66 Edtech Resources You May Have Missed–Treasure Chest September 18, 2011

by Jeffrey Thomas on September 17, 2011

Welcome to this week’s edition of Treasure Chest—66 EdTech Resources You May Have Missed.

It’s really difficult to keep up with all that happens in educational technology. This is my attempt to make it just a little easier. I post a Treasure Chest every Sunday!

Featured

Twittering and Tweeting: A Sticky Web for Schools | Hugh Burke–Certainly, there are some advantages to computer use in our schools. However, there are also some significant disadvantages.
What teachers want parents to understand | BabyCenter–Ron Clark, an award winning teacher from Atlanta, has a few things to say to parents about how they can help, rather than hinder, their kids’ teachers…
The Innovative Educator: Parents Take Issue with Advice of ‘Super Teacher’ Ron Clark–This article by Ron Clark drives me to tears. I know teachers have a tough job and many are doing their very best within this system. However, I have to speak on behalf of parents when it comes to this article.
Avenue4Learning – What CARING Teachers Want To Tell Parents–Here’s the main problem that I have with an article like this… and I know a lot of my friends agreed with the article, retweeting, posting on Facebook, and shouting out an “Amen” after reading it. Please don’t take this as a personal attack. Hear me out first.
7 Stories From Educators About Teaching In The Flipped Classroom | Emerging Education Technology–Informed articles and commentary on this powerful and often misunderstood concept. The University of Wisconsin’s Stout School of Education publishes a…
Make BYOD Meaningful « doug – off the record–How can we make that device so useful, so personal, so important that it becomes a crucial part of their educational lives?
What the iPad (and other technology) can’t replace in education – The Answer Sheet – The Washington Post–We have become focused so much on new technological devices and what they can do, we forget what they can’t, and that’s a problem when it comes to education.
The Innovative Educator: Top Ten Ed Tech Issues This School Year–I was recently asked what I saw as the top ed tech issues this year. Here are the first things that came to mind.
Does Our Education System Stifle Future Lady Gagas? – Education – GOOD–A too-narrow view on what skills are “useful” to American society could eliminate a generation of artistic prodigies like Lady Gaga.
YouTube Introduces Video Editing Feature–YouTube users are being offered a new feature that allows them to edit their videos onsite starting Wednesday.
The One Facebook Feature You Must Activate Right Now–Here’s how to activate Facebook’s new profile review.
Public education’s biggest problem gets worse – The Answer Sheet – The Washington Post–The number of American children living in poverty just got worse — 22 percent — and that has big implications for school reform.
50 Best Blogs for Online Educators | Online Colleges–We’ve collected a great reading library for any online educator who wants to learn more, develop professionally, and connect with others in the field.
Facebook Subscribe Button: What It Means for Each Type of User–Should the average Facebook user be concerned about the new Subscribe button? What about journalists or public figures? What about fan pages for personalities? Here’s a breakdown of what’s under the hood.
White House details plans for more digital learning – USATODAY.com–The White House will unveil plans Friday for a research center that aims to bring more digital learning into the nation’s classrooms.
Adapting to the iPad, called education’s ‘equalizer’ – USATODAY.com–iPads are growing in popularity for special-needs students because they can be customized to each child’s needs, educators and parents say.
Free Technology for Teachers: About Reusing Blog Posts – How to do it properly–I often come across blogs that are reusing the content of other blogs without the author’s permission. Unfortunately, I’ve even seen this done by school technology integrators, school administrators, and teachers

Tools

Free PowerPoint Add-On Creates Superb Timeline Charts–If you use PowerPoint, then Office Timeline is a free add-in that may interest you. It’s designed to help you create project timelines.
10 Great Apps to Convert Audio & Video Files in Linux–With the different audio and video formats available, there is often the need to inter convert amongst them – sometimes for quality and sometimes for…
Educational Technology Guy: 5 Free utilities for Windows – very useful and powerful–Windows comes with some utilities that allow you to perform different maintenance on the system, but the included versions are not always the best.
10 Tools to Protect Computer from Infected USB Flash Drives–We use it on regular basis; it conveniently helps us to transfer files from desktop to/from laptops or even share its content with our peers.
SkyDrive Wave 5 to offer unlimited photo and document storage | Ubergizmo–If you use SkyDrive for storing your photos and documents, you’ll be pleased to know that Microsoft will be making [...]
Protocol.By – Let People Know The Best Way To Get In Touch With You–The average internet user has one email account and uses two social networks, which all mean there’s more than one way to get in touch with someone
16 Avatar Generators for Profile Pictures and more | The Whiteboard Blog–If you are blogging with students – it’s recommended that you don’t use real photographs of the students. A fun alternative is to create a cartoon avatar
Aviary arms mobile apps with photo editing tools — Tech News and Analysis–Thought you’d seen enough mobile photo apps? Well, Aviary has some different ideas. The New York City-based developer of advanced creative tools for photo, design and audio, is now bringing its web photo editing tools to mobile developers through an SDK for iPhone and Android devices
iLearn Technology » Blog Archive » Flake Pad: Create geometric, symmetrical shapes–Flake Pad is a very simple little website that lets students create geometric snowflakes using basic shapes and a grid
Explore Moon Phases with Sun Moon Scope | The Whiteboard Blog–Sun Moon Scope is an interactive tool looking at the Sun and Moon from the makers of Solar System Scope. It allows you to show the positions of the Sun…
Quick Screen Share Makes Sharing Desktops with Anyone Free and Easy–The team behind Screencast-o-Matic, one of your top five screen recording services, also have a new side project: Quick Screen Share, a webapp that uses Java to connect you and a friend’s computers together so you can share desktops, collaborate, or troubleshoot problems and issues

How-To

How to design Greeting Cards in Microsoft Publisher 2010? | The Windows Club–This tutorial will tell you how to design and create Greeting Cards using Microsoft Office Publisher 2010.
Installing a Wireless Printer In Your Home Network | Windows 7 Tutorials–Installing and configuring a wireless printer requires a lot more work than installing a traditional printer. And this is where this tutorial comes in – to guide you through all the important steps.
Reflections of a Teacher and Learner: Voicethread: How do you use it with your students?–Please leave your suggestions and help me demonstrate to my colleagues how this web 2.0 resource works.
Create Panoramic Pictures by Stitching Photos in Windows Live Photo Gallery | Windows 7 Tutorials–Learn how to stitch photos together so that you create panoramic images with your digital camera and Windows Live Photo Gallery.
How to Make a Clean Installation of Windows 8 | Windows 7 Tutorials–Where to download the latest test version (developer preview), how to burn it to a disc, how to install Windows 8 and how to go through the initial configuration screens.
How to add a Subscribe Button to your Facebook Profile–You can add the Subscribe button to your own Facebook personal profile to let non-friends see your public updates on Facebook.
How to Dual-Boot Windows 7 and Windows 8 Side By Side–The Windows 8 developer preview is out for all to try, but installing it over your main Windows setup is a scary (and unrealistic) prospect. Here’s how to dual boot Windows 8 with your current Windows 7 installation so you can run them both side by side
How To Remotely Control Your Windows PC via Android Device [Guide]–And you thought your expensive wireless desktop mouse and keyboard were sweet? Own an Android device? Well then, your mobile device is about to give your
The Complete Guide To Window 8 Task Manager; New Features And Options–Windows Task Manager is one Windows feature which hasn’t seen a lot of improvement and additions in a long time
How To Install Windows 8 On VirtualBox–So you downloaded Windows 8 Developer Build and now want to try it out on VirtualBox but are constantly getting errors? You are not alone. Installing Windows 8
How to Burn Files and Folders to a Disc in Windows Explorer | Windows 7 Tutorials–With so many applications available for burning CDs or DVDs, Windows 7 users tend to forget the simplest and cheapest of them all: Windows Explorer itself. This article will show how easy it is to burn files to a CD or DVD with Windows Explorer.
Useful Google Search Tricks–Five useful Google search tips for everyone to use.
How to Speed Up Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010 – How-To Geek–Is Word behaving sluggishly, slowing you down? There are a various reasons why Word may be slowing down, but you can easily change some settings to speed it up.
What Are Browser Extensions or Add-ons and How to Install Them?–Guiding Tech For Beginners: What Are Browser Extensions or Add-ons and How to Install Them?
How To Use The New Facebook Lists (And Why You Should)–Today we turn out attention to another new feature that Facebook launched this week: improved friend lists. It’s a direct response to the Circles feature of Google Plus, which enables you to put your friends into lists. The new Facebook lists are definitely an improvement; and Facebook even gets one over Plus
Docs Blog: +1 button in Google Sites–We have been thrilled with the response to the launch of the +1 button on websites all across the web, but we also heard that you’d like a simple way to add the +1 button to your own Google Sites.
How to set up a QR Code Treasure Hunt–How to set up a QR Code Treasure Hunt: History games, revision quizzes and worksheets for KS3, GCSE and A-Level school children!

iOS

Mac News: iPad: The iPad’s Powerful Academic Potential–My gut response when I heard that some school districts are rolling out iPads to elementary, middle and high school kids was, “Wow, lucky little goobers.” And that reaction was quickly followed by, “Wait a minute, iPads? What’s wrong with a good old fashioned textbook? Are schools going to start showing 30-second video clips as a teaching method now?”
7 Awesome (and Free) Note-Taking Apps For the iPad–The default iPad note-taking app is very limiting. Here is a seven of the best apps that provide additional functionality to make your note-taking even more productive.
OfficeDrop Unveils iPad 2 App for Tablet-Based Document Scanning–OfficeDrop, makers of the previously mentioned ScanDrop for Mac, unveiled its new free iPad app this morning that allows you to use your iPad 2′s camera to scan documents, run character recognition on them, and upload them to OfficeDrop.
Sporting News for iPad Released | iPad Feed–For sports fans, the Sporting News is a pretty incredible resource. Create your account, identify your favorite sports and best-loved teams and by 5am E.T.
The Best Mind Mapping App for iPhone and iPad goes Free–With Mindjet, you can create mind maps, capture notes or brainstorm ideas on your iPhone or iPad. This awesome mind-mapping app is now free.
10 Best Back To School iPhone And iPad Apps – 10 Essential iPad Apps For School Students | Ayushveda.com–Gone are the days when the students in classes used to boast about their spiral exercise books and decorative book covers. Today the touchscreen iPod and iPads
5 Things Apple Can Learn From Third Party iPad Web Browsers–For all the wonders of Apple’s iPad, one feature that’s always been a little underwhelming is its native Web browser

ICTAC MEMO iPhone Apps for Education

Miscellaneous

Is Math Education Too Abstract? | MindShift–“There is widespread alarm in the United States about the state of our math education,” wrote Sol Garfunkel and David Mumford in an op-ed in The New York Times last month.
10 Free Lectures by “The Great Courses” (in a Sea of Free Courses) | Open Culture–You have got to hand it to The Great Courses (sometimes also called The Teaching Company). Based in Chantilly, VA, the company has traveled across America…
20+ Little-Known Places To Get Free Premium Stock Images – Edudemic–Looking for that perfect piece of vivid imagery to make your bulletin board, website, or blog stand out? Just check out any of the following stock image resources and you’re on your way
List of Useful Websites to Download eBooks for Free | blueblots.com–We have compiled a List of Useful Websites to Download eBooks for Free. Search now your favorite book from these sites and read, carry them wherever you go at your most convenient time. Enjoy!
How Digitally Connected Are the U.S. News Top 20 Colleges?–Discover which U.S. News-ranked college campuses live up to the growing trends in social media.
Windows Live Skydrive To Get Full On Integration In Windows 8–Windows Live Skydrive will get a full on integration in Windows 8 with no limitation on the number of photos and documents which you can sync. All your precious files will remain accessible from any computer, as along as you are connected to the Internet and have a Windows Live user account
10+ Education Influencers You Should Follow Right Now – Edudemic–When you click on the Education topic page (if you’re logged in), you’ll be greeted by a sort of Top 10 list of influencers in education. Who is on the list? Well, it varies day-by-day but the list is not that surprising if you’ve spent some time on the education side of social networks
BBC News – Pupils ‘can help teach each other to read and do maths’–Research suggests children as young as seven can help teach each other to read and do maths through peer tutoring sessions.
12+ Sites Every Kindle Owner Should Really Know About–Seeing how Amazon is probably launching their new reader/tablet device in the next couple of months and recently produced their ingenious Cloud Reader, the Kindle is a hot topic for a lot of people. Even after a multitude of other tablets have surfaced after its birth, the Kindle remains a great e-book reader gadget and of course, still packs a lot of potential for reading enthusiasts.
BBC News – Henry Winkler, the Fonz in Happy Days, appointed OBE–Henry Winkler, who played the Fonz on US sitcom Happy Days, is awarded an honorary OBE at the British embassy in Washington for his work on dyslexia.
Students Can Now Create Wi-Fi Hotspots For Free With Connectify [News]–Connectify is offering free accounts until October 15th to students with .edu addresses, allowing them to set up free Wi-Fi hotspots for their devices
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org: What is the difference?–WordPress is an open source and free blogging software. WordPress.org is the home of the software while WordPress.com is the hosted service of the software. The difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org causes some confusion for newbie bloggers. Here are the facts: