97 EdTech Resources You May Have Missed–Treasure Chest March 25, 2012

Welcome to this week’s edition of Treasure Chest—97 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

• Wikipedia – what are we afraid of?–I don’t understand the concept of banning an information resource.
• Eden Wormer: Last words of tragic schoolgirl, 14, who hanged herself after ‘relentless bullying’ | Mail Online–Schoolgirl Eden Wormer, 14, pictured, hanged herself after enduring two years of relentless bullying by her female classmates, according to her family and friends
• For the Love of Teaching: I Turned My Projector into a Smartboard Today!–I moved to a new district this school year. I’ve been going through painful withdrawal pains without a Smartboard
• Educational Technology Guy: If I were a curriculum or edtech administrator, I would…–I wanted to expand on this idea and list what I would do if I were in charge of curriculum or educational technology for my district.
• Dropbox Just Integrated with Facebook–Integrating with Facebook definitely ups the ease of use for many users, as it can be a hassle to manually copy and paste in emails
• 80 Educational Alternatives to YouTube–

• 6 Tips Towards Not Having Pointless Meetings–Whether it was ad hoc or a scheduled one, most meetings don’t seem to help at all when it comes to getting work done.
• Teaching Without a Coursebook: A challenge or an opportunity? | Beyza Yılmaz’s Blog–It was not very long time ago. I was given a class full of students who were about to repeat elementary level for the third time
• Why Digital Citizenship Must Be Taught in Schools – Scott Steinberg – Voices – AllThingsD–From smartphones and apps to computers and social networks, technology has permanently invaded kids’ lives, much to the benefit of parents and educators
• Pinterest for Educators? | Edutopia–Principal Eric Sheninger reviews the new social media bulletin board to discover some exciting educational opportunities.
• Free Technology for Teachers: 101 Questions – A New Math Questions Site from Dan Meyer–Dan Meyer has just launched a new site called 101 Questions on which he is sharing images and videos as prompts for developing math questions.
• What Do YOU Know About the Creative Commons? – The Tempered Radical–Quick question: The last time that you needed an image for a project, where did you get it from? Google, right? That nifty little Images tab makes it SO easy to find just the right shot for your slide deck,…
• Google Docs Dumps the Dictionary for the Whole Web–Google Docs now has improved spell-checking that draws from the whole Web instead of a fixed dictionary
• 25 TED Talks Perfect For Classrooms | Edudemic–Whether you’re looking to inspire or entertain your students, the following TED talks have terrific lessons embedded in fascinating talks
• “We Don’t Need No Stink’n Textbooks” #Beyondthetextbook « My Island View–A decade into the new century we have a new way to deliver content. The internet not only delivers text, but allows it to be manipulated, transformed, evaluated, analyzed, merged with video and audio, created, and published.
• Only 7 Percent of Teachers Believe in Standardized Tests – Education – GOOD–Teachers want less emphasis on testing and more on mastering skills and high-level concepts.
• 13 ways Twitter Improves Education « Ask a Tech Teacher–Here’s some ammunition for what often turns into a pitched, take-sides verbal brawl as well-intended teachers try to come to a compromise on using Twitter (in fact, many of the new Web 2.0 tools–blogs, wikis, websites that require registrations and log-ins, discussion forums
• TeachPaperless: What should an administrator look for when hiring a 21st Century teacher?–What should an administrator look for when hiring a 21st Century teacher? Humility.
• Free Technology Tools for Teachers – LiveBinder–This binder was originally part of my 2011 Nebraska Career Education Conference presentation, Free Technology Tools for Teachers. It is also the basis for my 2012 NETA presentation
• 7 reasons to incorporate digital photography into your course – Articles – Educational Technology – ICT in Education–If I were running an educational technology/ICT course now, I’d make taking and sharing at least one photo a week a requirement for remaining on the course
• Everything you know about curriculum may be wrong. Really. « Granted, but…–The educational thought experiment I wish to undertake concerns curriculum. Not the specific content of curriculum, but the idea of curriculum, what any curriculum is, regardless of subject.
• How Tech Will Transform the Traditional Classroom–Tech allows students to learn in new and engaging ways, but many educators are struggling to incorporate digital into traditional classrooms.
• Opposing view: Testing isn’t teaching – USATODAY.com–After 10 years experience with No Child Left Behind, research shows that attaching high stakes to test scores pushes engaging lessons aside.

Tools

• 50 Free Social Media Tools You Can’t Live Without–Here is a ’2012 remix’ featuring 50 (mostly free) tools you can use on a daily basis.
• Instant File Searcher Professional, Good Windows Search Alternative – find exact files, find the file i am looking for,–For users who think that Windows Search is too fuzzy and unsatisfactory, there is an easier solution: Instant File Search Professional. Introduced as a simple local search engine capable to track files according to: name size extension creation modification date the program is quite modest in sizes with only 618KB executable.
• 3 Ways to Increase Network Speed via Registry Editor [Windows]–This article shows you how to increase your network productivity without having to pay for expensive and useless applications.
• 10 favorite freeware tools for IT pros | TechRepublic–Why should you pay for software when there are so many great tools out there that don’t cost a dime? Gina Smith rounded up some winning freeware
• 5 Innovative Animation Tools for Teachers | Edudemic–It’s now easier than ever for casual users to create fun, engaging animations. With the slew of information available online, even young storytellers can learn the basics of visual storytelling.
• The 3 Best Free OCR Tools To Convert Your Files Back Into Editable Documents–Believe it or not, some people still print documents to physical pieces of paper. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software takes those printed documents and converts them right back into machine-readable text. We’ve found some of the best free OCR tools and compared them for you here. No OCR program is perfect, so you’ll have to double check the results and fix a few problems.
• StudyBlue: A Web App To Help You Study Creating Flash Cards & Notes–Flash cards are a great way to memorize things. If you are preparing for an exam where there are formulas or facts to remember, then you might want to create …
• YouTube Lets You Edit Videos With One Click–YouTube announced Wednesday it’s rolling out a new feature that lets users edit the visual quality of videos with a click of a button.
• Digitize and Assess Student Work with ThreeRing–ThreeRing tackles two problems in the classroom: 1) the need to bridge the analog and the digital with students’ work (specifically, with teachers’ tracking of it) and 2) the need for better assessment tools — or rather, the need for assessment tools that don’t involve multiple choice, standardized tests.
• TweetDeck Gets List Management, Activity Feed, Interactions And Inline Image Previews–The latest version of TweetDeck has added new features e.g list management, activity feed, interactions and inline image previews. Now you can create, manage or delete lists directly from TweetDeck itself and randomly add or remove anyone to a Twitter list
• Kickboard: A Data Dashboard for Teachers–Part of the problem with the push to become more data-driven (and there are many problems and, I’d argue too, many benefits) is that this seems to be yet another initiative that is done toteachers and students, rather than done by or done for them.

How-To

• Don’t Tag Me, Bro: How to Control Facebook Photo Tags–We can show you how to remove undesirable photo tags, and, more importantly, how to tweak your Facebook privacy settings to make sure an unapproved photo tag never appears on your Timeline ever again
• The beginner’s guide to Amazon Kindle | News | TechRadar–The beginner’s guide to Amazon Kindle Get to know everything the powerful ebook reader can do
• Send Recorded Skype Conversations to Evernote Automatically–Find out How to Send Recorded Skype Conversations to Evernote Automatically.
• Free Technology for Teachers: Three Ways to Watch Videos & Discuss Them in Real-time Online–The web makes it possible to take that strategy a step further and have students not only “write it down” but also enable teachers to instantly respond to students’ comments while watching a video. Here are three tools that enable users to watch videos online and discuss them with others at the same time.
• Generate Infographics of your Facebook Usage–With the new Facebook-powered app,GetAbout.me, you can generate three pretty cool infographics about you and your social network entourage.
• Three Useful Shortcut Tricks for Use in Firefox That You May Not Know About–Here are three keyboard tricks that many are not aware of. As everybody knows, when you begin to type something in the address bar, Firefox will start making suggested entries. What is less known is that these suggestions can be filtered in the following three ways:
• How to Block Any Site from Showing Up in Google Search Results–If you’re sick of seeing content farms and other spammy links showing up in your Google search results, you can manually block any site through your Google Account preferences. Here’s how.
• DOWNLOAD Understanding Windows Phone 7: Your Complete Guide–Microsoft isn’t messing around when it comes to phones anymore: Windows Phone 7 doesn’t just catch up with Android and the iPhone: in many ways it surpassed …
• Building Good Search Skills: What Students Need to Know | MindShift–The Internet has made researching subjects deceptively effortless for students — or so it may seem to them at first. Truth is, students who haven’t been taught the skills to conduct good research will invariably come up short.
• 7 Video Tutorials to understand Google Voice Completely–I’m sharing 7 official Google voice video tutorials which will guide you more about it and you can make most out of your GVC account.
• How We Developed A Mobile App for Our School District – You Can Do It Too–Many schools and districts are considering whether or not they should develop a mobile app or have one developed for them.
• How to Integrate Google Custom Search Engine to WordPress–A great alternative to the WordPress search feature and form is to replace it with a Google Custom Search Engine (GCSE). This tutorial shows you how to do it.
• Save your Gmail Messages in Google Docs–This quick tip describes how you can save your Gmail messages directly into Google Docs.
• Here’s a Quick Alternative Way to Download Videos from YouTube – How-To Geek–More than 24 hours of video content are uploaded to the internet per minute. With so many videos being uploaded, there’s no doubt you’ve come across a video you want to keep. Read on to find out how you can download your favorite videos for offline viewing.
• Facebook Tips to Make Password Privacy Issue a Non-issue | PCWorld–Here are a few tips to help you enjoy the popular social networking service and not worry about interfering with your ability to land that perfect job.

iOS

• The 100 Best iPad Apps | PCMag.com–The iTunes App Store is packed to the brim with dozens upon dozens of quality apps. We’ll help you wade through the slush to find them.
• How to Switch from 4G LTE to 3G on the New iPad to Save Battery Life – How-To Geek–Whether you live somewhere without 4G coverage, you live in a bad coverage zone, or you just want to conserve some battery life, it’s extremely simple to disable 4G / LTE on the new 3rd generation iPad and switch to 3G instead, which uses less battery life.
• iLearn Technology » Blog Archive » 20 iTunes Feeds for the 2.0 Teacher–There are a lot of free podcasts that have been created with the teacher and tech nut in mind. Most of these podcasts are available free through iTunes.
• The iPad Wins Because Android Tablet Apps Suck: An Illustrated Guide | News & Opinion | PCMag.com–Do Android tablet apps really suck? Yes. Yes, they do. We take a close look, and provide examples.
• 10 Useful iPad Apps For Future Scientists and Nurses | Edudemic–The iPad shines even there, thanks to some fabulous apps that current and future nurses as well as doctors can start using now.
• 10 Apps Every iPad User Should Own | PCWorld–Apple likes to say there’s an app for that, but some are better than others, so here’s a must-have list.
• 20 Free iPad Apps Educators Can’t Live Without–Ride the iPad wave with FREE apps for your classroom. We’re excited to share this digital eBook with you!
• How To Set A Custom Homepage In iOS Mobile Safari Browser On iPhone | Redmond Pie–iOS-powered devices such as the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad are hugely popular around the world, with Apple’s mobile OS considered to be one of the most complete offerings in the mobile world.
• Apps in Education: Jackpot: iPad Lessons–Lisa Johnson from Techchef4u has put all of her iPad lessons onto Pinterest.
• Best Educational Apps For Students And Teachers – Education News – redOrbit–As the newest iPad launches today, odds are that it will become an even more popular tool for use in the classroom.
• 8 Best Web Browser Alternatives for Safari on iPad–The best web browser alternative for iPad. Web browser for iPad 2, iPad 3. Safari alternative for iPad. Best web browser for iPad
• Trade Your Old iPad For Money On These 5 Websites–Every iPad enthusiast (and everyone in general) has heard of Apple’s new iPad. While some people feel the update is not significant enough, many are still planning to buy it. With its retina display and its 4G capabilities, the new iPad can still make a good upgrade on the iPad 2, and is a significant upgrade on the original iPad. So what if you own an older iPad, but really want to lay your hands on the new model?
• Video on New Apple iPad Eats Up Monthly Data Plans – WSJ.com–Users of the newest Apple iPad are finding that its video capabilities come with an expensive downside: A monthly data-plan allotment can be gobbled up in a matter of hours.
• 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: THE iPAD.
• 103 Interesting Ways to use an iPad in the Classroom
• 14 Must-Know iPad Tips & Tricks–Whether you’re new to the iPad or a longtime user, here are some great tips to help you get the most out of the device.
• Wi-Fi Issues On Your New iPad? Try This Simple Fix [iOS Tips] | Cult of Mac–This morning we reported that a number of new iPad owners are suffering from poor Wi-Fi performance on their new tablet. If you’re one of the unlucky few, then this simply fix might just solve the issue, and in turn save you a visit to the Genius Bar.
• Cloudy with a Chance of Office | doug – off the record–But, she thought that she had a solution. Have you tried “Cloudon” she asked? I hadn’t so it was a “tell me more, tell me more” moment.

Android

• Instagram for Android sign-up page now live | The Verge–We’ve known that an Android version of the incredibly successful photo-sharing app Instagram was coming soon
• Optimize Battery Consumption On Your Android Phone With “Badass Battery Monitor” App For Android | Redmond Pie–Battery life is hardly the most impressive feature of today’s most popular smartphones. For enthusiasts like you and me, there really isn’t any smartphone that can come off the charger in the morning and make it through the night to be useable the next work day. And so, until the next revolution in battery technology comes along, it’s best to work on conserving as much battery life as possible without losing features that make your smartphone smart.
• Timeriffic For Android Lets You Set Custom WiFi, Data, Ringtone & Notification Sounds, Media/System Volume Profiles Bas–If there’s one thing where Android really excels, it’s in its ability to be customized by the user in ways iOS users can’t even fathom. This isn’t a flame bait statement, it’s actually based on ground realities.
• Effect-Filled Photo Editing App Pix: Pixel Mixer Released For Android–Photo editing and beautifying apps might be aplenty in the Google Play Store, but there are certain candidates that are worth a try; some for their sheer …
• TED is not the only Android app designed to motivate and inspire–While TED is certainly up there with the best, there are a number of other worthy Android apps that can also educate, inform and enhance your knowledge of the world around you through articles, via podcasts or with multimedia.
• 5 Ways to Search and Find New Android Apps–The best websites to Search and Find New Android Apps. Search websites based on category. Best alternatives to Google Market (Google Play).
• Use Your Android Device’s Camera Flash As Notification For Incoming Calls With FlashBlink | Redmond Pie–Smartphones of today are the ultimate example of the convergence of technology. These devices act as a camera, music player, video player, internet communications device, a phone and, in relation to this post, a powerful torch …
• 4 Handy Android Apps To Save Information For Later Reading–Here are some Android applications that you can use to save articles for later reading. Most of the applications will work with Google Reader or Instapaper.
• Send Pics to Multiple Share Services on Android with Andmade Share app–Suppose if you want to share a picture on twitter, facebook, posterous, foursquare at one single click, then you need this app which allows you to share items with multiple apps at once.
• Espier Launcher HD: iOS Home Screen Style-Launcher For Android Tablets–Remember Espier Launcher, a homescreen replacement Android app that gives your Android a taste of iOS Springboard?
• 1-Tap Optimize & Clean Up Your Device With Android Speed Booster–Just recently, we reviewed a couple of very handy Android apps – Bitdefender Power Tune-Up and AirCover – that supported advanced system optimization
• The Top 3 Free Offline GPS Apps For Android–Google Navigation for Android is one of the best map solutions you can get in the palm of your hand, but what if you don’t have a data connection? Whether you’re traveling abroad, using a Wi-Fi-only Android tablet, or just looking to use less data on your phone, you can use one of these map applications to see where you are and get navigation directions.

Miscellaneous

• Free Technology for Teachers: Twtbase – A Directory of Twitter Apps–Earlier this week while searching a tool to make word clouds out of Twitter hashtags, I discovered Twtbase.
• Teachers Pin With Their Students–Sitting through stuffy lectures with a monotonous teacher is a student’s worst nightmare. But Pinterest may be changing that.
• Tour the Amazon with Google Street View; No Passport Needed | Open Culture–Google Street View launched in 2007, giving web users the ability to tour neighborhoods with a series of 360° panoramic maps
• English Teacher Rethinks Grammar Lessons — With an App–A high school English teacher developed an app in his spare time that takes a new, red-ink free approach to grammar lessons.
• What You Need To Know About Facebook’s New Privacy Policy–Perhaps the first thing you need to know is that after Friday, Facebook will no longer be calling it a privacy policy. The name is being changed to “Data Use Policy.”
• 8 Microsoft Word shortcuts you probably don’t know – Yahoo! News UK–8 Microsoft Word shortcuts you probably don’t know’ on Yahoo! News UK. Microsoft Word: Love it or hate it, practically everyone uses it. I’ve been using it so long, I thought I knew everything about it. But I stumbled across some super helpful shortcuts — hidden tricks and timesavers that make Microsoft Word easier and faster.
• What’s my Angle?–A great flash based maths resource for learning about angles.
• Storing Music In The Cloud: Which Storage Provider You Should Choose?–Do you want to store music in the cloud and have access to your songs, videos and entire media library from any computer, any phone or any tablet? Check out this guide which compares the features and cons of different cloud storage providers and choose the one which meets your requirements.
• Why I’ll Start Using Pinterest Again After April 6th | Edudemic–That’s because Pinterest finally took action to correct some potentially disastrous mistakes: their Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy, and Privacy Policy.
• Microsoft Mathematics Tutorial 2 – Performing Basic Computations–A tutorial on Microsoft Mathematics on how to perform basic computations.
• Tablet Computers: Fad or Future?–Before 2010, we are not really clear about the concept of the computer tablet. Every computer manufacturer and software company in the world have their own
• Daydreaming Makes You Smarter–At high school, it’s invariably the kids that day dream who get told off. But a new study suggests that it’s those of us whose minds wander that have the best working memory—and working memory is itself directly associated to intelligence.
• The 60-Second History Of Social Networks | Edudemic–Got a minute and want to walk down memory lane?
• The 3 Best Places To Find Free Historical Maps Online–Many old records, such as maps, are not hosted in many locations. There are a few online resources that provide a decent selection of historical maps. They’re great for amateur researchers and anyone interested in what people thought the world looked like in the past.
• Angry Birds Space Lands At Last | TechCrunch–Bird-lovers and pig-haters, today is your lucky day: Rovio has finally pushed the button on the launch of its newest installation of its hugely successful Angry Birds franchise: Angry Birds Space.
• Books Every Geek Should Read to Their Kids | GeekDad | Wired.com–At GeekDad we are committed to helping you raise geek generation 2.0, and we believe few things that you do are more important than reading to your kid
• Klout Doesn’t Really Measure Influence [STUDY]–A study about digital influence says Klout and other social media measurement tools don’t define how users influence their networks.

Video/Slideshow

• Why You Shouldn’t Get a New iPad – YouTube

Tagged as: Edtech, Resources, Treasure