92 EdTech Resources You May Have Missed–Treasure Chest March 11, 2012

by Jeffrey Thomas on March 11, 2012

Welcome to this week’s edition of Treasure Chest—92 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

20+ Fun Free Apps that Promote Student Centered Learning & Literacy : Teacher Reboot Camp–Lately, I have discovered many cool free apps that are incredible for creating digital stories, reading stories, and interacting with stories
50 Things You Don’t Have To Do For Effective Classroom Management — Smart Classroom Management–Classroom management shouldn’t feel difficult. If you’re straining, trying hard, and feeling heavy burdened, if you’re stressed-out and exhausted at the end of the day, then something is amiss. You see, exceptional classroom management is knowledge based, not effort based.
Adoption of technology in education is slow and uneven | TheGazette–Challenges include lack of strategy, funding woes and resistance
Stump The Teacher: Teaching Mediocrity–Mediocrity is starting to creep into the world of education and specifically into the practice of teaching. I am afraid that it might always have been there and I am just now becoming increasingly aware of it.
Confessions of a ‘Bad’ Teacher – NYTimes.com–Until we provide equal educational resources to students and teachers, we can’t say how well or poorly they’re performing.
Teaching kids to be ‘digital citizens’ (not just ‘digital natives’) – The Answer Sheet – The Washington Post–Technology is not value-free. John Merrow explains how to turn kids — who are digital natives — into good digital citizens.
20 Little-Known Web Resources For Teachers | Edudemic–I was pleasantly surprised by this Slideshare as it contains more than a few resources that are new to me.

20 in 120 seconds (The slowed down version)

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Teachers embrace social media in class – USATODAY.com–Some studies show that integrating social media into college coursework may be helping students learn better.
SOCRATES FAILS TEACHER EVALUATION–So, it came down to one day, one test, at the Acropolis as the young men of Athens took out their #2 chisels to answer 30 questions on stone tablets.
Poor technology leadership is usually just poor leadership | Dangerously Irrelevant–When a school leader neglects to allocate sufficient professional development time for newly-purchased classroom technologies, that’s not poor …
Crowdsourced Twitter Video Guides | The Whiteboard Blog–One of my Twitter PLN, Australian languages teacher Jess McCulloch has crowd-sourced an excellent guide to using Twitter. Jess drew on her own Twitter PLN
Why most teachers don’t know what they don’t know. « My Island View–In order for teachers to better guide themselves in their learning, they need to know what it is that they need to know
Free Technology for Teachers: Use Custom HTML and Javascript in Google Sites–To me, the most exciting news in the announcement is that you can now use custom HTML and Javascript in your Google Sites pages.
What does a good ICT school look like? – Articles – Educational Technology – ICT in Education–I was asked yesterday what a good ICT school looks like. The question threw me momentarily, and the fact that it threw me threw me as well: a sort of meta-throwing
Students Demand the Right to Use Technology in Schools | MindShift–We’ve heard arguments from ed tech experts about how using technology for learning may in fact deepen the divide between wealthy and low-income kids
I’m Not Surprised that Older Teachers Experiment More with Technology | Powerful Learning Practice–A recent newspaper article reported on research by Canada’s Media Awareness Network that “It’s older, more experienced teachers – not younger, so-called digital natives – who are experimenting more with new technology in the classroom.”
The Innovative Educator: Twitter for Administrators, Teachers, and Students–Twitter is a powerful tool that enables administrators, students, and teachers to develop and strengthen relationships with others who share their passions and interests around the world
Free Technology for Teachers: 9 Ways Students Can Publish Slideshows Online–Creating slideshows can be an excellent way for students to summarize their learning, share their what they’ve learned, and to share their ideas.
Why free apps sometimes suck for schools. | SchoolTechnology.org–The other day I was showing a colleague an amazing little app I use to manage my to-do lists across multiple devices on multiple …
The 21st Century Principal: How Students Use Technology–Here’s excellent graphic, reminder to all of us regarding how our students engage in technology use.
Bring your own technology – Articles – Educational Technology – ICT in Education–If ever there was an idea whose time has come, it is surely Bring Your Own Device or, to be less restrictive, Bring Your Own Technology. There are at least two comp0elling reasons for this.
Pedagogical roles for video in online learning–Video is not being used enough in online learning in post-secondary education
DailyGood: 9 Essential Skills Kids Should Learn, by Leo Babauta–Kids in today’s school system are not being prepared well for tomorrow’s world.
YouTube Finds a Way Off Schools’ Banned List – NYTimes.com–The video-sharing Web site has created a way to let schools limit students’ access to selected content, providing a portal for free educational materials.
5 Tell-Tale Signs You’re Becoming a Teacher Leader| The Committed Sardine–How do you know you’re ready to become a teacher leader?
When it comes to Technology, teachers need as much scaffolding as students–As teachers, we have come to learn over the years that we should never expect our students to fully understand a new idea without some form of structured support framework, or scaffolding as the current buzzword defines it
Killing Teacher Morale Is Easy – Walt Gardner’s Reality Check – Education Week–Walt Gardner taught for 28 years in the Los Angeles Unified School District and was a lecturer in the UCLA Graduate School of Education. Follow Walt Gardner on Twitter.
Pocket-Based Learning: My Cellphone Classroom | Powerful Learning Practice–On my commute one morning recently, one of the local radio stations was discussing a ban on Ugg boots by a Philadelphia school district because students were hiding their cell phones in the calf-high versions and using them in class

Tools

Educational Technology Guy: 10 Great, Free Apps for Students for Notetaking and Class Planning–These days, there are some great apps for students to use to take notes for class, or to use as class planners.
5 Free Web 2.0 Brainstorming Tools | Mark Brumley–Call it brainstorming, concept mapping or mindmapping, collecting and organizing thoughts using web 2.0 is a snap. Let’s take a peek at several free options.
Free apps to find more free apps–The Resource for Education Technology Leaders focusing on K-12 educators. Site contains a Software Reviews Database, articles from Technology & Learning Magazine, articles from Educators in Educators’ eZine, Event and Contest listings, Reader suggested Web sites, and weekly news updates on education technology leaders.
Use TeamViewer For a Remote Connection Between Two Computers–Learn How to Use TeamViewer For a Remote Connection Between Two Computers. Also comes with features like online meetings and VOIP
Free Math Worksheet Generator for Students from Microsoft–Math Worksheet Generator lets you create and generates multiple maths problems based on a sample, and then creates a worksheet.
Share Snagit Screen Capture Images On Facebook, Twitter,Skype, YouTube–The Techsmith team has released a couple of social accessories for Snagit which can be used to publish your screen captures to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Evernote or to a custom FTP directory
Most Useful Windows Live writer Plugins For Power Blogging–Windows live writer plugins are useful to boost your blogging experience.There are a wide variety of media,social media plugins to help you do more with blog posts
Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero: 50 Web 2.0 Sites for Schools–While exploring these tools I’ve been “fine tuning” my Web 2.0 list for schools.
Wolfram Education Portal: Algebra–Search all Algebra topics for lesson plans, text books, demonstrations, widgets.
GeoGebraWeb: GeoGebra for Tablets and Chrome Books Mathematics and Multimedia–GeoGebra is getting better and better everyday. Recently, it has released GeoGebraWeb Beta, its version for Tablets and Chromebooks. The version also works in Internet Explorer 9 and recent versions of Chrome, Opera and Firefox.
4 Portable Application Sites & Suites You May Not Know About–At MakeUseOf, we have provided you with countless articles on perfecting your USB flash drive with portable applications. If you’ve yet to see our Best Portable Apps page, you need to give it a look. Portable software can really change the way you work and enjoy your personal Internet experience. I don’t go anywhere without 16GB of portable goodness on me. It’s as essential as my keys or wallet

How-To

Tony Vincent’s Learning in Hand – Blog – Ways to Evaluate Educational Apps–I am conducting a series of workshops in Florida and was asked to share a rubric to help teachers evaluate educational apps as part of the workshop.
The Basics About Working with the Event Viewer in Windows | 7 Tutorials–We’ll take a look at the logs and the information Event Viewer gives you about what’s going on inside in Windows and the applications you installed.
10 Google Search Tricks You Might Not Know–Looking for a quick answer among Google’s millions of search results? Here are a few tricks to help you out.
4 Simple Mac Maintenance Tips–Macs are notoriously trouble-free and easy to maintain, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore system maintenance entirely.
How Do You Cite a Tweet in an Academic Paper? – Alexis Madrigal – Technology – The Atlantic–There are rules for these sorts of things. They are how civilizations are built and maintained.
What You Need to Know About Using Hashtags on Twitter | Entrepreneur.com–Here’s how you can use hashtags so your tweets can reach a larger audience and attract more followers.
How To Find the Correct Memory (RAM) for Your Computer–One of the easiest hardware upgrades to improve the performance of your computer is adding more RAM. This guide covers a few methods that find the type of RAM
Moving at the Speed of Creativity – Green Screen Photo Effects On The Cheap–This evening my 6th grade daughter asked for some help creating a photograph she needed for a printed program she’s making for drama class.
Windows 8 Tricks, Tips and Shortcuts – TechSpot Guides–Inevitably, with change comes good and bad — at least until you learn some tricks that get you back up to speed. Here’s a shortlist of Windows 8 shortcuts and useful quick tricks I’ve gathered thus far. Windows 8 Tricks, Tips and Shortcuts.
How to Use Gmail’s Advanced Search Features & Create Filters – How-To Geek–Gmail’s a Google product, so of course it has powerful search features. But some of Gmail’s search features are hidden and don’t appear in the Search Options pane. Learn Gmail’s search tricks to master your massive inbox.
Facebook Adds Interests Lists: How to Use Them–Facebook has finally decided to do something about the disaster each of our news feeds have become. Actually, I kind of like the mess and all the unfiltered information coming in, but there might a few of you who need to be more organized. So if that’s you, read on and take a look at the change Facebook just made as it will allow you to better organize pages you like as well as your friends’ feeds.
Educational Technology Guy: Google for Educators – Resources for using Google in school–I am a huge proponent and user of Google tools, both for myself and in my classroom. Here are some great resources for educators who want to learn more about using Google’s many tools in their classroom.
The Top 10 Tips for Securing Your Data – How-To Geek–With the use of smartphones, tablets, laptops, and netbooks, most of us do everyday tasks online, such as purchasing goods and banking. However, if we don’t secure our personal data on our computers and online, we could be asking for serious trouble
Domain Names 101: How to Avoid Dot-Com Disasters [INFOGRAPHIC]–Domain name tips for individuals, companies and businesses to own prime dot-com real estate on the Internet.

iOS

A Full Breakdown Of The Newly Introduced iPad–In case you’ve been out of the country, living in a cave, or captured by a super villain with an underground lair and no TV for the past week, you may have heard there’s a new iPad about town. Here’s a full rundown of the new device that will hopefully answer any questions you have. Read on if you want to know the specifics
Apple Releases Apple Configurator for Businesses & Schools–Apple has just released Apple Configurator, an app that “makes it easy for anyone to mass configure and deploy iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch in a school, business, or institution.”
4 Awesome iPad Math Apps Every Parent Should Own–iPad has plenty of great apps and games for your children, but let’s face it: how many of them are actually educational, more specifically dealing with …

Top Five To-do Apps for the iPhone – LockerGnome

What’s the Best To Do List App?

Best iPhone Puzzle Games–From new takes on familiar ideas to unique hybrids — these are the ten best puzzle games for the iPhone.
When is a PC not a PC? When it’s an iPad | TechRepublic–Many people are now using their Apple iPad in place of a PC – but that shift raises a number of issues in defining the tablet’s place …
3 Ways to Easily Print Documents from your iPad or iPhone | Mac|Life–Whether your current set up supports AirPrint or not, we’ll show you three ways to get those digital documents into tangible paper form one way or another.
New iPad vs. the competition: by the numbers | The Verge–Now that the 3rd generation iPad is out, we thought it was time to see how it stacks up against the competition. Luckily our product database is perfect for that, and we’ve put together a…
40+ Super Secret iPad Features and Shortcuts | iPad.AppStorm–We all want to get the very best out of our devices! Who doesn’t love finding out a new trick or shortcut?
How To Sync Your Contacts Between Your Computer & Your iPad or iPhone–Many of you will already know all about Apple’s iCloud, its wonderful sync features and the fact that it allows you to find your iDevice and access mail, your calendar and even documents from any standard web browser. Then again I regularly encounter iPad and iPhone owners who have yet to update their devices to take advantage of the many new features

iOS 5.1 hands-0n

Top 25 Free iPad Apps To Get You Started [PICS]–A look back at the 25 top free iPad apps of all time.
Why the New iPad is So Huge for Apple–Maybe it didn’t seem like it, but today’s new iPad introduction was Apple’s most important event of the year
Khan Academy Enters Next Era With iPad App | Fast Company–Offline learning is the latest tool for the unorthodox education organization. Here’s how that and other new features will power Khan Academy’s new app.
Edit, Upload, And Share Videos On Vimeo 2.0 For iPhone & iPad–Last week, the 2.0 version of Vimeo, was released with significant user interface changes and performance enhancements for iOS devices. If you’ve never used Vimeo, it is similar to YouTube but with arguably more artistic content than Google’s huge down-home, nearly anything goes shared videos.
Apps in Education: 10 QR Readers for the iPad–Here are 10 QR readers for your iPad – all bar one for Free. QR Code scanners can be lots of fun in the classroom.

Android

Change Android Smartphone Google Talk Accounts–Is your Google Talk for Android app stuck on an unwanted Google Account? Mine was, and I’m sharing the only known solution in this groovy quick Android tip.
Give Your Android’s Battery Life A Boost With Trend Micro’s Longevity–Battery life is one such issue that most mobile (smartphone and tablet) users always seem to be complaining about, regardless of how limited their usage is …
Free Technology for Teachers: 10 Awesome Android Uses and Apps for Education

10 awesome android uses and apps

View more presentations from Richard Byrne

Top 25 Android Apps for Educators – SimpleK12–Looking for the best education Android apps to use in your classroom? Look no further!
View NASA Videos and Images on Your Android Device–View NASA Videos and Images on Your Android Device
Give Your Android Phone A Mac-Like Dock–Dock4Droid for Android is a great addition for anyone who wants quick access to recently used and frequently used applications.
Readability for Android to be released Monday, Amazon Appstore-only for a week | The Verge–Readability’s much-delayed iOS app made its debut just over a week ago, and now the company’s following it with a brand-new app for Android phones and tablets. The free app will be available on…

Miscellaneous

Educational Technology Guy: 10 Essential Educational Resources for Teachers – my list–I just read an article at Edudemic entitiled “20 Must-Have Educational Resources For All Teachers“. In this article, the author writes about the devices and web-resources that he feels are must have’s for education. In it, he challenges the readers to create their own list too. I agree with much of his list, but thought I’d make my own list a little differently.
Facebook for the Classroom Just Got Apps–Classroom tool Edmodo announced it would be expanding its Facebook-like platform to include third-party apps.
Five Leadership Lessons From James T. Kirk – Forbes–Through his example, Starfleet’s finest Captain has something to teach us about leadership. Here are five lessons to take on your own voyages
Microsoft Needs To Release An Office for iPad App | Redmond Pie–The Daily posted two screenshots of what they claim to be Office for iPad. One screenshot showed what looks like the start screen of the app, where you can open and create documents, and the other showed the Office app icon.
BBC News – School maths lessons: Pupils ‘scared to ask for help’–Secondary school pupils are so scared of looking stupid in maths lessons they will not tell their teachers if they do not understand, suggests research.
3 Reasons Why You Should Be Running The Latest Windows Security Patches & Updates–The code that makes up the Windows operating system contains security loop holes, errors, incompatibilities, or outdated software elements. In short, Windows isn’t perfect, we all know that. Security patches and updates fix the vulnerabilities and errors in Windows and associated software, and they occasionally add new features. This essentially summarizes why you should regularly run a Windows Update
Picasa Upgrade Boasts Better Google+ Support | PCWorld–Google’s new version of its free photo editing program also adds new editing effects from Picnik.
The Mathematics of Leap Years Explained Mathematics and Multimedia–A mathematical explanation that elucidates why is there a need for leap years.
ACLU Sues School For Punishing 12-Year-Old Over Facebook Comment–Can a school district punish a student for derogatory comments they make about staff members? “No,” says the ACLU.
Now With 1.5M Lessons, ShowMe Launches v2.0 To Bring Khan Academy To The Masses | TechCrunch–Thus, ShowMe wants to bring the classroom-flipping power of Khan Academy’s platform to the millions of teachers out there looking to share their knowledge and experience with students of every age. “We want to create thousands of Sal Khans,” ShowMe CEO San Kim tells us, taking Khan’s approach and turning into a community and P2P-based model.
The physics of Angry Birds: how it works | News | TechRadar–The physics of Angry Birds: how it works How Rovio wrote such realistic interactions into the game : TechRadar