102 EdTech Resources You May Have Missed–Treasure Chest January 8, 2012

by Jeffrey Thomas on January 5, 2012

Welcome to this week’s edition of Treasure Chest—102 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

Teacher Reboot Camp » Reflection, Motivation, and Inspiration–This year many of us will try to accomplish goals with our students and in our personal lives. I think as we approach this process it is important to consider our reflective rituals, how we receive inspiration, and identify what works for us in achieving our goals and what prevents us from achieving our goals.
50 Awesome Classroom Management Tips You Can Use Tomorrow–As we come to the conclusion of Reader Appreciation Month, I want to summarize some of the things that we have learned. Today, I’ll focus on the incredible wealth of knowledge that we have learned about classroom management
Boatlift, An Untold Story of 9/11 Resilience

Physicists Seek To Lose The Lecture As Teaching Tool : NPR–Lecturing has never been an effective teaching technique, and now that information is everywhere some say it’s a waste of time. Now, physicists have the data to prove it. But efforts to lose the lecture encounter resistance — sometimes from students.
Blogging About The Web 2.0 Connected Classroom: Guest Post-1:1 Technology in the Math Classroom–Perhaps the single subject area that stands to gain the most from the introduction of a 1:1 technology program is math. Math classrooms with 1:1 technology can greatly expand the differentiation of content provided to students, can prevent student misconceptions from developing, and can free the teacher to focus on teaching and planning rather than grading. Let’s look at each of these benefits in further detail.
Students Want Social Media in Schools | MindShift–ASCD provides a state-of-the union on social media use in schools. How administrators and educators deal with federal regulations, defining what’s legal, parsing out school responsibilities and weighing them against the benefits of using social media to engage and communicate with students are all addressed in this useful guide
Facebooking with students « Cooperative Catalyst–I know it makes a lot of teachers nervous/sick-to-the-stomach, but I absolutely LOVE communicating with students through Facebook
The Best of Open Culture 2011 | Open Culture–Before we rush headlong into a new year, it’s worth pausing, ever so briefly, to consider the ground we covered in 2011. What topics resonated with you …
Twin NASA Spacecraft Now Orbiting the Moon Carrying Space Eyes For Students –NASA’s new favorite ships for all Middle school students are now ready to start work: GRAIL-B has joined her twin GRAIL-A into a near-polar, elliptical orbit around the Moon.
The Innovative Educator: 20 Quotes About Learning That Inspired Me in 2011 From My Personal Learning Network–Each year I do my best to capture quotes that were impactful to me that year.
10 Super Geeky Tips for the New Year | The Daring Librarian—There are a few things that are easily done & feels great for a SUPER GEEKY~~SAFE~~….errm Aware! New Year. (There is no *safe* on the Interwebs, only Aware!)
Is it responsible for schools to teach Google Docs instead of Microsoft Office? – Apps User Group–Now for the reasons why Google Docs is a good choice for schools:
Transforming the Way We Learn: Don’t let the medium become the message | thinktanK12 Blog–Today’s sophisticated technology can certainly make for some fantastic learning tools. Educational apps, mobile devices, tablet computers, online resources, cloud computing and more have the potential to transform education. But while technology can be helpful, it’s important to consider what children may be missing when technology upstages the learning process.
Neil deGrasse Tyson on the Decline of Scientific Research in America | Open Culture–Scientific discovery is an engine of economic and military power, and America has long prided itself on its leadership in research. But as astrophysicist
The Top 25 MakeUseOf Articles Of 2011–With 2011 now over, it’s been a wild ride here at MakeUseOf – so I thought it might be interesting to take a look back at the most popular articles of 2011. What stories did you appreciate so much you just had to share it with friends, or really got you talking? Read on to find out!
Infographic: Consequences of Teaching to the Test | Getting Smart–Learning today has become highly standardized. We ask students to reach a learning standard and test it with statewide tests that identify whether we…
Why Students Like Social Media But Schools Don’t | Edudemic–According to a report from ASCD, students are eager to use the latest social media in order to communicate, collaborate, and enhance their learning. But schools have a few big concerns that has led to many students not having adequate access to social media.
Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: Top 10 Sites for Educational Apps–With all that being said I have decided to create a list of my 10 favorite sites for finding educational apps.
Danger in a Little Knowledge « My Island View–The fact of the matter seems, in this case, to be that teachers are opposed, not to the technology, but rather, the intent of its use, as well as the lack of support for training and implementation of the technology.
With Congress on break, SOPA fight continues – CNN.com–Members of Congress may be on vacation, but that hasn’t calmed critics who say an effort to stamp out online piracy would create an unprecedented threat to free speech on the Internet.
What Comes After Web 2.0?–It seems fitting that the Internet itself is rife with speculation about what form the successor to Web 2.0 will take.
Redefining “Cheating” With Homework | MindShift–Technology is often blamed for encouraging bad behavior, particularly when it comes to academic dishonesty.

Tools

Maximum PC | Dropbox Automator Makes an Amazing Service Even Better–Releasing a new tool called “Dropbox Automator”, Wappwolf has made it easy to create super folders that are configured to perform common tasks on any files you place there.
Productivity Tools for Educators « Molehills out of Mountains–I am also a firm believer in the purposeful use of technology to improve productivity and accessibility to critical information
The Best Windows Software of 2011–This is the third part of the Ghacks best of 2011 series. In this top list, I’m going to look at the best software for the Microsoft Windows operating system
Free Technology for Teachers: Calkoo – An Excellent Set of Online Calculators–There are a lot of calculators online for performing all kinds of functions from simple addition to solving complex equations.
WeFi: Find & Auto-Connect To Best Public WiFi Hotspots Near You–Back in 2009, we covered WeFi, a free windows application that let you find best WiFi hotspots anywhere around the globe. The application has come a long way
8 Simple Digital Tools for Scanning Documents–Small businesses and startups need quick, mobile solutions for scanning, storing, organizing and sharing important documents. We’ve found eight that do the job.
4 Little-Known And Portable Browsers That Should Be On Your USB Drive–Your browser is the centerpiece to your internet experience and keeping it nice and portable is an awesome luxury. You may not have heard of a couple of these browsers, but each and every one brings a unique benefit to your portable arsenal. Don’t let the fact that you may not have heard of them stand in the way of finding your new favorite browser.
Top Ten Google Chrome Extensions

10 Must-Have Tools for Cloud Power Users | PCWorld Business Center–Turn your cloud power up a notch with these ten awesome add-ons for Gmail, Dropbox, and other online services.
Video Dropper: Save & Download YouTube Videos To Your Dropbox–One of the ways to watch YouTube videos later is to bookmark them, another may be to download. How about downloading these videos to your Dropbox folder?
Facebook Timeline Customization: 5 Tools for Killer Cover Photos–Have you personalized your new Facebook Timeline? Here are five tools that make it easy and fun.
Coolest Apps From 2011 You Would Never Want To Miss In 2012 | Free and Useful Online Resources for Designers and Develo–We have categorized them as Web Apps, Desktop Apps and Smartphone/Tablet PC Apps. Just take a look at them and share your thought’s here.
Free Technology for Teachers: 10 Useful Chrome Web Apps and Extensions for Teachers and Students–If you’re one of the people that made the switch to Chrome in 2011, here are some extensions and Chrome web apps that you and your students should find handy.
Free Online OCR–Free online OCR (optical character regognition) service for various content languages. Multiple image formats are supported. PDF extraction is supported
60+ High Quality Free GIMP Brush Packs | Free and Useful Online Resources for Designers and Developers–To facilitate you more in improving the functionality of GIMP photo editor, we have here a vast collection of free tremendous, premium quality brushes that can be employed for whatever projects you may have.
Best of the web: 19 sites you shouldn’t be without | News | TechRadar–Best of the web: 19 sites you shouldn’t be without Websites come and go, but here’s a bunch to cherish : TechRadar
3 Chrome Applications That Clean Up The Internet–The internet can be a dirty place. No, I am not referring to the adult websites that are all over the place; I am referring to the fact that many websites are covered with junk that you do not want to see. Thanks to these three Chrome extensions, you can now have the clean web browsing experience you wanted all along.
SmoothDraw: Digital Painter With Adobe Photoshop Like Layers Support–Last year, we covered an open source application for digital painters called MyPaint, which provides users with various options to create a digital painting
Instructional and Educational Videos, Animated Explanations, – Explania–Watch hundreds of animated explanations, interactive tutorials, animations and instructional videos, and feel free to embed them on your own web pages.

How-To

Maximum PC | How to Set Up a New PC the Right Way–The way you set up your new PC now will have a lasting impact on your experience over time. Do it haphazardly, and your experience will be plagued by disorder and regret. Do it thoughtfully, though, by following the course of action we prescribe on the following pages, and you will have a machine that’s primed and ready to meet your every need from the start.
9 YouTube Tips and Tricks for Teachers | The Whiteboard Blog–YouTube is still the best place to find videos to use in the classroom, despite being blocked in many schools. If your school does allow you to use YouTube
18 Ways Teachers Can Use Google+ Hangouts | SociableBlog : Social Media Blog–Whether you teach online classes or just love bringing social media and technology into the classroom, Google offers up some amazing tools to help you get…
How to get your Facebook in order – USATODAY.com–Sometimes it’s necessary to perform some maintenance on your Facebook profile.
7 Things You Should Know About Screencasting–Grab this comprehensive PDF file on screencasting tips
INFOGRAPHIC : Get More Out Of Google–Google may be the dominant search engine on the web but when it comes to finding something specific, many people have no idea how to look and what to type into that search box
Troubleshoot Windows with a System Health Report–If you’re having problems with your Windows computer a good place troubleshooting is generating a System Health Report. Here’s how to generate one in Windows 7, Vista or Windows 8 Developer Preview.
How To Put Your Face On A Different Body Using GIMP–Admit it, playing around with image editing tools such as Photoshop and GIMP can be pretty fun, depending on what you’re trying to do. Virtually anything can be done with these tools, from some simple photo touch-ups all the way to creating impressive graphics from scratch. However, it’s not as fun if you only have an idea and you don’t actually know how to do it.
How To Make Photoshop Cartoons In About One Minute – How-To Geek–It’s become an internet cliché—”cartoonify yourself!” But given a few moments in Photoshop, you can cut out the middleman and turn one of your own photos into a surprisingly nice photo filter cartoon. C’mon, you know you have a minute.
How to delete every Facebook wall post, wipe your Timeline | ZDNet–While it may be an inexact science, automative tools can be used to speed up the Facebook wall deletion process. Here’s a number of ways of how…
The How-To Geek Guide to Buying the Right Printer – How-To Geek–Even though computer printers are relatively ubiquitous, you can’t just go pull one off the shelf and be guaranteed a good fit for your needs. Read on as we detail the ins and outs of buying a home printer.
How SSL and TLS works | News | TechRadar–How SSL and TLS works They keep our online transactions secure, but how? : TechRadar
Learn to code | Codecademy–Codecademy is the easiest way to learn how to code. It’s interactive, fun, and you can do it with your friends.
Five Tips for Creating PowerPoint Slides that WON’T Bore Your Audience – The Tempered Radical–After stumbling across my collection of PowerPoint slides on Flickr and here on the Radical, Dov Emerson — a digital friend from Long Island reached out with this question
5 Very Neat Uses of Wolfram Alpha Search Engine–Check out these 5 Very Neat Uses of Wolfram Alpha Search Engine.
The Best Articles for Creating a Dual-Boot PC or Tablet – How-To Geek–If you like to use multiple operating systems but don’t have extra computers to spare, we at How-To Geek have can help you set up your computer or tablet to run more than one operating system
How To Play Blu-ray Discs in Windows 7–Blu-ray drives are increasingly becoming available on new Windows systems. Windows doesn’t support playing Sony’s proprietary discs natively, you need third party software. Here’s a look at a few of options.

iOS

Going Social with your iPad Creative Notebooks | iGo With My iPad–We have pages of notes in Note Taker and Notebooks of sketches in Penultimate. Both of those daily used solutions offer methods to push out our work to others.
62 Free iPhone and iPad apps and games–Don’t forget to check out the recent update of the Free Stuff Times iPhone app, and the iPad app! Make sure the price is $0, these change price very frequently
The Best Resources For Beginning iPad Users | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…–Though I haven’t gotten an iPad yet, we did get one for my mother-in-law. So, with an eye towards helping her now, and me in the future, I put out a call to readers to their suggested resources as well as hunting for them on my own.
10 best apps for docked iPads and iPhones | News | TechRadar–10 best apps for docked iPads and iPhones Useful apps to run while your iOS device is charging : TechRadar
TweetyPop: An Intuitive, Beautiful Twitter Client For The iPad–There are a lot of people who start their day by going through their Twitter timeline, but after a while, you might get bored of the same, old interface
Thicket Turns Your iPad into an Audio Visual Playground – How-To Geek–While you’ll find no shortage of visual-effect apps in the App Store that take advantage of the iPad touch screen, Thicket is polished, fun, and best of all, free.
3 Great Apps To Easily & Fairly Split A Bill Among Several People [iPhone]–Nothing can spoil a great group lunch or dinner than having to spend quality time calculating the cost of splitting the bill. Sure it’s easy when you split the cost between yourself and your girlfriend or boyfriend, but what happens when you have more than five people in the group? You could use a calculator or the old pen and paper method, but if you have a iPhone or other iOS device, there are apps.
iOS apps shown running on Apple TV at 720p in new video demo – Engadget–We’ve seen a jailbroken Apple TV running iOS apps but admittedly, the last demo we were treated to was brief, dimly lit and light on …
25 Games That Will Make You Take The iOS Platform Seriously | Complex–If you’ve discounted iOS devices as “true” gaming platforms, it’s time to wake up. Complex.com: The original buyer’s guide for men.
Watch Continuous Videos On YouTube With NowBox [iPad]–Ever wish you could just watch YouTube videos continuously without the constant searching in between each find, good or bad? NowBox for iPad makes it all possible.
Fraser Speirs – Blog – Misconceptions About iOS Multitasking–There is one iOS “tip” that I keep hearing and it is wrong. Worse, I keep hearing it from supposedly authoritative sources. I have even heard it from the lips of Apple “Geniuses” in stores. Here is the advice – and remember it is wrong:
iOS Multitasking on Vimeo

iOS Multitasking from Fraser Speirs on Vimeo.

5 Handy Weather Apps for iPhone Users–There are many weather applications for iPhone, but few of them are really very good. Here’s a list of 5 of the best weather apps for iPhone.
5 Fun Free iPad Math Game Apps | Emerging Education Technology–These free apps offer fun ways for elementary/primary grade students to practice their math fundamentals. We checked out a bunch of free math games for the…
iPads revolutionizing Flagstaff classrooms | The iPad Classroom | Scoop.it—The iPads whispered and blinked to life, then loaded the afternoon’s work: a website chock full of long addition, long multiplication, long division, even word problems.
Amid an Avalanche of iPad Apps, the Best of 2011 – App Smart – NYTimes.com–So many apps came out for the iPad last year that it was easy to miss the good ones. Here are 10 favorites.
Awesome Free iPad Apps: WildChords Teaches You How To Play the Guitar–Who says you can’t learn new and interesting skills and hobbies from an iPad? Wild Chords provides a fun way for kids and kids at heart learn how to play guitar.

Android

Best Android Apps–On this page, you will find the best 100 Android applications for all your needs. We’ve taken the effort to categorize the apps and picked
6 Lesser Known Android Home Screen Launchers–We have reviewed several of the popular home screen launchers for Android. Here are some of the lesser known home screen replacement launchers for you to try out.
Appgravity Is a Full Featured Android Market Search Engine–The Android Market’s default search works well if you know exactly what you’re looking for, but the keyword and other data in the store isn’t as easy to hunt through as many would like. Appgravity is a search engine for the Android Market with more options for sorting and searching.
Avast! Introduces Free Mobile Security App For Android 2.1+ [News]–There are plenty of free mobile security apps available for Android. The market seems to be filled to the brim with them. Yet it’s hard to say if they’re trustworthy because often they’re developed by companies that don’t have a reputation. Fortunately, there’s now one more trustworthy free mobile security app on the market. It comes from Avast!
Talking Caller ID App For Android || Free Software–Talking Caller ID is a free Android app that displays a talking caller ID on Android device. Download Talking Caller ID app for free.
5 Free Car Racing Games For Android || Free Software–Here are 5 free car racing games for Android available in the Android Market. Download any of these car racing games absolutely free.
Typical Android User is Anything But Typical [INFOGRAPHIC]–What’s the typical Android user like? Are those who use Google’s smartphone operating system and its associated gadgetry male or female? What sort of clothes do they wear? Are they married? Do they wear watches?
How to Find Data Hogging Applications in Android–Many mobile carriers are limiting your data plan. Onavo can help you track your data AND weed out the applications that are eating up your data. Android only.
Koush’s Tether: Android-To-Desktop Internet Tethering Without Root–The developer of the famous ClockworkMod custom recovery for Android and DeskSMS, Koush, is back with yet another handy tool.
Wi-Fi PC Sync: Remotely Copy WiFi Profiles From PC To Android–If you’re looking for a way to sync wireless access points (Wi-Fi hotspots), their passwords and other settings from your computer to your Android device,
Wikihood For Android: Location-Based Browsing Of Wikipedia Content–Wikipedia is arguably one of the most comprehensive online sources of information pertaining to any topic, person, place, event et al.
Diagnosis: Monitor Real-Time Resource Usage By Individual Android Apps–There are lots of system and activity monitoring apps in the Android Market, such as Cool Tool, Elixir 2 and Android System Info, but not all display…

Miscellaneous

Top Ten Twitter Hashtags for Educators – SimpleK12–One of the best ways to stay up-to-date on the latest in education (other than a free subscription to the SimpleK12 blog) is to follow hashtags on Twitter. Before we get into which hashtags to watch, let’s look at what they are.
The Human Anatomy, Animated With 3-D Technology – NYTimes.com–A 3-D virtual body, now used by medical students in anatomy studies, represents an unusual collaboration between industry and academia.
A Guy’s Guide To Pinterest–One of the first things I noticed when I signed up for Pinterest earlier this week is that several of my female friends and acquaintances were already on the site
The Best Guides To Figuring Out Pinterest | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…–In case you haven’t heard, Pinterest is the hot new social media site of the moment. It’s not even open to the general public yet, and you have to request an invitation. I’m not entirely convinced the Web needs yet another social media tool, but who knows?
Maximum PC | Head to Head: Facebook vs. Google+–A metaphorical boxing match between two 800-pound gorillas is quickly shaping up in the social network arena.
Facebook Timeline Is Basically Your Digital Resume–Your Timeline is more than your gateway to Facebook; it’s also a potentially powerful resume. Check out these tips to make it up to par.
Facebook Timeline Doesn’t Show in Internet Explorer 7–Facebook Timeline doesn’t show in Internet Explorer 7, and Facebook might soon completely phase out support for the aging browser.
BBC News – Teachers warned over Facebook and Twitter use–Scottish teachers are being warned that their use of social networking sites could put their careers at risk.
Bloggers: 23 Ways to Counter Writer’s Block–All of a sudden, your blog seems like a dog biting your heel cap and refusing to let go. You do not have time for yourself, all your research zeal has been …
What is LTE? | ExtremeTech–Many expect LTE to be the standard for cellular networks for at least the next decade, possibly even beyond!