Welcome to this week’s edition of Treasure Chest—90 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
- 106 Excuses That Prevent You From Ever Becoming Great–Be honest. How often do you sabotage yourself?
- At Waldorf School in Silicon Valley, Technology Can Wait – NYTimes.com–The Waldorf School’s computer-free environment has become a draw for parents at high-tech companies like Google.
- Deeply Disappointed: Responding to the New York Times article on Waldorf education and technology–Its philosophy about the exclusion of technology in the lower grades I can accept, up to a point; I think there are perfectly good and logical reasons to reduce or minimize technology in the early years of learning, though I draw the line in a different place than does Waldorf (a difference of degree) and I don’t draw it quite so absolutely in my own educational vision.
- Will · Make it Stop. Please.–Make it Stop. Please. I came across a 9th grade unit test on ancient history and Islam recently. One hundred point test. Forty-five multiple choice worth two points each, then choose one of five essay…
- Why Chomsky is wrong about Twitter – Social Media – Salon.com–When the linguist claims that social media is “shallow,” he isn’t very deep or convincing
- An Educator’s Voice « My Island View–Yesterday, I participated in a wonderful public discussion on Education. The best part about this discussion was that it was with predominantly real educators, people who actually teach, volunteering their time and expertise on the subject of education.
- Educators – Google Plus Is For You–If you’re an educator and you haven’t yet started experimenting with how Google+ might be the next best most amazing and awesome collaboration tool to help your classes do good work, then you’re missing out.
- Social Media Policy – YouTube–A short video for staff of the Department of Justice (Victoria, Australia) explaining the key elements of their social media policy.
Social Media Policy
- Google Plus as a Storytelling Platform–One great value of Google+ is that it makes a great platform for cultivating visibility
- Bill and Melinda Gates on Teacher Evaluation – WSJ.com–America’s schoolteachers are some of the most brilliant, driven and highly skilled people working today—exactly the kind of people we want shaping young minds. But they are stuck in a system that doesn’t treat them like professionals.
- Students using Facebook in your class? Better try a bit harder — Tech News and Analysis–The amount of time that university students spend online during class is directly proportional to the quality of their teachers, argues an editorial writer for the Harvard Crimson, in part because the web has disrupted the traditional gatekeeper role that professors used to hold in education.
- Will the Real Digital Native Please Stand Up? — Campus Technology–A decade after the term ‘digital native’ was first popularized, educators examine what the term means today–if anything.
- Districts are still fearful of teachers communicating with students using Facebook | Dangerously Irrelevant–I just heard from the superintendent of yet another school district that’s struggling with whether to allow its teachers to connect with
- Districts are still fearful of YouTube | Dangerously Irrelevant–Yesterday it was Facebook. Today it’s YouTube. Here’s an email exchange between two district technology coordinators…
- When School Web Filtering Comes Home | MindShift–As more schools begin to implement one-to-one computer programs, providing each student with a laptop or a net-book or even an iPad, there are new wrinkles in thinking about CIPA. After all, these devices are meant to be used at school and at home
- Schools and Libraries Still Living in Dial-Up Age | MindShift–Remember the agony of waiting for a Web site to load, before broadband was widely available? According to a recent survey, a lot of American schools and libraries are still living in that era.
- Social Media, More or Less « My Island View–There are many who fail to recognize this, and continue to believe that somehow, someone must approve the use of social Media in order for it to be acceptable in our education system.
- The Benefit and Danger of Education Technology – Edudemic–While some technologies such as the computer were adopted early on, a reluctance to embrace change coupled with a lack of funding has resulted in a continuing dependence on chalkboards and other anachronistic technologies.
- The Innovative Educator: Ideas for Bringing Your Own Device (BYOD) Even If You Are Poor–When the topic of bring your own device comes up, one of the first complaints we often hear, is “What about the have nots.”
- Google+ adds powerful photo editing suite, free–Google has added some impressive photo editing tools to the desktop version of Google+.
Tools
- Viewbix Easily Add Captions and Titles to Your Videos–Applications, tutorials, ideas, educational games, mobile apps, and web tools to help you integrate technology into education and enhance mobile learning
- Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 3 Released–Microsoft yesterday has released Service Pack 3 for their Microsoft Office 2007 suite
- GeoGebra 4.0 now available Mathematics and Multimedia–The release of GeoGebra 4.0.
- 4 Great Places to Find And Download Portable Applications–Looking for portable applications? Here are 4 great places you should check out to find and download portable applications for Windows.
- Five free tools to keep your Windows PC running malware-free | TechRepublic–It’s a constant battle, the protection of a PC against malicious software. The second you think you have your machine clean, something else happens
- SnagIt screen capture plugin for Windows Live Writer | The Windows Club–Download Free SnagIt screen capture plugin for Windows Live Writer. It makes it it easier to capture, edit and embed images from within Windows Live Writer.
- 4 Web Apps To See What’s Trending On Facebook (And Other Social Sites)–How do you as a user discover the great content that’s being shared across the millions of pages on Facebook?
- A Round-up of Great HTML5 Web Apps | blueblots.com–We bring to you right now a List of Great HTML5 Web Apps we found in the internet.
- 10 more useful portable apps that a Windows user must carry. | The Windows Club–Looking for some portable apps download? Here is a list of useful portable apps for a Windows user.
- 20 Mac Apps For Everyone To Help Increase Productivity–Here are our top 20–to do lists, documents, spreadsheets, task management and other productive office applications.
- The Best Free Web 2.0 Tools for Schools — THE Journal–The term Web 2.0 has been around a while. Some may even consider it passe. Nevertheless, according to Steve Dembo, there’s still something to say about the topic.
How-To
- Using Twitter in High School Classrooms – The Tempered Radical–One of the best professional experiences I’ve had in a long time happened at my Teaching the iGeneration workshop in Cincinnati this week. You see, I had the distinct pleasure of working with a super motivated team of teachers from…
- How To Curate Conversations With Storify–I want to tell you about one of my favorite things on the Internet. Storify is the best way to gather tweets, comments, snippets and images from all around the Web and put them into one post
- Embedding stuff: the missing manual « Lisa’s (Online) Teaching Blog–Here are YouTube videos on embedding a Slideshare slidecast into Blackboard, Moodle and WordPress
- Connecting to Your Windows Live Mesh Computers from a Web Browser | 7 Tutorials–I will cover a great feature I recently discovered: the ability to make remote desktop connections from a web browser. If you are using Windows Live Mesh this is done very easily. Let’s see how it works.
- 10 Essential First Steps When Starting A WordPress Blog–Having created quite a few blogs, I’d like to think that I have a good system down for those essential first steps, and I hope it can be of use to you too
- Turn A Digital Photo Into An Amazing Painting–Here’s a novel twist on those web sites that offer to turn your digital photo into something that looks like an oil painting.
- Use This Undocumented Keyboard Shortcut for Faster Text Editing in Windows–There are many keyboard shortcuts in Windows, including some that are undocumented.
- How to Edit Video on the Cheap | PCWorld–Great high-definition camcorders are expensive, but excellent video-editing software doesn’t have to be. Here’s how to use free software to give your videos a professional look.
- How to Get Started With Twitter Chats–One way to target your audience and expand your reach is the daily exercise your social media accounts should be getting by doing text chats with others in …
- GT For Beginners: Understanding the Windows 7 Control Panel–A Beginners Guide to the Windows 7 Control Panel.
- Video Conference Etiquette for Dummies | Video | Entrepreneur.com–Video calls come with their own set of rules, which boils down to: Remember, everyone in the meeting can see you. The Esquire Guy explains.
- How to use mobile devices in the classroom | Teacher Network Blog | Guardian Professional–Michael Gove may not be a fan but can mobile phones and other devices transform classroom experiences?
- How to Enable Google+ For Google Apps Customers–Google+ is now available for Apps users. If you have domain administrator privileges, here’s how to enable and activate the service.
- The Absolute Basics Of Programming For Beginners – Part 2–In part 2 of our absolute beginners guide to programming, I’ll be covering the basics of functions, return values, loops and conditionals
- How to Assign a Static Drive Letter to a USB Drive in Windows 7 – How-To Geek–Do you have an external USB hard drive or flash drive that you use frequently for backups or for use with applications? Every time you plug it in you may get a different drive letter for that drive.
- How to get more done with your Mac | News | TechRadar UK–How to get more done with your Mac Be more productive with these Mac apps : TechRadar UK
iOS
- iOS 5 for iPhone and iPad walkthrough | TiPb–Complete feature guide to Apple’s iOS 5 software update for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad
- Download Official iOS 5 User Guide for iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch–iOS 5 comes with over 200 new features and those who have upgraded their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to the new iOS 5 or got a new device, might want to check its official comprehensive user guide released by Apple.
- Five Fun Free iPad Apps for Elementary School Teachers And Students | Emerging Education Technology–These free applications provide a wide variety of engaging learning opportunities for young students (and you can’t beat the price).
- How to Set Up Class iPad and iPod Touch Devices « The Spicy Learning Blog–The Apple Fairy has come to your classroom and given you some iPads and/or iPod Touches to use for learning? You and your students sure are the lucky ones. I know what you’re thinking though: “So what now, technically speaking?” There are many different ways to set your iDevices up. Here is how I’ve done mine
- 28 Excellent iPhone Apps To Make Your Life Easier–So, rather than wasting time in looking for the one you require, have a look at this collection of apps that we have composed here to permit people discover the few useful apps they can magnify their productivity with.
- 9 iPad Apps to Animate Your Learning | iPad.AppStorm–In an effort to help all those at high school, and show the rest of us just how intriguing the iPad can be, I have compiled a list of excellent educational apps that will go a long way to enlivening your learning!
- Who Says the iPad Isn’t For Programming? Meet Codify–We don’t expect to see developers ditch their laptops anytime soon, but a new breed of apps for the iPad help make the device more coding-friendly. One of them is Codify, which went live yesterday.
- Blogging Is So Over: Jux Comes To The iPad–Jux, the boldest, loudest big-screen personal publishing platform around, has just made its natural leap to the iPad.
- BBC News – Apple shares Jobs memorial video–Apple has released video of a memorial service, held for company staff, celebrating the life of Steve Jobs.
- iPad Wallpapers Revisited – The Best 7 Free Apps–The iPad has been around for quite a while, and accordingly, the AppStore has accumulated lots of different free wallpapers apps. If you ever got bored of your wallpaper or icons, I’m sure you’ve had to deal with this abundance of options. A search for “wallpapers” in the AppStore yields so many results, and so many of them free, it’s hard to know where to start.
- Steve Jobs, part 1 – YouTube–Steve Jobs was already gravely ill with cancer when he asked author Walter Isaacson to write his biography. Jobs told Isaacson to write a honest book – about…
- Steve Jobs, part 2 – YouTube–Steve Jobs was already gravely ill with cancer when he asked author Walter Isaacson to write his biography. Jobs told Isaacson to write a honest book – about..
- Apple iOS 5: Disable Notifications from Displaying On the Lock Screen–When Notifications are set to show on the Lock Screen, anyone passing by can see them – even if you created a passcode. Here’s how to turn them off.
- iOS 5 vs iOS 4 – Web Browser Speed Comparison [INFOGRAPHIC] | Redmond Pie–When Apple released its latest and most changed version of iOS two weeks ago, bringing us up to version number 5.0, there was little-to-no doubt that the update would be considerable
- What You Need To Know About iCloud–One of the largest products of iOS 5 is iCloud, which is Apple’s push for a more mobile lifestyle. Here’s what you need to know about iCloud and how it (might) changes your life.
- 7 Creative Tributes to Steve Jobs–Amidst the sadness over the Apple founder’s death came a flood of whimsical tributes.
- Future iPad Could Have 3D Gesture Controls, Patent Shows | News & Opinion | PCMag.com–A patent discovered by patently Apple shows that in the future, Apple might have plans to add 3D gestures to the iPad.
- iPad etiquette: How to behave with your tablet – CNN.com–Tablets are quickly hitting the market, so what is the proper etiquette in owning and using one?
- Best Free iPhone Apps–So what makes a great iPhone app? Simple elegance in what it does, unique ability to access the net, or utilize and manage your data, and of course, a design that’s easy to navigate, visually appealing, and adds ease or joy to your life.
- A Media Specialist’s Guide to the Internet: 39 Sites For Using iPads in the Classroom–Talk about making a dent in the world. Jobs’ legacy will live on in generations to come. Here are 39 sites for using one of Jobs’ greatest innovations:
Miscellaneous
- Maximum PC | Google Drops Chromebook Subscription-Only Policy–In a rather rare change of heart, Google has reversed the three-year requirement, and are now giving both sets of customers the option to buy the machines outright with one year of support instead
- Online Safety: Why You Should Give Up Windows XP For Good – How-To Geek–Most geeks will tell you it’s well past time to get rid of XP and upgrade to newer, safer operating systems. It can be tough to explain, so keep reading this list of real world reasons to let XP go.
- 40 Addictive Web Games Powered by HTML5–In the good Ol’ days, Flash rules the multimedia application on the web, but the arrival of HTML5 changes everything
- Official Halloween Themes for Windows 7–Halloween is approaching on Oct 31st and Microsoft has released two new Windows 7 themes just in time to celebrate the Halloween
- Your Klout Score Probably Just Dropped – Do You Care?–Today Klout released a new scoring model for its social media influence service.
- What is Klout? www.whattheklout.com – YouTube–Man explains Klout to his boss during a performance review.
What is Klout?
- 17 Alternatives to Klout–As we wrote about earlier this week, Klout has reworked its algorithms, and your scores have changed. Some have gone up, some down. Despite claiming more transparency with …
- Top 10 Mathematics Websites « Mathematics, Learning and Web 2.0–For my own list I have decided to include some categories as well as individual sites which gives me the excuse to mention far more than 10! Note that every site mentioned here is free to use.
- Amazing Animal Webcams – LiveBinder
- Google Plus Will Integrate with Blogger–Google Plus is integrating with Google’s blogging platform, Blogger.
- Documentary.Net Lets You Browse & Stream Latest Documentaries For Free–Video documentaries are a rich source of information, and ‘visually’ reflect on the on-going, pressing issues around the globe. Sitting and waiting for…
- Infographic: Windows XP 10th Anniversary–Windows XP just turned 10 years old. While turning 10 is often lauded, in the tech industry it means you’re falling behind.
- 10 Ways to Think Like a Mathematician
Video/Slideshow
Storify demo from Burt Herman on Vimeo.
- Young Frankenstein Putting On The Ritz – YouTube–Fredrick Frankenstein and his creation Puttin’ on the Ritz .
Young Frankenstein Putting on the Ritz
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