipping - the easy way

2011-11-07T15:01:00.000-08:00

I just saw this interesting app/site/service called Memonic. It lets you capture parts of websites, make notes, share your findings with others: in short, a great study-research-clipping tool. (See their Youtube tutorial here.) The free version is good for 100 notes, and 3 sharing with friends. To get more, you have to go with the paid, pro version. I'm presuming you can delete notes to makes space for new ones, especially if you are collecting info for a project. It might be fun to play with, but I can't see students paying for this service. Maybe a free "edu" version might get students hooked and eager to subscribe after graduation - just a thought.

Clip web content
Save webpages to read later
Write a note
Organize content directly from the Clipper
Use the Gathering Mode for lengthy research sessions
Take screenshots and save content from Word, PDF etc. with our Clipper for Windows
Forward e-mails and attachments to your Collection

Another Flashcard site

2011-11-03T10:59:00.000-07:00

Use This Powerful Study Tool
http://quizlet.com/

Want to help your students retain vocabulary and concepts? Sometimes good-old-fashioned flashcards are the solution. Now you can use some tech to leverage this tried and true technique. Enter: Quizlet. Create flashcard sets with your own data or choose from sets created by others. Quizlet offers you the option of creating a group to share flashcards with classmates. (In addition, there are apps that integrate with Quizlet for on-the-go studying.) Another plus, data can be exported and pasted into Word or Excel.

Flashcard Mode for quick review.
Speller Mode uses audio as a prompt.
Learn Mode keeps track of scores, and retests incorrect answers.
Test Mode: with short-answer, matching, multiple choice or true/false options.

Another way to build flippable books

2011-10-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

I must admit, I do like the idea of creating and distributing flippable digital magazines and books. There's something slick about the page flipping action, especially when accompanied by the sound of a page turning. (Although, sometimes, I do wonder about the real utility of creating the semblance of a book on a webpage..what's wrong with the webpage format? But that's just me...) I've mentioned a couple of other services before, and just recently came across "Youblisher". While it doesn't have all the bells and whistles that Issuu and others have, the view only shows your digital magazine. You don't have to worry about other "unsavory" or inappropriate content showing up on the sidebar. Youblisher is a snap to use: 1) create an account, 2) upload the PDF, 3) share the link - so easy. The one drawback that I can see is that you have no obvious way of viewing the content on an iOS device. (You can choose the download link, and open it as a PDF in another viewer, but it would be nice if the mobile view defaulted to PDF right away.) Youblisher give you the embed code (big and small) and a URL link.

(Link to a sample.)
You could get students to create their own magazine using whatever software package you prefer: Word, Publisher, InDesign, etc. Print it as a PDF and then upload. Newsletters, flyers, teacher-created textbooks, self-published stories...lots of ways to use it.

Machine Generated Music

2011-10-20T19:25:00.000-07:00

Do you want to use some music for a video clip or some classroom activity, but you want to avoid using a recognizable piece? Why don't you try "WolframTones". According to the site, "WolframTones works bytaking simple programs from Wolfram's computational universe, andusing music theory and Mathematica algorithms to render them asmusic." Sometimes a tune will sound familiar, but rest assured that each tune is unique. You can adjust most of the parameters: tempo, key, mode, genre. Make it your own!

TodaysMeet Video Tutorial

2011-10-11T11:35:00.000-07:00

Last school year, I blogged about TodaysMeet as a useful tool for setting up a back channel in your class or presentation. Russell Stanard has put together a nice Camtasia video that walks you through setting up this application. (When you go to his site, you'll have to wait a moment or so while the video screen loads.)

Diagram it online

2011-10-01T23:26:00.000-07:00

Take brainstorming to the Web using another cool web based app called Diagram.ly. You can plan for your class writing with Diagram.ly, a cloud-based visualization application. It's mind-mapping with a flow chart twist. Diagramly is free with no registration required.

"Snack" Family of webapps

2011-09-29T20:04:00.000-07:00

Earlier I wrote about Flipsnack as a way to present flippable books and magazines. In fact there is a whole family of "Snack Apps" to choose from. I tried Photosnack today and was very happy with the easy of use, and the ability to sign in using Google or Facebook rather than having to create a new account. It is a Freemium service, so to get all the features, you have to pay a little more. But it is a simple way to add a slick slide show to your blog or webpage.

Make Virtual Flipbooks the "Flipsnack" way

2011-09-26T22:51:00.000-07:00

You can provide your students with beautiful flippable digital content by using Flipsnack. This great web-based app allows you to upload a PDF and see it rendered as a realistic onscreen book or magazine. You have a great set of choices for formatting and the full-screen view is very readable!

Popplet - mindmapping plus!

2011-09-19T09:26:00.000-07:00

Popplet is an easy-to-use mindmap generator that creates slick conceptual maps. Add images, change the colour and embed your results on your blog or webpage. There is even a "play/presentation" feature that makes your Popplet work like a Prezi. Creations can be exported as image files. Worth taking a look at.

(Psst: It's also available for iPad in a lite version (free) and a paid version that allows you to create multiple boards, not just one.)

Here's a short Youtube demo.
Here's a sample project (Embedded version below)
=================

Panoramas for fun and learning!

2011-09-15T14:33:00.000-07:00

What better way to take students on learning journey than to visit world heritage sites, extreme environments or the actual setting of the novel they are studying. All this is possible when you access one of the many "Panorama" sites available on the internet.

These sites are repositories of an amazing variety of 360 VR movies that can transport a class to a place they can only imagine. And the experience has more impact than a simple picture. Teachers can pan across the scene, look up or down, and even zoom in on important details.

Here are four good sites to check out:

And while we're on the topic of panoramas, I have to share the most recent app I've added to my iPhone collection: 360panorama. This handy inexpensive application uses your iPhone camera to make a 360 VR image in the time it takes for you to turn in a circle. The resulting file is uploaded to your free account on their server and can be shared on a webpage, facebook update or email. What a great way to set up instant mini-fieldtrips for your class. This is worth looking at.

(Thanks Nancy for this promo poster - Scribd document)

Audio recording via a Web-based app

2011-09-08T14:37:00.000-07:00

The other day I was helping a teacher who wanted to add audio to her blog. Videos are easy (with Youtube), so are documents (using Scribd). What I really needed was an easy way to embed a short audio file without having to launch a recording program, capture an audio segment, save it as an mp3, upload it to some server space somewhere and then embed. My solution was Chirbit. I can easily record a short piece and then get the embed code to pop it into my blog. (There's a video clip on the Chirbit homepage that runs through the features.) Chirbit will also let you grab the audio from a Youtube clip and embed it.
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Check this out on Chirbit

Bibme Makes Bibliographies Effortless

2011-09-02T14:52:00.000-07:00

The final task that students complain about the most when doing a project, is the bibliography. Maybe because they always forget to get complete bibliographic details when note-taking, or maybe because parsing citing info for websites is such a pain! And of course, who can remember where to put the commas, periods and indents. Writing a bibliography is an arcane art to most kids.

Enter "Bibme.org" This site takes all the fuss out of creating a citation, automating the process almost completely. Scan the ISBN of your reference, or type in the title, and presto, it's added to your list. Create a free account and you can even return to your growing bibliography to add references on the fly. Need APA instead of MLA? No problem: switch at the touch of a button. The site even extracts the relevant bits from URLs and adds them. Every student needs to know about this easy to use tool.

Drawing and Painting in the Browser window

2011-06-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

Summer is almost here, and you may have a few blocks of time to cover in a computer lab before it's all over! Why not give your students a session with one of these "in browser" drawing/painting sites. Students can be creative and then save their art work for posting on a class site, or for printing as refrigerator art!

Artpad

http://artpad.art.com/artpad/painter/

Sketchy

http://mrdoob.com/projects/harmony/#sketchy

Crayola

http://www.crayola.com/coloring_application/index.cfm

Making your site mobile friendly

2011-06-20T15:29:00.000-07:00

I spent the last few days looking for a way to make an existing site mobile friendly for use in a classroom with iTouch toting kids. Pages I had already created were so small and illegible. Yes, students can pinch and swipe to make the text larger, but I wanted the page to load "mobile ready". (The result.)

Short of re-creating my page from scratch (ie with a site like winksite or Wix.com) it seems I had very few options. I did find a google service that "cleans up" a page and makes it easier to view on a mobile device, but it applies this to every link on the page - sometimes that's not what you want! The readability site can work as a bookmarklet in Safari, but it can be tricky to explain, and in any case, doesn't happen automatically unless you purposefully select it. After much searching, I happened across a solution that works for me! Simply put, I take an existing page of links I had created for my students, make a copy of the file, and add the following code to the head of the document: (See code here)

This forces the mobile browser to view the page "close-up" and creates a very mobile friendly version.

Compare these two pages on a mobile device:

http://public.sd38.bc.ca/sdweb/lis/info2

http://public.sd38.bc.ca/sdweb/lis/info

The new Kobo eReader

2011-06-16T10:16:00.000-07:00

This is not a web app, but for those that like to read on an electronic device, the new Kobo Touch is a very nice addition to the eReader market. I recently acquired a Kobo Touch and immediately put it to use. It connects with the Chapters/Kobo online store and synced up to my Kobo account without any trouble at all. In fact, the built-in wifi is quite speedy compared to the previous version and the touch screen makes navigation a breeze. There is even a built-in bare-bones browser that lets me google quite nicely. Adding content from my own hard drive is a snap - simply drag the epub to the Kobo icon (not the program, the device) and the book shows up on the Kobo Touch home page. So easy.

Here is a recent review from Mike Koz:
http://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/review-of-the-kobo-touch-e-reader/

Here is a video overview.

Making webpages "READABLE"

2011-05-26T14:11:00.000-07:00

I've written about webpage clutter before. So many pages have such a wealth of links and widgets and boxes and what-not that it becomes a challenge to focus on the central content. This is an issue, especially if you are projecting an article for your class to discuss, or you have asked an easily distracted student to read from a webpage on his/her own. While there are some 3rd party tricks for fixing this (i.e. Readability), if you use Safari as your default browser, you can use the built-in 'READER" feature. While this is not a new feature - it has been around for a while - it is so easy to use. (FYI - Not every site will invoke the reader button.) One click on the reader button to the right of the URL address bar will deliver a clutter-free, resizable, printable view that makes reading a breeze. Aseem Kishor's blog "Switching to Mac" has a nice write-up on this feature. To switch back to the regular view, simply click on the "Reader" button again. So easy. (This is also a great plus for older eyesight!)

cl1p.net - The internet clipboard

2011-05-16T12:24:00.000-07:00

Ever want an easy way to copy and paste text or links between computers? Cl1p.net allows users to easily pick up selected links on any internet enable computer. Create a "cl1p page", add whatever you want, share the URL with team members. So easy to use, and since there is no signin needed, students can use it quite easily. (You can create an account if you wish, to get more features.) Links expire after 1 week, unless you change the default. There is even the option of creating a bookmarklet for easy clipping. Just click the "Extras" link.

Making Flipbooks with a digital twist

2011-04-18T22:37:00.000-07:00

Doink is a VERY easy animator program, that allows you to make what is essentially a modern twist on the old-style flipcard booklet. Easy tools allow the user to draw in a frame, and then move to the next frame with a ghost of the first drawing still visible. This makes it very easy to make simple animations. Once you are done, a simple click on the play button lets the viewer see the final product.
You need at create an account to save your work, but you can capture the movie with Screencastle or Screencast-o-matic (http://screencast-o-matic.com/) If you create an account, animations can be also be posted to Facebook and Youtube.

Creating ePubs on the fly

2011-03-15T21:26:00.000-07:00

"dotEPUB is software in the cloud that allows you to convert any webpage into an e-book."

Friends know I am an avid reader, and have many books around me at all times. Lately though, I find that I am reading more and more on my iPad. (I think I am hitting about 50% with the eVersions starting to win out!) It's easy to find content with all the eBookstores, but what about creating my own? One handicap has been the process of creating ePubs (the format I prefer on my Stanza app.) I know I can create ePubs using the latest version of Pages (which I don't have) or by running a conversion in Calibre. But what about doing it on the fly?

This is why I was so excited to find "dotePub" the other day. This tool works via a bookmarklet, great for my laptop or desktop, but it also works on the iPad itself. How perfect is that! Simply visit the site, add the bookmarklet to your menu bar, and start converting.

You can view "how to videos" on the site as well.

Music App for iTouch, iPad

2011-03-11T14:53:00.000-08:00

here's a great iTouch/iPad app I found:

"Slow Down Music Player"
(Web site here)

Here are some of the specs

Change tuning or musical key
Loop phrases or entire song
Easy to define and save phrases
4 beat count in gives you time to move your hands back to your instrument
Displays elapsed and remaining time
Quickly cue song to play any where you want
Seamless integration with your devices built in iPod Music player allows you to access your entire music library!

The app is "free", but if you want to listen to more than 2 or 3 songs, then it costs $2.99 to upgrade. Could be a real boon to music teachers and music students. A great tool for learning a part or for analyzing a particular passage of music.

QR Codes...everywhere!

2011-03-03T10:49:00.000-08:00

QR Code to our list of Library Catalogs.

I've seen so much about QR codes on LM-NET these days, I thought I'd give them a plug here. They are a great way to raise the profile of your library program and give your displays a "cutting edge" feel.

Use them to point kids to your catalog, to reviews, to booktrailers and other interesting extras that connect with the materials you have in your collection. You could even make short video tutorials for equipment in your library, or how to create bibliographies, or....the sky's the limit. One recommendation was to create T-shirts graphics where the QR code is to the library website.

Check out the comic below from the daring librarian.

What iPad apps are you using?

2011-03-02T09:17:00.000-08:00

My district is looking at ways to integrate iPads into classroom instruction (like everyone else!) and I would like to "pick the collective brain" out there. I've put together a Google form (with a link to the resulting spreadsheet so everyone can see the contributions.)

Suggest your fav iPad Apps for classroom use by going to http://t.co/q4bDG9C .

(You can view the spreadsheet as it's being populated here: http://bit.ly/gquHAz )

You can download the results as an excel and then sort it any way you want (by price, by subject, by name.)

Fine tune Youtube Clips with EmbedPlus

2011-02-24T10:02:00.000-08:00

If you use Youtube videos, you know that sometimes you only really want to show certain portions. Or perhaps you want to crop, or zoom in, or quickly play back a section. EmbedPlus adds these features and more. (See some of the features below) This site could be a new "teachers' friend"!

Scene Skipping
Like DVD chapter buttons, click these to skip to marked times.

Cropping
Cut / Splice / Chop only the particularly interesting part of a video to show during playback.

Movable Zoom
Added accessibility. Dynamically magnifies the area you point over. Use it to get a close look at objects, writing, and things like moving athletes.

Timed Annotations
Add your own timed annotations to any video. Use it to display titles, captions, scene labels, and side comments during playback.

Slo-Mo On-Demand
Instantly watch videos at a slower rate to more clearly see what happens. Use it for videos with sports highlights, demos, tricks, and raw footage.

Apps for the iOS - iPad, iPod, iPhone

2011-02-18T09:25:00.000-08:00

For those of you using iOS devices in the class, or thinking about it, here is a great list of apps, divided by subject area. Eric Sailers has put together this document with an eye to the needs of teachers and kids in Special Ed, but the results apply to all kids. Each app has a description and a link to the iTunes store. Take a look.

iPhone, iPad and iPod touch Apps for (Special) Education

Golden Oldies - Audio files

2011-02-16T23:03:00.000-08:00

Ready for a walk down memory lane? I came across this site looking for audio software and couldn't resist posting about it. Here's the description from the home page. "Kiddie Records Weekly began in 2005 as a one year project devoted to celebrating the golden age of children's records. This period roughly spanned from the mid forties through the early fifties and produced a wealth of all-time classics. Many of these recordings were extravagant Hollywood productions and featured big time celebrities and composers." You can listen to a number of 45RPM Capitol Record stories, and download pages from the storybook. In some cases, the pictures and audio have been uploaded to Youtube.

Embedding Audio? - try audioBoo

2011-02-02T11:10:00.000-08:00

If you want to add some audio to your webpage or blog, consider giving audioBoo a try. Signup is easy (you can use your Twitter account) and uploading audio is a snap from the browser, or an iPhone app. The resulting file can be easily embedded on your blog and the player is attractive and easy to use.

Listen!

Project that iPad

2011-01-25T13:43:00.000-08:00

Using an iPad in your classroom? Then you need to be able to project your work on the big screen. First, get a VGA adapter for your iPad, and then start collecting apps that allow VGA output. (Not all apps do this, but that is changing all the time.) See below for some good candidates.

Expedition (a browser)
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/expedition-vga-composite-component/id369305234?mt=8
Note Taker HD
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/note-taker-hd/id366572045?mt=8
Sundry Notes (it's free)
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/sundry-notes/id353007318?mt=8
Whiteboard HD
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/whiteboard-hd/id383779666?mt=8
Penultimate (Good for drawing, formulas, like an overhead)
http://itunes.apple.com/app/penultimate/id354098826#
6Tech Blog article
http://cathymoak.wordpress.com/2010/09/27/10-ipad-apps-to-project-with-vga/
App Store
http://www.apple.com/ca/ipad/apps-for-ipad/

Bookmarklets: Paper Case and Liquid Page

2011-01-11T22:19:00.000-08:00

I recently came across two bookmarklets that I wanted to share with you. (As you probably remember from previous posts, a bookmarklet is a snippet of code that you drag to your browser's address bar. Every time you click it, it will cause the page you're viewing to change its appearance.) The first one I'd like to share is "Liquid Page". What I love about Liquid Page, is that it allows you to drag around the elements of any webpage you visit. It's a great way to rethink the layout of a page you're designing. With younger students, it can be used to play with a column of words as if they are fridge magnets, or rearrange images to group like items together. (Fun on a Smartboard!)

"Paper Case" is another useful bookmarklet. You can find it on the Liquid Mongoose site. Simply visit Netflix, Music.aol.com, or Picassa and click on your bookmarklet to create a pre-formatted page that you can print to hold your CDs. There's even a video tutorial to explain how it all works. (See below.)

Publishing online - some web apps

2011-01-05T10:45:00.000-08:00

There are lots of great resources for teachers to publish student work in a "book" format. Most allow for online viewing via embed codes. This allows parents, relatives and friends to view the work from anywhere. Most will also allow viewers to print out copies for saving and bragging.

Web based Solutions:

SimpleBooklet
Very easy set up. This can be used without an account. Lots of formats possible. Nice templates.http://simplebooklet.com

Bookr
Bookr allows you to create picture flipbooks using Flickr images, and you can add your own text . (It is not printer friendly, but if you take screen shots, you can print.) Make note of the embed code and URL or you'll never find it again!
http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/

Scribd
Scribd allows you to upload docs, PPT, pdfs and view them/ embed them as an online book, slide show or scroll. You can print what you upload. You'll need an account to do this.
www.scribd.com

Software Based Solutions

iPhoto
If you have access to iPhoto (mac) , you can use it to make a book, and add captions. Simply save as a PDF, then print the book or upload to some of the web based services.

Powerpoint
Students can make pages using individual slides. When printed out, they can be bound to create books. Saved as a PDF, the slides can also be uploaded to some of the web based services.

See also, (but some content may not be kid friendly)

Blurb
www.blurb.com
You can download their software to create beautiful photo books. Books can be viewed online, sold/purchased, and or printed

Issuu
Upload your PDF creations to create flipbooks.
www.issuu.com

Yudu
www.yudu.com

Is there an alternative to Google?

2011-01-03T19:44:00.000-08:00

I just read a post in TechCrunch by V. Wadhwa highlighting some of the problems associated with "googling" in the wild. It seems that spam and advertising seems to rise to the top everytime, contaminating the results. I've found that depending on the topic, a Google hunt can be quite a safari expedition! You have to be quite ruthless in filtering out the commercial sites with a series of "minus this" and "minus that". And I always have the sneaking suspicion that I've just eliminated the perfect site by doing so! Wadhwa offers a solution in the form of Blekko. (Here's the complete article.)

Here's how Wadwha describes it:

"Blekko was founded in 2007 by Rich Skrenta, Tom Annau, Mike Markson, and a bunch of former Google and Yahoo engineers. [...] In addition to providing regular search capabilities like Google’s, Blekko allows you to define what it calls “slashtags” and filter the information you retrieve according to your own criteria. Slashtags are mostly human-curated sets of websites built around a specific topic, such as health, finance, sports, tech, and colleges."

A quick look at the site makes me want to explore this "new" search engine. Might be a good addition to the research toolkit!

iPhone app for "on the fly" translation

2010-12-17T09:46:00.000-08:00

Introducing "Word Lens" for the iPhone
http://questvisual.com/

I usually prefer to review apps that teachers can use directly in the classroom with kids, but I couldn't pass up blogging about this one. True, not every kid will arrive with an iPhone, but the newest iPods and iPads will soon have cameras ( so this app could be used by more than just phone owners.) In some ways, watching this app in action is like watching magic!

Word Lens translates from English to Spanish and vice versa "on the fly" via the camera. You see the street sign "magically" switch languages right on your phone screen. Although the dictionary is limited to two languages for the moment, this app has tremendous potential. Each language "pack" costs $4.99, and I imagine more languages will be available soon. I would love to see a version that works with Asian languages: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.

While the translation is not perfect, I think it leverages the tremendous power that smartphones are placing in the pockets of many of our students.

Storybird - an easy, fun storytelling platform

2010-12-15T14:09:00.000-08:00

Today I read a post in the School Library Journal by Christopher Bell talking about an online storytelling tool called "Storybird".

As the Storybird site explains, they "are short, art-inspired stories you make to share, read, and print. Read them like books, play them like games, and send them like greeting cards. They’re curiously fun." Christopher Bell agrees. (Here's a link to his blog post: LINK.) One of the great features is that you get to choose from a range of very nice artwork to build your story. Students get a very professional looking product right away. This allows more focus on the storytelling part of the task. A nice feature for the parents of budding authors is that the final version can be printed as a coffee-table book. (Perfect gift for Granny!) The only thing lacking is an embed feature and the nifty flash page flip found on other sites. (Although, this does make it more iPad friendly.) With a screen capture program, you could even record the student's voice as s/he narrates and flips pages, and then the resulting movie could be shared with others.

Storybird Quick Tour from Storybird on Vimeo.

Read URLs in another language: a translating bookmarklet

2010-12-13T12:09:00.000-08:00

While machine translators are not foolproof, they can certainly help bridge some of the communication gaps for the user. I've tried the Google bookmarklet by translating a page into French (which I speak) and, guess what: it's not too shabby! Your beginning ESL students will thank you. Simply visit the page below, and find the appropriate target language button, and drag it to your address bar. So easy.

http://translate.google.com/translate_buttons

"Add a translation browser button to your browser's Links Toolbar to translate web pages or pieces of text with a single click. While surfing the web, if you find a piece of text you'd like to translate, select the text with your mouse and click the browser button. If you want to translate a whole web page, simply click the button."

Try it right now by clicking HERE.

Determining Readability - with just one click!

2010-12-11T10:48:00.000-08:00

So you have a class with a range of learners (who doesn't) and you are trying to differentiate your instruction by choosing a range of reading material for the project your students are working on. You know that you can use something like EBSCO to search for articles because it will give you the lexile reading level of the articles you find. But what about articles on the internet... is there a way to determine the reading level, easily? Why yes there is. I happened across a site called "Read-able" (The Readability Test Tool) which allows you to plug in the URL of a page you are considering and it reports back the readability using a number of different metrics. Their motto: "Let's make the unreadable readable."

As they say on the site:

The Readability Test Tool takes the text on your web page and gives a score for the most used readability indicators.

Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease
Flesch Kincaid Grade Level
Gunning Fog Score
Coleman Liau Index
Automated Readability Index (ARI)

You can even get a bookmarklet to drag to your address bar so that you can easily (one click!) get a sense of the page. This is a great tool, well worth checking out.

Add text-to-speech to your browser

2010-12-07T23:34:00.000-08:00

vozMe lets you add a speech synthesis bookmarklet to your browser. Select any text as you browse, click the vozMe button in your browser and you will hear the text in a somewhat mechanical Irish accent (male voice). This is a great way to add accessibility to the browsing experience. Putting the bookmarklet on your classroom computer browser 's menu bar means a student with some text challenges could have the page, or part of it, read to him/her. With some discrete earbuds, no one else needs to hear!

See this link to install the bookmarklet. (Choose from a female or a male voice.) The resulting mp3 can even be downloaded. The voice has a certain "Stephen Hawking" quality, but is sstill quite usable.

"Forms" - an easy way to collect data!

2010-11-22T11:51:00.000-08:00

One thing I'm using more and more is the "Forms" feature in Google docs. (You will need a gmail account.) This feature allows students to fill in a record (ie. a line, or record) on your spreadsheet using a webform. Students can't see the completed spreadsheet, but each time s/he fills the form in, the data gets added to your Google doc.

How can I use it?
You could use this to collect survey information, write a quiz, as a pre-test to find out what your students know, to collect "quickie" book reviews, as sign-in sheets, for journal entries, collecting anonymous tips, etc, etc.

There are some great ways to play with the data once you get it, (graphs, charts, etc) and you can export the data into an excel doc for even more options.

How does it work?
Go to google docs, create a spreadsheet, and then build a form that will "sit on top of" the spreadsheet. Once you have finished composing your form, you can get a link to email or put on a website, or even embed the form on a page you have created. If it sounds complicated, it's not. Just spend some time with the videos listed below and you'll be a forms "expert" in no time.

Here are a few video tutorials:

Getting Started with Google Docs Forms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgerB9MeJoc
Going Paperless with Google Forms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zABy2ri_kTI&feature=related
Google Forms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZEjmxTvR4k
Using Google Forms to Create a online Quiz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzgaUOW6GIs
Self-grading google forms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVqLaYHVXJM&feature=related

Google Doc Viewer

2010-11-11T13:02:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, when I've found a great presentation that I'd like to share with students or teachers, the only option seems to be to point them to the site with the PowerPoint download link.

Unfortunately, this means a less-than-ideal browsing experience that forces the viewer to leave Firefox, download the PPT, and open a separate application in order to view the content. Just the other day I was reminded of the power of Google Docs viewer.

Google has provided a nice little page that will let you paste in the URL of the PPT in question, and the form generates an email link, a snippet of html to paste the link into a webpage, and the embed code to place the slide show into an existing webpage or blog post.

Check it out: this is a handy little tool!

http://docs.google.com/viewer

===================

Arkive: endangered animals

2010-11-01T13:59:00.000-07:00

"With the help of the world’s best filmmakers, photographers, conservationists and scientists, ARKive is creating the ultimate multimedia guide to the world's endangered species."

The videos and images in this searchable visual database are perfect for animal research projects. Videos can also be embedded, downloaded and linked.

http://www.arkive.org

=======================

Screencastle - another screen casting site

2010-10-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I reviewed Screenr, a webcasting/screen capture program that works in tandem with your Twitter account. While Screenr is easy to use, the lack of an email address is a problem for younger students or classes wanting to share a project.

Introducing ScreenCastle. This web-based program allows students to record a project (i.e. Slideshow with audio, a story, a news item, etc) and immediately make it available on the internet. ScreenCastle gives you a URL to view, as well as an embed code to put on a class website. (Using a DownLoadHelper, a Firefox plug in, you can even download it in avi format, but this is not a option provided by the site itself.)

Important: Make note of the URL generated. Although no account or email is needed to do the recording and publishing (so easy!), students must make a note of the URL that is generated (ie copy into a Word document) because there is no other way to find the uploaded video after the fact.

As I mentioned, you can also get embed codes too, but you need to get these at the time the video is uploaded, or there is no way to recover the code.

The sheer ease of use makes this an interesting web app to use in the classroom.

Math Game Site: Manga High

2010-10-15T12:26:00.000-07:00

Games have always been a great way to interest students in material. Teachers have used games for review, introducing a topic, or for practice. While there are a great many Math games sites out there, Manga High has some very slick flash games that are sure to intrigue your students. While the creators of the site want you to sign your students up as members of Manga High, visitors can play a selection of games for free. Prodigi, Algebra Meltdown, BIDMAS Blaster, Ice Ice Maybe, Pyramid Panic, Flower Power, Transtar, Save Our Dumb Planet: each game introduces and practices some aspect of the Math curriculum. (Note: these are flash games and wont work on an iPad - maybe an android tablet will!)

http://www.mangahigh.com/en_us/games/

Adding AV tutorials to your website

2010-10-05T12:00:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, and a video can be even more valuable! When you want to explain the "how-to" of a strategy or lesson, or...whatever, Screenr can be just the ticket, This great little web-based app will let you capture (screen and audio) a short (5 mins max) video tutorial that you can post to Twitter, embed in a blog or send to Youtube. You can even download the finished video as an mp4, and archive it for future use. The steps are easy to follow and you'll be pleased with the results.

Below, I've posted a demo I made on how to access our district online databases via a school library catalog. (BTW, the yellow "glow" around the mouse in the tutorial is courtesy of http://www.2point5fish.com/ and their mini-app "Mouse Locator", for the Mac.)

Embed Comic strips!

2010-09-29T12:09:00.000-07:00

I was asked recently if there was some way to make a comic strip and then embed it on a blog or webpage. As with almost every web-based application out there, embedding has become the de facto standard for sharing content. Why would you have to save your work as a text or image file, download it to your desktop, and then log on to your target destination, and finally upload the particular content item. Embedding allows me to create once and then re-use, re-use, re-use to my heart's desire.

While there are a number of comic creation sites, only a few have the same appeal as ComicLife, and Pikistrips certainly fits the bill. Creating the strip is quite easy: pick your layout, upload pics or choose from Flickr, add speech bubbles, save and share. So easy. I've pasted the embed code for one of my samples below.

====

Titanpad is the new Etherpad

2010-09-19T22:25:00.000-07:00

For those of you who used Etherpad with great success, its "demise" was a big disappointment. Piratepad appeared as a great substitute, but some people were put off by the "Pirate" in the name, and the fact that it's hosted by the Swedish Pirate Party.

However, I recently stumbled across Titanpad, which gives all the same functionality, but without the "pirate" designation. So if you have been giving Etherpad a rest, come back and give it a try as TitanPad.

(You can check my description of how this Web 2.0 tool can be used here: <LINK> )

Flipboard for iPad

2010-09-09T14:32:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to another school year. Since I've recently acquired an iPad, some of my posts will include links to useful, intriguing or educational apps I've been using. This week I'd like to point you to "Flipboard". This app styles itself as a "personalized, social magazine" and I must admit I am pleased with the look and feel of it.

After downloading from the App Store, I have the option of signing up to my Facebook and Twitter feeds along with tweets from a number of news and lifestyle sites. The end result is very much an idiosyncratic take on themes that are important to me.

What's really nice, is that the feeds are laid out in a magazine format, with slick page flipping action. It makes my Twitter feed a delight to peruse!

Design Like an Architect

2010-06-30T14:36:00.000-07:00

You can now have the spirit of Frank Lloyd Wright guide you as you experiment with design ideas on Architect Studio 3D. (Thanks Rosamar) Use this 3D modeling site to create a house and even walk through a 3D version. Your design can be posted to a shared gallery so others can view it as well. There are also pages that give additional info about Wright himself, and about architecture in general. You will need the latest version of Flash to take advantage of the site, so it's not for iPad users. (There is a link at the bottom of the page for teachers and librarians with curriculum connections, challenges and program ideas.)

Storynory - audio downloads of traditional stories

2010-06-23T15:27:00.000-07:00

Teachers are often looking for ways to integrate technology into the classroom in appropriate ways. Storynory is a British site that offers audio versions of many traditional children's stories and is a bonus for ESL or reading challenged youngsters. Because the site is based in the UK, the stories are all delivered with a charming accent! Material is divided into a number of categories: Latest, Original, Fairytales, Classic, Educational, and Junior. There are also some "traditional" Judeo-Christian stories: Noah, Samson and Delilah, Joseph and his coat, and two Christian ones: the First Christmas, and the Wedding at Cana. The "Latest" section offers a serialized story that updates every week.

Stories can be listened to online or downloaded and put on an mp3 player. (The text for most of the files is provided on the site.) A nice selection of material to round out your reading program.

Readability - now with footnotes!

2010-06-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

The great "decluttering" tool READABILITY that many of you are using when you want to look at an article with a whole class has added a new feature. When you create the bookmarklet for your menu bar, you can now choose to have any links in the article appear as footnotes. (This is especially handy if you decide to print the article.) The "readability" bookmarklet is also a great way to prep an article for use on a Smartboard.

Creating a Google Custom Search - InfoQuête

2010-06-03T14:30:00.000-07:00

I was frustrated in my search for a good periodical database for French language magazine references to use with the immersion students in our district. While we currently subscribe to EBSCO and CPIQ, there really is no good source for French material. Repères and Erudit have a great number of references, but very little full-text access to articles that students could use. Taking a page from the "Infotopia" site, I decided to create a Google Custom search that would pull together hits from a select number of magazine sites. Setting up the search was easy - all you need is a gmail account and you're in business. (Visit this link to find out more.) I found a dozen sites or so that are about at the right level. You can try out my initial attempt below. I hope to refine it as time goes on!

iPods as a language tool

2010-05-25T10:04:00.000-07:00

One of the blogs I like to read is "TechToolsForSchools". A recent post talks about how you might take advantage of the powerful technology that walks into your classroom everyday: the iTouch! Using an inexpensive external mic (the contact info is all available in the post), you can have your students record their voice and work on their accent. The post also mentions a promising app, Audioboo, and a related site, audioboo.fm.

(The mic is listed for $3.50 on the Suntekstore site, but for even less on Amazon.com)

Poetry Springboard: PicLits

2010-05-12T22:26:00.000-07:00

Teaching "poetry" poses many difficulties for the teacher introducing the genre, and for students trying to get their heads around a challenging format. PicLits offers a number of options for teacher and student alike.
How it works: The site serves up a number of striking images. Visitors are encouraged to place items from a word bank onto the image in order to create an inspirational message, a poem or short saying. This site could be used as a springboard to a poetry lesson, or as a way to consolidate techniques learned. Finished products can be saved to the site (after creating an account), emailed to a friend, embedded in a blog or downloaded as a screenshot. Use it with a Smartboard too!

See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

See the full PicLit at PicLits.com
.

Using the "Back-Channel" - TodaysMeet

2010-05-08T21:08:00.000-07:00

When you read about conference presentations and college classrooms, you might also hear mention made of the "back-channel". Wikipedia defines this activity as "the practice of using networked computers to maintain a real-time online conversation alongside live spoken remarks." The advantage of this kind of contribution is that it allows those present to comment on the session, ask questions, request clarification or add missing details; all in real time. Some conferences even allow the back channel to be projected up alongside the PowerPoint! While some are using Twitter to create this, the site "TodaysMeet" lets teachers and conference presenters easily set up a space for participants/students to respond. "Encourage the room to use the live stream to make comments, ask questions, and use that feedback to tailor your presentation, sharpen your points, and address audience needs." Its easy interface and simple design makes this a very easy web-app to use. Give it a try!

A wealth of Digital Story telling tools

2010-05-04T12:33:00.000-07:00

There are so many tools out there, it can seem overwhelming! Then, along comes a someone (Alan Levine) who imposes a little order on the chaos! I stumbled across this great site, CogDogRoo, that reviews 50+ digital story tools (listing the plusses and minuses) and even gives an example of how each can be used to tell the same story! You'll find some favourites in here, as well as some surprising gems. While the odd site has since expired, there's still lots to look at.

Make and Share your own books - StoryJumper

2010-04-26T14:56:00.000-07:00

Storyjumper is another site along the same lines as Bookr (which I mentioned in an earlier post) but this new offering has a few extra features that make it a little more user-friendly for classroom projects. Once a student has created an account (must be at least 13 years old), s/he can upload pics and drawings of their own, in addition to searching within a bank of Flickr photos. The user can add what are called "props", as well as background images and text. For the teacher, Storyjumper would be a great way to create books on seasonal or topical themes and then view them in class on a Smartboard or digital projector. (Here's one I made as a demo.) Unfortunately, there is no embed code. If you think your book is particularly inspired, a nice extra is to have it professionally printed (for a price), or even print it out on your own colour printer. Take some time to look through the books in the gallery. Some will be perfect as is, and some will even let you "remix" the content for your class.

(See the comment from Blake for more information on how to use Storyjumper with your class.)

Magnetic Poetry - Smartboard app?

2010-04-20T14:59:00.000-07:00

Here are another couple of web apps that are fun to try on your Smartboard. Both are from the "Magnetic Poetry" site. This vendor sells a number of boxed sets of magnetic word games. The idea is to make "found poems" on your refrigerator, filing cabinet or any handy metal surface. Using the app on the site, students can "try before they buy", make a poem, and then save the final digital product as a screenshot and perhaps use it on a blog or website. You can even view poems others have created, although the quality is..."uneven".

Older kids
http://www.magneticpoetry.com/poetgame/create.cfm?k=1

Younger kids
http://www.magpo.com/kidspoetry/playonline.cfm

Jeopardy Game - online version

2010-04-13T15:22:00.000-07:00

We all know that that the Jeopardy format (questions & answers on a grid) makes an excellent review activity. Kids enjoy competing individually or in teams, in order to score points. And all the while, they are reinforcing concepts they've learned in class. While there is a way to do this using Powerpoint (there are a number of sites with downloadable templates), Jeopardylabs provides an online app for building presentations. When you visit the site, you have the option of browsing or creating your own. Take a look at a couple of samples to see how it works. (sample) Building a new game is easy. After creating an account, follow the instructions to create question grids and then save them on the site. With the resulting link, teachers can encourage students to "play" at home before coming to class for the big competition.

Lessonwriter

2010-04-07T14:09:00.000-07:00

Occasionally, you may find you need to generate individualized material to help students build confidence in understanding info-text. You want to highlight certain vocabulary words, certain parts of speech or areas of comprehension. You'd even like to be able to embed a graphic organizer or two to help them take notes or focus on what's important. This can be a big job, but every once and a while, there's web tool that just seems made to order. Take a look at Lessonwriter. This site (free login required to use the features) allows the teacher to paste in a chunk of text and then proceed to tailor activities and questions to his/her class. You can even use the same article and generate 2 or 3 different leveled assignments. While it shouldn't replace all other reading activities, it will be welcomed by many teachers. It's cool, and it's free!

Photo Trail - Jazz up your site

2010-03-31T15:18:00.000-07:00

Since we've been looking at photo sites, here's another addition to the list: PictureTrail. This site allows you to upload pics from your computer in order to create custom slideshows with a variety of transition and frame effects. To use it on your blog or website, simply upload the images you want and decide on your look. Once you've added all the "extras" you desire, PT will generate an embed code that you can paste on your target page.

Photo Editing - with an artistic flair

2010-03-18T17:13:00.000-07:00

If you like to have fun tweaking photos you've taken, or you want your class to experiment with artistic effects, take a look at BeFunky. This great site allows you to apply all kinds of effects on photos you've found, or uploaded, and make them truly unique. The range of filters allows the user to generate comic book images, oil paintings, sketches, etc etc. Other little extras include speech bubbles, frames and text. There is a pay version that gives you more options, but the free package still has a lot of power. Create an account and store your creations on the BeFunky servers. Finished products can be shared (Facebook, flickr, picassa et al), printed or even put on shirts, mugs and other gift-type items through the partner site Zazzle. There's even an iTouch app.

Another way to "see" the news.

2010-03-02T14:17:00.000-08:00

For teachers looking for another way to "see" the news, or at least track the big themes, 10x10 offers this unique visual snapshot of the major stories. One hundred images along with the top 100 words give the viewer a glimpse of the news zeitgeist. According to their website:

"Every hour, 10x10 scans the RSS feeds of several leading international news sources, and performs an ... analysis on the text contained in their top news stories. ... The top 100 words are chosen, along with 100 corresponding images, culled from the source news stories. At the end of each day, month, and year, 10x10 looks back through its archives to conclude the top 100 words for the given time period. In this way, a constantly evolving record of our world is formed, based on prominent world events, without any human input."

A great activity might be to have students create their own 10x10, (or maybe 3x3), of the top stories for their area, municipality, school, hobby etc. The results could be shared as a Powerpoint, a webpage or ... even an art installation!

Flashcards online

2010-02-25T14:14:00.000-08:00

While "understanding" a concept is always more desirable than straight memorization, occasionally students need to drill a concept to own it, and that means flashcards! There are a number of great web-based flash card sites out there, but one I like is "FlashCardExchange". This site allows you to create 2 or 3 sided (ie giving hints) cards that you can access from anywhere. There is even a link to an iPhone app that works in conjunction with the site. Whether it's French verbs, or abbreviations for the periodic table, sometimes all you need is a good set of cards. (Teachers can create sets and then have the students use them.)

On-line Reading: Harper Teen

2010-02-17T13:03:00.000-08:00

If you want to encourage reading among your young adult students, you might consider sending them to view publishers sites. Many of them are offering a "browse before you buy" feature, allowing interested students the opportunity to read the first chapter of two of a new or upcoming novel,

Harper Teen lets you do just that! Current offerings are mostly of the "vampire" genre, thanks to Twilight, but there are many others if you dig a little. Enjoy!

Also: check out their podcast. (Interviews with authors, reviews etc.)

No Comic Life installed? - try "Comiqs"

2010-02-10T14:39:00.000-08:00

So, you love Comic Life, but it's not installed in your lab? You're in luck! There are a number of web-based comic creators out there. (I've mentioned a couple of them in previous posts.)

What's great about these apps is that there is no software to install, and as long as you have internet access, and a browser, you're in business.

Here are some of the sites that seem promising:

http://pixton.com/ca/
http://comiqs.com/editor/
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/
http://chogger.com/
http://chogger.com/createfullscreen
http://stripgenerator.com/strip/create/

Both Pixton and Comiqs have great potential, but teachers are advised to check out the sites first in case there is inappropriate content. (Pixton has an education version that allows more control.) Like most of these apps, Comiqs has a login that allows you to save your work and return to it later, and is most like the "Comic Life" application used in many Elementary schools.( Even without the login, students always have the option of creating and taking a screen shot, or printing to the desktop.)

http://comiqs.com/editor/ <--- this is much like Comic Life

Online Pro-D resources: Anneberg Media

2010-02-09T16:04:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, it can be difficult to find just the right Pro-D resource to encourage a colleague.

Anneberg Media has a number of videos and video series (complete with downloadable facilitator materials) that might just fit the bill.

Just look for the "VOD" icon to view clips "on-demand.

Stupeflix: videos on the fly

2010-01-26T13:17:00.000-08:00

Stupeflix offers competition to Animoto as a fun way to create "movie" slideshows of your favourite pics. Where Animoto's strength is a kaleidoscope of transitions, Stupeflix provides a few easy-to-use layouts with the option of captioning each of your images. You upload the pictures and your own soundtrack and, voilà, a nice little package. The free version is limited to 1 minute in length, and while you can share the link, you can't download, unless you use a third party streaming media capture app. If you upgrade to the paid version, then your productions can be much longer and can be downloaded in a couple of different formats (including HD!) Here's a sample from the site: [link]

Wallwisher: collaborative brainstorming

2010-01-15T10:53:00.000-08:00

I like Wallwisher because it works so much like the "post-it" brainstorming exercise so many of us use with staff or students. All you have to do is create a wall, and then send out the link to those who will be collaborating with you. Users can re-arrange the notes, and group them according to themes or sub-topics or what-have-you. One great spin-off is that you have a more permanent record of your brainstorming, instead of a poster with loose notes that tend to fall off and get lost. With a digital projector and a laptop, it makes an engaging way to record group thinking.

Edmodo: microblogging for the classroom

2010-01-05T14:23:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, everyone.

There are so many great Web 2.0 apps, it's almost overwhelming! Here's another one I think might be useful, especially with the explosion of the iTouch devices: edmodo.

"A private social platform for teachers and students to share ideas, files, events and assignments."

What I like about edmodo is that is is a great solution for teachers wanting to create an online community with a bit more security. And, students don't need an email address to sign up; the teacher creates the group, generates a login code and students can quickly register themselves. The teacher can then change the code to prevent "unauthorized" kids from joining. The other bonus is that you can access edmodo via an iTouch.

The Printliminator

2009-12-16T17:25:00.000-08:00

Tired of printing 3 pages of ads and graphics when you only need a portion of one page? Here's another "Bookmarklet" to try.

From the site: "The Printliminator is a bookmarklet with some simple tools you can use to make websites print better. One click to activate, and then click to remove elements from the page, remove graphics, and apply better print styling."

Remove graphics, un-wanted ads, extraneous sections for a cleaner, easier to read print-out.

Free Sounds: Soungle

2009-12-07T15:02:00.000-08:00

As they say on their website: "Soungle is a free site, developed by Southern Codes, for finding all kind of sound FX and musical instruments samples on our mega online library." You can perform a keyword search with the results displayed ten to a page. Clicking on play icon allows you to hear the sound. There is a wide range of sound effects. A short description of the clip appears above every sound, followed by important info such as the frame rate, duration and bit rate. "Remember, all of our sound effects and samples are royalty free for downloading." Great place to find clips for student projects.

"Word Magnets"

2009-12-03T10:06:00.000-08:00

Remember how much fun playing with fridge magnets used to be? This Flash app lets you create fridge magnet word tiles, in any colour you want, and allows you to re-arrange them on the "virtual fridge" door. What I like is that the background design can be changed: Venn diagrams, graphs, columns, range arrows...etc. etc. I think this app would be a great tool for Smartboard users. You can access the on-line version by going to the Triptico Word Magnet site, wait a moment for the "page advance arrow" to load, (lower right hand corner... "NEXT >") and then proceed to the app. (You can also click on the message in the middle of the screen to download a paid version with many great new features.) Great for an anticipation guide exercise.

There is also a short demo clip on Russell Stannard's site (Teacher Training videos) that might give you some ideas.

How to find good educational videos: WatchKnow

2009-11-24T15:38:00.000-08:00

"Wikipedia co-founder launches online educational-video library." Sounds promising, doesn't it?
Larry Sanger, who co-founded the Web site Wikipedia, has launched a site that provides free access to a library of educational videos for students ages 3 to 18. (Most of the clips are from Youtube, it seems, but they are organized in a more 'teacher-friendly' way.) It even gives you the option of filtering for "age appropriateness". Time will tell if the feature works, but it's a great idea!

The site -- www.watchknow.org -- features links to more than 11,000 videos in 2,000 categories that include history, math, science and other subjects. Sanger described it as "YouTube meets Wikipedia."

Videos connected to kids' books (Lit->picture books->)
http://www.watchknow.org/Video.aspx?VideoID=13294

Copyright "friendly" images

2009-11-17T09:54:00.000-08:00

We've all had the problem of searching for the perfect image for a presentation, site or blog, finding it and then not being certain about whether or not it can be used. One solution is to search within images that are already "shared" by their creators. Take a look at "Copyrightfriendly" to view a list of media collections with "generous copyright licensing". As it says on the site "[t]hough you may not need to ask permission to use them when publishing on the Web for educational purposes, you should cite or attribute these images to their creators unless otherwise notified!"

MagSearch - what's on the "free" internet?

2009-11-16T08:39:00.001-08:00

While not exactly a Web 2.0 app, I stumbled across this great site for searching the "free" magazine content that is out there. Available as part of the "Virtual LRC", (created by Michael Bell, former chair of the Texas Association of School Librarians), MagSearch allows the user to search articles in a variety of "student relevant" magazines, and via a directory of social/environmental issues. It's worth a look.

Create your own mini digital books

2009-11-05T19:32:00.000-08:00

I'm always on the look out for interesting web-based apps that can be used on a Smart Board. While Bookr doesn't qualify as an app exactly, it's a fun way for a teacher or teacher-librarian to create content for primary kids, and even allow older kids to develop their own material. (And it's great fun to use a Smart Board or LCD projector to show it to the class.

Taking images from Flickr, the user assembles a multi-page, digitally flippable mini book. Tell a story, illustrate a poem, make an ABC book... be creative! Text can be added to some or all of the pages. (It's even possible to have an image on one side and text filling the facing page.) The final product can be shown from a "bookr" page or embedded onto a class website or blog. Lots of fun.

Here's a sample I "whipped up". (Click on the page corner to flip, or on the black bar at the bottom of the book to open it in full size.)

Ans here's a brief video demo:

French Language "tapes"

2009-10-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

This is not exactly a "web app", but for those teaching French, either in the core program or even Immersion, it's great to have good language models that kids can listen to. For teachers too, especially if you find yourself doing your own French, and you're not a French specialist! The site is called "IE Languages" and features audio from a number of European languages.

The French section (which interests me) has an extensive list of topics, verbs and expressions. While the emphasis is European, rather than Canadian, there's a lot of variety and could be very useful. Here's a listing from one of the units:

101. Camping
102. Special Uses of Devoir
103. Cosmetics / Toiletries
104. Medicine and Hospital
105. Present participle
106. Abbreviations / Slang
107. Past Infinitive
108. In the Ocean
109. To Die
110. In Space
111. Possessive Pronouns
112. Simple Past
113. Make-Believe / Fantasy
114. Religion
115. Music and Art

Writeboard - another collaborative writing space

2009-10-20T20:38:00.000-07:00

If you liked Etherpad (posted last week), then you will probably like Writeboard as well. Setting up a space is much like the other service: 1) Pick a name for your "board", 2) assign a password, 3) and give an email address. You can then email people you want to join, or in the case of a class, simply give out the URL and password so students can log on and begin collaborating.

The "tour" page lists the features of this web-app, and there are a few! For example, you (and others with the PW) can edit the writeboard, (or mark it), export it as plain text or email it. There doesn't seem to be a limit on the number of "invitees". Version tracking is quite good: every time you save a change to a writeboard, a new version of that writeboard is created in the sidebar. (They use an ingenious "dot" system to keep track of the size of the changes.) Not only can you merge and compare changes, but you can discuss the document by leaving remarks in the comments area.

And you can even "subscribe" to the writeboard in RSS and be notified anytime anyone makes a change.

Etherpad - collaborative writing space

2009-10-13T11:12:00.000-07:00

NOTE: Unfortunately, Etherpad has been acquired by Google and is no longer active! PiratePad is an open-source clone.

Piratepad (Piratepad.com) is a shared web-based writing space that students can use to collaborate "instantly". (Think Google docs without the set-up time.) Multiple people can edit the same document simultaneously, with any changes showing instantly on everyone's screen. When you visit the page, you have the option of creating a team site or a public pad. The public item is free, and you are setup as soon as you click on the button. Simply direct participants to the URL that is generated and you're in business! The Public pad will handle up to 16 people at a time. (So, for a full class, you'll need to create 2 public pads.) There is a Pro Edition with more features and better security for $8/user/month, and free for 3 users.

How could you use Piratepad in a class? Students could use it for "instant" collaboration on a script or outline. The resulting work can be emailed, posted on a class blog or saved in a Word document. (You could even paste the text into a Wordle generator to create a visual take on your brainstorming.) Get instant feedback on what is important, or bothersome or inspiring in a lesson by having all students type into a common Piratepad at the end of a class, or at the start, as a warm up.

Working with your Pictures

2009-10-08T08:59:00.000-07:00

Many people (teachers too!) are using Flickr to store and share their images. What many don't know is that "Big Huge Labs" has a 'huge' number of extras that you can do with your pictures. There are a great many options for creating an assignment, or for creating image based material that will liven up your classroom or make your projects a little more fun! You can use photos from your Flickr account or upload them from your computer.

Here are some of the fun things you can do:

Make your own inspirational, funny, parody, sports or other motivational poster. (This is a great way to make "targeted" classroom decorations.) Make a magazine cover. (This could be a first page of a writing assignment or journalism unit.) Make a mosaic from individual images. (Art class?) Make a movie poster. (You choose the photo, titles, and credits. Great for Booktalks or Booktrailers.) Create jigsaw puzzles from your images. (Could be fun for the primary classroom...scan student art and use it!) Create (and print) a pocket-sized photo album. Make an ID card, press pass, name tag, etc. (For clubs, or role
playing.) Create monthly calendars from your class photographs. Turn your student pics into a trading card! (or draw characters from a novel and turn them into trading cards.) Generate a harmonious color palette based on the colors in a photo. (Perfect for an Art assignment.) Choose up to six images, print and fold to create a photo cube. Make a unique CD or iMovie disk cover. (Great for Garageband projects.) Add comic book style captions to your photos.

Check out the link and discover other intriguing applications.

Free font creation: Use your own handwriting

2009-09-27T22:29:00.000-07:00

I have such bad handwriting/printing that I almost always use a keyboard. But sometimes I find that a personal note in Arial or Helvetica seems too "sterile" or stuffy for the context. And I've tried using some of the various handwriting fonts out there, but I know that they are not really my style.

Lo and behold, along comes a great little website that solves the problem. "FontCapture" allows the user to write out the letters of the alphabet once on a sheet that you can download, scan and upload the result and then get a font library that s/he can download and use to create truly "personal" messages. Printing/saving your manuscripts to PDF format gets around the problem of the recipient not having your unique font installed.

Some users have reported problems with the scanning, so you may need to fiddle with your settings before it works perfectly. Although, once you get your own unique font ("gordon" bold), it's all worth it!

For a student with written output problems, this might be a fun application that makes them feel like "one of the gang."

Web-based Sound editing - Myna

2009-09-19T22:47:00.000-07:00

I'm always on the look out for interesting web-based applications, and when Bob W. from my district sent out a link to aviary.com I was quick to take a look. This site offers a complete suite of graphic editing software (image, effects, colour, vector): it's really quite amazing. I was really taken with the audio editor Myna (...everything is named after birds!) and found it to be remarkably like Garage Band. The layout and controls will seem very familiar to Apple users. For kids who are turned on by music editing, this is a great free app. (One caveat with this site is that you are able to see and hear other users' image and audio creations. Depending on the age level of your students, it might be problematic.)

There are great demo videos that show the power of these applications. Here's a teaser:

Text to Speech (Web based)

2009-09-13T17:42:00.001-07:00

For those of us who have enormous quantities of text to read, the dream of being able to convert documents to mp3s and then being able to listen to them on an ipod is a compelling one! Yes, there is software that will do this for you, and there are packages that have uncannily human sounding voices to choose from. But what about web-based applications? SpokenText is a handy little site that allow you to upload a document, or paste in some text and get an mp3 output file. Very handy. The voice quality is not "stellar" but depending on what you're planning to to with the audio file, it's actually not bad at all! I can imagine a scenario where you have a reading-challenged student who needs to have a paragraph read to him, or you would like to send a kid home with a practice file, or you want to create a listening station in your class. SpokenText will take English, French, Spanish and German text. It could be another great tool for your teaching toolbox! (NB: You will need to sign up to use the service - it's free for a demo - and your files are only kept for a day, so you'll need to download them right away. Each demo account is only good for 7 days and 6 recordings. If you like it, it's $30 a year for a "real" account.)

ReadTheWords is another site with similar limitations. (Although, you can only have 30 seconds max.) There is a wider choice of voices, including a female French option in addition to a male voice. I've uploaded 2 samples in the audio players below.

En français!!

TidyRead - for a cleaner page

2009-09-07T22:05:00.000-07:00

Here's another bookmarklet that will help clean up webpages and make reading and/or printing much easier: TidyRead. What I like about this applet is that you can resize the margins or font size on the fly. (There's a menu that appears across the top of the document.) It's really handy for projecting an article on the big screen, without all the "extra" visual clutter. Using it is simply a matter of dragging the icon to your menu bar. When you want to "tidy-read" a site, just click on the link! (There is also a way to use this on the iTouch/iPhone as well. Just follow the instructions on the site.)

eBooks on the iTouch

2009-09-01T08:28:00.000-07:00

Recently, I went out and picked up an iPod Touch. Despite all the fun tools and crazy apps you can acquire, the real reason I bought my device was to read. (At least that's what I'm telling everyone!) We went away for our regular "holiday week by the lake" , and I usually bring a box of books with me. (Usually 20 or 30 titles.) This time, I went the ebook route. Using Stanza for the Mac, I first opened a number of titles on my laptop which then I transferred to my iTouch. The Stanza app on my iPod allows me to view the book in either portrait or landscape, change the font size, and even read at night with the handy "reverse" colour setting. The desktop Stanza will open just about any format: txt, pdf, .lit, epub, etc, and allows you to resave, along with any cover art you might add, into the standard epub form. (I reviewed Stanza in Oct 08, but really like the version that runs on my iTouch!)

What about titles? All the major bookstores sell e-versions of their titles, but I find the prices are still too high for a product that I can't share with friends or read on multiple devices. There are lots of "classics" for free, and I have friends that search the torrents for "epub novels" in order to get their fix. But a great source is "Fictionwise". This e-vendor offers monthly specials on great titles for just a few dollars per title. I subscribe to their e-bulletin.

On the fly photo editing

2009-08-04T16:51:00.000-07:00

Sometimes all you need to do is quickly edit, resize or touch up an image before you use it. But the thought of downloading the jpeg and then launching Photoshop, and then making the changes, saving your work and finally, uploading ... seems like just too much work. Then, along comes "Snipshot". This great web-based freebie allows you to take an image from any webpage, make the changes you need and move on! There is a basic app that allows you to resize, crop, rotate, enhance and "adjust". "Effects" only lets you create a black and white image. There is a Pro version that offers many more features. It might be worth getting if you do lots of image fiddling.

The great thing about Snipshot is that the creators have provided users with a handy bookmarklet that can be dragged to the browser menu bar. This lets you scoop the images from any html page for quick editing.

This is a super application!

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Print What You Like

2009-07-28T13:41:00.000-07:00

So you've found a great idea for a lesson and you just need to print out a section of a webpage. But it has ads, and some parts that aren't relevant. If you print as is, you'll end up with too many pages, or lots of unrelated stuff. I suppose you could launch Word and copy and paste, but that's a hassle too. What to do! Why not try printwhatyoulike.com? The opening page gives you an overview and a big green "demo" button to push. Experiment with the various options and then paste in the page you want to edit. It's a handy, quick way to "print what you like."

Archive that perfect clip

2009-07-07T14:21:00.001-07:00

I've mentioned Keepvid before as a good way to get a backup of that perfect clip. I know some teachers are reluctant to use material from Youtube because they wonder if it will remain accessible from term to term or week to week. All it takes is one time for you to get burned (ie it's not there when you need it, or your school doesn't have enough bandwidth to show it or it's been blocked by your sysadmin) and then you're not so sure!

Keepvid gives you the option of downloading the clip, so at least you have a back-up copy, just in case. The latest cool trick is that Keepvid has now added a "bookmarklet" to their site. All you have to do is drag the little "box" to your menu bar (see graphic below), and then, from now on, any time you see a clip on Youtube you would like to archive, you click your bookmarklet, and "presto", the clip can be downloaded....so easy!

Getting Kids to Write: Penzu

2009-07-03T14:29:00.000-07:00

So what makes a student want to write for a teacher? Is it the connection, or the cool assignment or a quirky topic? I read somewhere that a good writing prompt is worth at least 1000 words. There are some great sites out there that will perhaps inspire you to either create that most excellent prompt, or to at least give a quirky enough assignment that your students might be hooked in.

And where to write it? You can certainly have kids use Word, or write online with Googledocs. Here's another one to explore: Penzu. (See here for the guided tour.)

It's a quick and easy-to-set-up mini-journal and could just the ticket for an on-going writing assignment.

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As a bonus, here are two sites for you to consider if you're looking for prompt ideas:

1. "Six Sentences": This blog is an opportunity for budding authors to write in with carefully crafted mini-stories of six sentences etc. While some of the topics may not be suitable for all audiences (*be warned), there are a great many thoughtful, intriguing and captivating pieces. My suggestion is to maybe use some of the ideas as jumping off points. Or better still, give the class the challenge of writing six sentences a day in something like Penzu. Have a "reading" of works at the end of the term.

Here's an example:

Writer's Block
by Laurita Miller

As a writer, fate has conspired against me. I had a happy childhood devoid of any hardship or tragedy. I have never suffered any horrible illnesses, or struggled with addiction of any sort, nor have I been a victim or perpetrator of any crime. I have no long lost siblings or children, no vengeful lovers, no bitter enemies. I have never been abducted by aliens, and even the neighbour’s nasty little dog refuses to bite me. I am doomed to failure.

6S

2. "First 50 Words": Try to get your reader's attention in the first fifty words. How hard can it be? Can you make them want to read more, to wonder what comes next? Again, some of the stories on the site may not work for your students. I would recommend picking and choosing the ones you think are the most useful, and getting your students to create their own.

Example:

Chorus

June 2, 2009 by first50

The cathedral in Perugia was cool and calm, so I sat down to rest and look at the art. A group of young women walked in. They were dressed in the shorts and walking shoes of travelers. They dropped their backpacks near the altar, lined up, and began to sing. The first piece was Bach. Their voices were strong and beautiful, covering the range from alto to soprano. They sang another song I didn’t recognize in a language I didn’t know. Then they picked up their gear and left. I couldn’t believe something so magical really happened.

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Another Room Designer

2009-06-15T11:06:00.001-07:00

Since the demise of "designmyroom" recently, there are many disappointed users looking for a new place to exercise their designer yearnings.

Mydeco.com has a similar free service for the budding interior artist (but not quite the same slick interface as DMR). The "Planner" module is a fun way to think about area, design, colour etc. Recreate the bedroom of a character from a novel, or imagine a brand new scene. The main website offers options to upload a photo and then "enhance it".

FYI, there is some advertising on the site.

Cut the clutter - Easy to Read

2009-06-08T11:37:00.000-07:00

Some web pages are very attractive and interesting to look at. But sometimes, those same features can make it difficult to read, especially for a student who may be easily distracted. Along comes a great tool by arc90: the "readability" bookmarklet. Much like "Quietube", you drag the icon from arc90's page to your browser's button bar. Then, as you visit pages, you can "de-clutter" them by simply clicking on your "readability" button. Arc90 give you the option of selecting font sizes, page width and presentation style. You can even email or print the "clean" version!

Quietube - Youtube lite

2009-06-05T14:10:00.000-07:00

Bookmarklets are "min-apps" you drag to your browser button bar, that allow you to automate certain tasks that you perform again and again. (Here's a site with some common examples: https://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/)

At a Metro tech meeting this week, Sandra from Langley passed on a great bookmarklet for Youtube users. Quietube strips away all the distracting side-bar material, and shows just the video clip itself (much like it would appear embedded in its own page.) It supports Youtube, BBC iPlayer, Viddler and Vimeo.( with more to come...)

Another great feature, is that Quietube generates a new URL you can email or link to that points to the stripped down page. Very slick!

Audio From Youtube

2009-05-25T09:16:00.000-07:00

Occasionally, I'll find a Youtube clip of a lecture or presentation that has an audio track I want to listen to on my iPod, or perhaps I want to add a little piece to an iMovie I'm making. The "low-tech" way is to plug in earbuds, hold one earphone up to the computer's mic, and "play" the clip while iMovie records it. It works, but it's pretty low fidelity! Enter "ListentoYouTube": this site allows you to extract the audio as a downloadable mp3 file.

There is an advisory on the site that there are have been problems with the latest Youtube version, but I used LTYT successfully this past week: it worked like a charm.

(BTW, there are some pop-ups associated with this site, so you might want to have your pop-up blocker set to "stun"!)

You paste in the URL of the clip you want. The app chugs away for a bit, and then you'll get a link to click. This will open a new page; choose the ">>download mp3" link and you're in business. If you're on a Mac, you can choose to open the file in iTunes, and then put it on your iPod....or what ever.

It's really useful if you come across a Youtube clip of a lecture series, and you want to "take it with you" for listening later.

Schedules and Choices: Doodle

2009-05-19T18:51:00.000-07:00

Have you ever tried to get a number of people to agree on a date by sending them an email? After multiple mail messages, each with its own history or updated status, everyone can be quite confused about the final date (or time.)

The same can be true with asking a group to make a choice: Chinese food, Italian or Spanish? Vacation in Maui, Montreal or Europe? What's the best gift for Mom and Dad?

My suggestion is to try DOODLE. You create a set of choices and then email the URL to all participants. They can then add themselves, add their choice and the app keeps track of the results.

You could use this with a class to help them define a study question or refine a project direction. Or even for students to arrange a get-together for teamwork.

TIMEGLIDER - timeline maker

2009-05-06T11:27:00.000-07:00

TIMEGLIDER is an easy-to-use, fully featured timeline maker that makes professional, scalable graphic representations of chronological events. Perfect for a student to use, and suitable even for a professional "stand and deliver".

You can add dates, images and links and even view 2 timelines simultaneously. How could you use this? A student could map events in a novel against real world events in the same time period, compare the rise of two civilizations, or show the unfolding of a major historical incident.

In order to use this great app, you will need to create an account (an email address is required.)

The Worldbook online (available in many school districts) also has a timeline gereator that has some similar features.

Timeline generators are just one more interesting way to allow kids to demonstrate their learning and thinking.

Capture that Youtube vid

2009-04-24T09:36:00.000-07:00

So you've found that perfect video clip that illustrates the concept you want to introduce to the class. You've made a note of the Youtube address, or the embed code and are ready to show it to your class. You've connected the projector, fired up Firefox, and *disaster*, Youtube is blocked in your district!

What to do? This is where Voobys comes in handy. (There are a couple of other sites that work in a similar way: www.keepvid.com for example.)

Here's what you do:
(adapted from: http://www.wikihow.com/Download-YouTube-Videos-Using-Voobys)

Go to http://www.youtube.com/
Type your search term in the search bar.
Click on the video link so that it loads in the current window.
As soon as you're on the desired page, go to the Address bar (where you typed in www.youtube.com) and just erase the word "youtube", substituting for it for the word "voobys".
Download the video. This will take you to a page that allows you to download the video. Click the "Download Video" link that and choose the "save as" destination.

The resulting file can be burned to a CD or played directly from your computer.

Of course, you'll have to do all this from your home computer, if Youtube is blocked at your school. (As an additional ironic note, Voobys is unaccessible from my work site!)