98 EdTech Resources You May Have Missed–Treasure Chest April 1, 2012

by Jeffrey Thomas on March 29, 2012

Welcome to this week’s edition of Treasure Chest—98 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

Coming to Terms With Five New Realities | District Administration Magazine–News, Articles and Community for district-level decision makers in K-12 education. Magazine published monthly, with daily news and blogs and online content
5 Websites That Help Parents & Children Deal With Bullying Or Cyberbullying–For years bullying had been thought of as a necessary rite of passage to adulthood. If bullying is a devil’s trait, then we as concerned citizens and parents can play protectors. Educating ourselves about how to recognize a serial bully and deal with him is a first step. Maybe these five websites can be important stops on that journey
The Flannelboard: My Tribute to Evernote: A Student’s Guide–Every once and a while something comes along that causes me to wonder: Why isn’t everyone using this (or something like it)?
BBC News – Classrooms ruled by pupils or teachers?–Every generation seems to think school children are more badly-behaved and less respectful but not everyone agrees the pendulum of rights has swung too far towards children

Education Rethink: Ten Rules for Twitter –After Beth Still and David Wees and Stephen Hurley posted about Twitter etiquette, I thought I would give it a go as well. I think I differ somewhat in what I believe about Twitter. I think the real issue is one of ethics rather than etiquette.
Are Private Schools Stifling American Innovation? – Education – GOOD–Parents pay top dollar for private school tuition, but the posh existence they’re buying may actually hurt American ingenuity.
10 Sites to use with Mobile Phones in Education–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
5 Vimeo Videos Every School Leader Should Bookmark | EdReach–Vimeo is chock full of fun, artistic, and inspiring videos. Below are five videos that anyone leading professional development could find inspiring.
“Cellphones are a Distraction” « My Island View–I would say that in most of these discussions, the leading reason given not to have “Cellphones” in a classroom is that they are a distraction.
The Role of Tech vs The Purpose of Education | DMLcentral–Working in the field of digital media and learning, where the important role of new technologies in learning seems self-evident, the slow pace of change in mainstream education can feel frustrating.
100+ Google Tricks That Will Save You Time in School – Eternal Code–100+ Google Tricks That Will Save You Time in School

Arthur C. Clarke Predicts the Internet & PC

14 Steps to Meaningful Student Blogging–So you have heard about blogging with your students and you are considering taking the plunge but just not sure what or how to do it?
Wind Map of the U.S. Will Blow You Away–Ever wondered what the wind would look like if you could see it in action from above? You’re about to find out with Wind Map, a new site from a pair of Google computer scientists.
Revisiting Cell Phone Bans in Schools — THE Journal–Twenty-four percent of K-12 schools ban cell phones altogether, and 62 percent allow phones on school grounds but ban them in the classroom, according to the most recent national data available. But it’s about time for those schools to rethink those bans, said Kevin M. Thomas, assistant professor of education at Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY, who spoke at the 67th ASCD Annual Conference & Exhibit in Philadelphia this weekend.
10 reasons NOT to block social networking at work | TechRepublic–Jack Wallen says employees should have access to social networking sites at work.
Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Why Schools shouldn’t use Google forms for anything private (Lesson learned)–Last week was a mess largely because the form we set up for teachers to share their information with us for the Eracism project was pulled down by Google with no warning
The Ultimate Guide To Becoming An Amazing Twitter Curator | Twitter Tips And Updates From Buffer–Here, I’ll describe the way I use free tools for personal content curation. The process has four stages – collection, storage, output, analysis.

Free Technology for Teachers: Still Crazy After All These Years – Crazy About RSS–I still remember the first time I saw Google Reader in action. I was instantly in love it!
The Entire Google Search Features for Teachers and Students–Here are some important Google search features to develop your search skills
Why Technology Truly Matters To Education. | Edudemic–This is the kind of story that makes me love what I do. If I’m ever feeling like the work I do (integrating technology) is not important, I should just watch this video and read the story
Using Twitter to Expand Your PLN | District Administration Magazine–In 2009, Twitter, the social-networking platform that allows users to post content up to 140 characters in length, was gaining momentum.
The Entire Google Search Features for Teachers and Students–Here are some important Google search features to develop your search skills
Technology Timesavers for Teachers – myTeachersLounge–Teachers today are fortunate to have access to technological tools that make our jobs easier and minimize the paperwork involved in educating our students
The power of Twitter | Teacher Network Blog | Guardian Professional–How I became a convert to Twitter • The teaching and education community on Twitter is truly inspirational
10 ways to differentiate learning… « What Ed Said–Once upon a time in the olden days, the teacher stood out front and taught the whole class the same material in the same way
6 Mind-Blowing TED Talks About Psychology & Human Behavior–The human brain is complex and confusing, which explains why human behavior is so complex and confusing.

Tools

The 21st Century Principal: 6 Must-Have Mobile Device Apps for the School Administrator–Ask yourself what makes an app on a mobile device useful, and the answer is that the most useful apps have these four characteristics:
5 Best Free Screen Capture Software For Windows–At AddictiveTips, we are always looking for newer and better software that can make the life of our readers simpler. Screenshots are used in several
60 Educational Apps in 60 Minutes by Clint Stephens on Prezi–A tour of some of the great iOS apps available out there for educators.

60 Educational Apps in 60 Minutes on Prezi

Top ‘Apps’ for PE Teachers – Part 12 « Mr Robbo – The P.E Geek–Part 12 of this great series.
Take more than notes on your tablet with Evernote | TechRepublic–Evernote is much more than a note-taking utility. Andy Makar highlights some of the ways that your company can use Evernote as a feature rich,
New Online Timeline Tool Available For Everyone–New online tool Timeline generates timelines on the web by curating content from different media like Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.
Free and Cheap Software for Benchmarking Like a Pro | PCWorld–Gaming rigs and data-crunching workhorses alike need to be in top condition. Find out how your computer performs on intense, system-slamming tasks with these benchmarking programs.
7 Web 2.0 Animation Tools | Mark Brumley–Animation projects are a great way to integrate technology, encourage project-based learning and have a lot of fun.
20 amazing tools to modify images–Adobe Photoshop is not just a simple software or an amazing tool to modify images, it‘s a new possibility of creating art items. Obviously, it is used to retouch images, to create the layouts of various websites or any graphical designs but, in the hands of talented artists, it is the perfect tool to create [...]

How-To

How to Teach Students About Digital Identity | Edvoices–When I was in the classroom, I worked hard to integrate social learning into the day as often as possible. Many teachers claim that they understand the importance of social learning, and that they teach and practice social skills with their students throughout the day
How to Deal with a Forgotten Windows Password – LockerGnome–What do you do when you forget your administrator Windows password?
5 Must-Know Facebook Timeline Tips/Ticks–Have you embraced the changes? The new Facebook Timeline lets you change the way your entire life is showcased over the Internet – in the form of
Five ways to make Google Apps safer | TechRepublic–David Politis suggests five specific and practical steps you can take to make your enterprise installation of Google Apps more secure
5 Must-Know Facebook Timeline Tips/Ticks–Have you embraced the changes? The new Facebook Timeline lets you change the way your entire life is showcased over the Internet – in the form of
Five ways to make Google Apps safer | TechRepublic–David Politis suggests five specific and practical steps you can take to make your enterprise installation of Google Apps more secure.
DOWNLOAD Dropbox Tips–Dropbox is an extremely popular, easy-to-use online file hosting and sharing service that was founded by two MIT graduates. It lets anyone easily backup
Download the Audio Pronunciation of English Words from Google–You can download the audio pronunciation files of English dictionary words in MP3 format and practice pronunciation on the go.
GT Explains: What Are Android APK Files and How to Install Them–Learn What Are Android APK Files and How to Install Them On Your Android Phone
Turn Off The Startup Sound In Windows Vista and Windows 7–So, who finds the Windows startup chime annoying? Especially after hearing it time after time after time (for instance, during a series of upgrades).
Learn How to Pronounce Difficult Words with YouTube–If you do not know the correct pronunciation of certain words or names, you can use closed-captions videos on YouTube to learn how to pronounce any difficult word
How to Remotely Shut Down or Restart Windows PCs – How-To Geek–Windows includes Shutdown.exe, a simple utility for remotely shutting down or restarting Windows computers on your local network. To use Shutdown.exe, you must first configure the PCs you want to shut down or restart remotely.
How to Setup Messages + Facebook Chat in OS X Lion [Quicktip]–Messages is one of the features is offered in the recently announced OS X Mountain Lion, it allows you to integrate Facebook Chat so you can chat with your …
How to Create a Custom Ubuntu Live CD or USB the Easy Way – How-To Geek–There are several different ways to create custom Ubuntu live CDs. We’ve covered using the Reconstructor web app in the past, but some commenters recommended the Ubuntu Customization Kit instead. It’s an open-source utility found in Ubuntu’s software repositories
How To Create Your Own Basic Music Video–There are often lots of creative musical artists out there just waiting to shine, but as I recently discussed with someone in the music industry, you are nearly forced to have some form of video to accompany your music these days. As nerve-wracking as that may sound to some, it’s really not that hard to make your own online video content. To make things simple, I’m going to say that you just need three things for this basic tutorial.
4 Ways to Keep Your Windows PC Secure Without Paying for Third-Party Applications–It is often a misconception that you have to install 3rd party anti-virus software to protect your Windows. Instead, you can use free apps by Microsoft to keep your PC free of issues.
Five Google Apps tweaks to improve your web work | TechRepublic–Kevin Purdy reveals five little advantageous tweaks that you may not have noticed are currently available in the Google-verse lately.

iOS

1,000 Education Apps Organized By Subject & Price | Edudemic–But how do you really know which ones are worth downloading, or possibly even paying for?
iPad Apps and Bloom’s Taxonomy | Langwitches Blog–I felt it was worthwhile to update the Top Post (over 25,000 views) on Langwitches
40 Wonderfully Creative iPad Apps | iPad.AppStorm–We all have the capacity to be creative, it’s in our very nature.
The Ultimate iPad Buyer Guide–If you are getting your very first iPad, there are plenty of decisions you have to make, from which iPad, storage size, wifi or 3g and so on. Let us help you out with this buyer guide.
View Your Twitter Timeline In A Unique Way With Crest App For iPad | Redmond Pie–With the App Store containing close to 600,000+ apps, it is no surprise that a lot of software gets lost in the jungle and never makes it to the publics attention
5 iPad Apps That Look Great On The New Retina Screen–As a proud owner of a new iPad, I can honestly say I love the higher resolution screen.
‘Wonders of the Universe’ Lets You Explore Space On Your iPad–Wonders of the Universe sets you off on a 3D exploration through space with 210 full-color articles, hundreds of photos, and video.
5 Apps for Working From the iPad–Let’s be real about this. You can’t do everything on an iPad. As Shawn Blanc pointed out the other day, you can’t make iOS apps on it, for example. But you might be surprised by how much real work you can do on it with the right tools.
Find, Create & Share Tutorials For Anything With Snapguide For iPhone–There is the rather popular saying that goes something like, “If it wasn’t awfully difficult, you did it wrong”, but that is not always true
5 Apps for Working From the iPad–Let’s be real about this. You can’t do everything on an iPad. As Shawn Blanc pointed out the other day, you can’t make iOS apps on it, for example. But you might be surprised by how much real work you can do on it with the right tools.
Find, Create & Share Tutorials For Anything With Snapguide For iPhone–There is the rather popular saying that goes something like, “If it wasn’t awfully difficult, you did it wrong”, but that is not always true.
15 Favorite iPad Apps As Selected By Teachers | Emerging Education Technology–Out of 125 responses from teachers indicating their top 3 apps, these are the apps that were listed most often. Over the last few weeks, we ran a survey asking …
New iPad ‘Overheating’ Claims Exaggerated, New Tests Proves It To Be On Par With Other Tablets On The Market | Redmond–Although the first ten days of the new iPad have been relatively successful – particularly regarding initial sales – it hasn’t passed without its usual dose of hitches and gripes.
Get A True And Accurate Visual Representation Of Your iPhone Signal Strength Using Bars For iOS | Redmond Pie–The iPhone is a bit of an all rounder, that it handles its core purpose extremely well, while managing to carry out a whole host of other tasks. However, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have its fair share of issues
15 Ways To Use The New iPad In Classrooms | Edudemic–Inspired by the magnificent edu-tweeter @ShellTerrell, I wanted to share a few of the great ways she and her fellow tweeps plan on using the new iPad in the classroom.
The New iPad: How To Enable Voice Dictation–One of the new features of The New iPad, is the ability to use your voice to type instead of the onscreen keyboard. But if you’re restoring from a previous backup, this new feature won’t be enabled by default. Here’s how to enable it manually.
Top 20 Must-Have Educational iPhone & iPad Apps – List Of Must-Have Educational iPhone & iPad Apps | Tech Holik–With advent of technology, nearly everything has changed. Even the ways with what we learn things have changed a great deal.
10 AirPlay-Ready iPad Apps That Make Apple TV Worth It–When I first unboxed the new 1080p Apple TV and plugged it in, I wasn’t blown away
iOS Education App Reviews and Web Sites–This is a list of web sites that review and/or share educational apps for iOS
10 iOS 5 Tips For iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch Users–So many new features get added to iOS updates that we often don’t take advantage of them all. The most recent iOS 5.0 and 5.1 updates for iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch users make the devices a little easier to navigate with several useful features for the iPhone camera, and perhaps little known preference options in the Settings area. I’ve chosen 10 of my favorites.

Android

This App For Android Lets You Access Status Bar And Notifications Drawer Inside Full-Screen Apps | Redmond Pie–One thing that Apple did right when they copied Android’s excellent notifications drawer feature was its ability to work even with full-screen apps such as games, video players and alternative browsers. By default, Android doesn’t give you this option
Tips To Use Less Google On Your Android Phone–Some people don’t like giving all of their information to Google, particularly on their Android phone. Here are some changes you can make to take Google out of the picture for most things
Top 5 Podcast Apps for Android–The top five Android podcast apps for Android users
GO Backup For Android: Backup/ Restore Apps, App Data, Contacts & SMS–Yet another rich data backup/restore solution for Android hits the Google Play Store; this time, courtesy of the GO Dev Team – the team behind the
Clipix: Bookmark Interesting Online Content Under Clipboards [Android]–Stumbling upon numerous items of interest while surfing the web is a normal routine for most of us. Well, if it’s something of utmost importance for you, like …
Screen Filter For Android Lets You Reduce Your Display Brightness Beyond Default Lowest Setting For Night-Time Viewing– These displays are simply amazing in every way
Free Science Fiction, Fantasy & Dystopian Classics on the Web: Huxley, Orwell, Asimov, Gaiman & Beyond | Open Culture–Today we’re bringing you a roundup of some of the great Science Fiction, Fantasy and Dystopian classics available on the web
Official Android Client Of Zoho Docs Arrives In The Google Play Store–Headed by Google Docs and followed by the likes of Quickoffice, Documents To Go and OfficeSuite, the online document editing/management app genre of Google Play
Evernote Update Brings Speech Recognition – audio notes evernote, evernote speech to text, evernote update, evernote up–Evernote for Android has rapidly become one of the most popular and engaging note taking application there is. And it’s not just for Android only, it can cross-platform quite easily and is always in-sync.
Great Android photo-sharing apps while we wait for Instagram to drop – Android app recommendations – Marty Gabel | Appo–But with no set date for its release, it’s worth remembering that there are a number of good Android apps out there that offer photo-sharing opportunities. Here are just a few of our favorites

Miscellaneous

INFOGRAPHIC : Wikipedia – Redefining Research–Jimmy Wales must be chortling into his cheerios when he sees how his baby called Wikipedia has influenced so many areas of life, both online and offline
9 Free Tumblr Themes That Look Like Pinterest–Looking to turn your Tumblr into a Pinterest board? Several themes can help make that happen.
How Much Do Your Friends’ Facebook Apps Know About You?–Even if you never connect your Facebook account to a single app, dozens of them may still have access to your profile information.
Despite Policy Changes, Pinterest Still Doesn’t Comply With DMCA–Despite changes over the weekend to its usage policies, Pinterest may still not be in compliance with the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, according to copyright attorney and blogger Connie Mableson.
Amazing NASA Video Shows Star Trails From Space–Have you ever imagined what it would be like to sit in a space station orbiting Earth, just chilling and looking at the stars?

Free Technology for Teachers: A Humongous Infographic About Our Solar System–The infographic depicts the relatively distance between objects in our solar system.
100th anniversary of Titanic’s sinking captivates historians, tourists – USATODAY.com–Centennial of ‘unsinkable’ ocean liner’s sinking reinforces disaster’s grip on public imagination.
Explore Mandela’s archives online | Official Google Blog–Today, the Mandela archive has become a reality. Along with historians, educationalists, researchers, activists and many others around the world, you can access a wealth of information and knowledge about the life and legacy of this extraordinary African leader
INFOGRAPHIC : PDF – The World’s Digital Document–I absolutely love PDF files as they are very practical. They’re easy to read, you can encrypt them, sign them, split, rotate and watermark them, merge them, and navigating a PDF is effortless.
The Unspoken Etiquette of Facebook Photo Tagging–That afternoon, the Facebook notifications just kept rolling in, one after the other. You’ve been tagged in a photo, the social giant eagerly announced via email, again and again.
Six Famous Thought Experiments, Animated in 60 Seconds Each | Brain Pickings–Curating eclectic interestingness from culture’s collective brain
Viewing satellites with Google Earth | Google Earth Blog–Amazing things about Google Earth – news, features, tips, technology, and applications