Happy Easter to all those who celebrate it.
The big news in the tech world this week was not what worked but what DIDN’T work! Amazon’s cloud collapse illustrated how much we have come to rely on cloud services. For a couple of opinions on what this all means take a look at the two posts below:
- What We Can Learn From Amazon’s Cloud Collapse–The collapse of Amazon’s Cloud is a setback for cloud computing & an opportunity for us to figure out how to stop it from happening again.
- Amazon Malfunction Raises Doubts About Cloud Computing – NYTimes.com–Companies are expected to reassess backup and recovery after the interruption at Amazon Web Services.
As usual, I have gathered resources from the past week that you may have missed. I publish a Treasure Chest ever Sunday!
Featured
- A Better Way to Teach Math – NYTimes.com–A grade-school math program based on the assumption that all children can achieve a high level of understanding.
- 24 Free Kindergarten.com Apps–For the month of April, these 24 flashcard apps are free from Kindergarten.com. Read why, and find out how to get them, here at The Education Technology Blog.
- Free Technology for Teachers: Mashpedia, the Real-time Encylopedia, Adds Qwiki Element–Mashpedia is a real-time encyclopedia that publishes reference pages comprised of information from the social web
- Public school teacher: 13 reasons I’m outraged – The Answer Sheet – The Washington Post–A public school teacher of more than 30 years explains why she has gone from angry to outraged about the shape of education policy and its effects on students.
- What Countries Value Teachers? And How Much? What Are They Worth? | Almost 60? Really?–Whoa! This infographic tells me a lot about how teachers are valued (or not) in the U.S. What about in the rest of the world? Are teachers worth anything at all?
- The Evolution of Classroom Technology – Edudemic–Classrooms have come a long way. There’s been an exponential growth in educational technology advancement over the past few years. From overhead projectors to iPads, it’s important to understand not only what’s coming next but also where it all started.
- To Reform Education, Reform PD. « My Island View–It seems that most educators have an opinion on PD. There are so many aspects of this subject that one post will not cover it all. It may however, be able to at least frame a discussion.
- National Geographic Education – National Geographic Education–National Geographic Education brings geography, social studies and science to life. Using real-world examples and National Geographic’s rich media, educators, families, and students learn about the world and the people in it.
- 10 Podcasts for Teachers and Kids | Scholastic.com–Podcasts as fun and educational for children as they are for you
- Four mistakes educators make when integrating technology into instruction–Technology should never be the lead actor in the play. It should always be the supporting actor for good instruction.
- Essential Facebook Etiquette: 10 Dos and Don’ts–The following etiquettes are therefore not something which we should all strictly abide to. Rather, I must emphasize that they are purely guidelines to enhance our social interactions and experience with Facebook.
- US Rep: iPad is “Responsible for Eliminating Thousands of American Jobs” – Technology News by ExtremeTech–During the recent congressional budget debates, US Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. blamed the iPad for shuttering Borders bookstores and an overall assault on “jobs associated with paper.”
- Top 40 Useful Sites To Learn New Skills–The web is a powerful resource that can easily help you learn new skills. You just have to know where to look
- President Obama talks tech, budget, deficit at Facebook – USATODAY.com–President Obama talks tech, budget, deficit at Facebook – USATODAY.com
- The Chomsky School of Language [INFOGRAPHIC] | Voxy Blog
- Does the Internet Help or Harm the Environment? [INFOGRAPHIC]–Is the time we spend online hurting the planet more than we suspect?
- Our Exclusive Easter Freebie: Free Photography Tips E-Book
Tools
- Trunk.ly now an even better Delicious replacement with improved social search – TNW Apps–Now the search side of the service has been improved. You’re now able to search links shared by friends and even by every Trunk.ly user, and results can be filtered down to videos, images and even location checkins.
- WriteBoard: A Free Note-Taking Web App That Supports Collaboration and Exporting–Writeboard is an excellent note taking app which let people take notes on virtual write-boards and share them with friends.
- Google’s ‘Map Maker’ Now Lets You Edit Google Maps In The United States–Meet Google Map Maker. The feature is pretty self-explanatory: it allows users to create (or, in the case of the US, edit) Google Maps, and it’s already had a major impact worldwide. Edits are submitted by users, and after a moderation process, they’re added to Google Maps.
- 5 Cool Sites to Learn Touch Typing For Free–Want to learn touch typing for free? Check out these 5 Cool sites that offer touch typing lessons and tutorials.
- 2 Effective Ways To Browse Through Your Google Reader Feeds–Google Reader is free, offers unlimited features and is very flexible. It also has a very powerful search platform that makes it easy to explore your feed archives
- Round-Up Of 20 Most Useful Open Source Software–Open source is a term which is a common knowledge of all, it’s cherished by few and most use it without knowing that they are using the open source
- 4 Useful Sites to Make Free (or Very Cheap) International Calls–Check out these 4 Useful Sites to Make Free (or Very Cheap) International Calls
- The 5 Best Firefox 4 Addons For Tabbed Browsing–Apart from addons, the single most influential browser development during the past decade was tabbed browsing, which started as an extension itself.
- EdTech Toolbox: Prezi Cheat Sheet
- A Principal’s Reflections: Chrome Extensions for Educators–These free extensions not only optimize my Internet experience, but also provide a great deal of enhanced functionality to my work as an educator (especially as a blogger).
How-To
- Top 7 Websites to Teach Kids About Internet Safety–The following websites are some of the best resources that parents and teachers can use to introduce kids to some of the things they need to be careful about when they are spending time on the Internet
- Free Technology for Teachers: Using Google Sites in Second Language Instruction (Guest Blog Post)–All of my students have their own accounts that I can control. This has revolutionized how I teach and interact with my students.
- How to Use Google Like a Pro – Smart Tips and Tricks
- How to Link to a Specific Part within a Web Page–Learn about a useful app that lets you link directly to any specific paragraph or line of text on a web page
- How to Change Default Browser or Make Firefox, Chrome, IE Default Browser)–Learn How to Change Default Browser or Make Firefox, Chrome or Internet Explorer as your Default Browser.
- 4 Ways To Reduce The Size Of A PDF File–Lately, I’ve been trying to scan my class notes and handouts, and transfer some e-textbooks so I can view them on my Kindle to save myself carrying too much
- How to Use Dropbox as a Killer Collaborative Work Tool–If you work with a group of people, you’ve most likely needed to share or collaborate on files from time to time. It’s rarely as easy and straightforward as it ought to be, but using file-syncing utility Dropbox, you can configure a collaborative shared file space that removes most of the hassle from the equation
- 4 Advanced Dropbox Tips and Tricks–Need more advanced Dropbox tips and tricks? Check them out here.
- Convert Web Documents to PDF with Google Docs Viewer–This tutorial describes how you may convert web files of any format, including Word documents, XLS, Photoshop, PowerPoint Presentations, etc. to PDF format using Google Docs Viewer.
- Using Windows Journal – Beyond the Basics | Windows 7 Tutorials–In our first tutorial about Windows Journal, we learned how to get started with Windows Journal, create and save notes, and convert handwriting to text. In this tutorial, we’ll cover some more advanced topics like making templates and sending Windows Journal notes as emails.
- Restart the Explorer.exe Process Correctly in Windows–You may think that you need to restart your computer in order for registry changes to take place. Not necessarily. Restarting the explorer.exe process performs the same function
- How to Permanently Delete Files from Dropbox–This video tutorial explains how you may permanently delete files and folders from Dropbox servers so that they cannot be restored or accessed later.
iOS
- 5 Free iPad Calculator Apps | Free Software–Here are 5 Free calculator apps for iPad. These include normal calculator, as well as scientific calculator apps for iPad.
- Watch The Videos Your Friends Are Sharing With Showyou [iPad/iPhone]–When it comes to my iPad, probably my favorite thing to do with it is watching videos. It’s the perfect device for video watching and Flipboard is one popular app that makes use of the iPad’s big screen. Showyou is like the Flipboard of video and is one of the coolest iPad apps I’ve come across in a while.
- Another 6 Free iPad & iPhone Games You Should Be Playing–This month, we have an eclectic mix of both old and new, clones of well-loved games and some unique fresh ideas – a little bit of something to suit everyone. Be sure to check out the previous article in the series too.
- Keep Up With Trending News On Your iPad With Hitpad–If you use your iPad as a way of keeping up with the latest news, videos, tweets and more, there’s a new app that brings all of those features together in one place.
- Collect Videos To Watch Later On Your iOS Device Using Squrl–Squrl takes watching and sharing videos to a new level. Compatible with both the iPhone and iPad, Squrl is part social network and part bookmark service, like Instapaper or Read it Later, but for videos
- Make Safari Load Faster in iOS with a Custom Home Screen Shortcut–Whenever you open Safari on iOS, it tries to load your last session. This is sometimes really helpful, but other times can be annoying, since you have to wait for your old page to load. Here’s how to bypass that.
- Dropbox App Update Lets You Bulk Upload Photos and Video. Hurrah!–This 1.4 update will save you so much time, if you use Dropbox on iPhone or iPad. You can now upload photos and video in bulk; import files from Mail, Word and other apps, and even choose the folder to save them to
- Qwiki for iPad on the iTunes App Store–Learn more, read reviews, and download Qwiki by Qwiki on the iTunes App Store.
- 11 iPad Apps For Meetings And Presentations : Technology :: American Express OPEN Forum–Meetings and presentations are a way of life in the business world and there’s nothing worse than dragging around a bunch of files and equipment
- Daily Tip: How to turn off Locations Services for iPhone, iPad | TiPb–Paranoid about your location being known and curious how to turn off any iPhone tracking that might be going on?
Miscellaneous
- 20 Interesting Facts About Youtube [Infograph]
- Online Comics and Graphic Novels–With these comics you can use them for comprehension activities, use them as stimulus to give students ideas when they are making their own, you can also look at characters, setting and the plot of the comic.
- Beg, Borrow, But Please Don’t Steal: How to Share E-Books at School | EduKindle–Getting the books you buy onto as many readers as possible is a matter of great interest to educators
- 26 Learning Games for Change | Serious Games | Online Learning Games–Looking for a great list of serious, educational games aimed at sparking social change?
- 53 Things To Post On Your School’s Facebook Fan Page–You’ve created a Facebook Fan Page for your school – now what? Here are 53 things to post on your school’s Facebook fan page.
- ShowMe – Interactive learning community with the best teachers in the world–ShowMe is an open learning community featuring interactive lessons on a variety of topics. We make it easy for teachers to reach students across the globe.
- Google Adds a YouTube Transfer Button for Google Video Accounts
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