79 EdTech Resources You May Have Missed–Treasure Chest–Feb. 20 2011

by Jeffrey Thomas on February 20, 2011

I usually write this opening paragraph after I have curated all of this week’s resources. I also try and guess how many resources I’ll be posting based upon my feeling of the previous week and what I’ve found. I am predicting a record number of resources this week. That doesn’t mean I’m going to try and put more in—I’ll go about it the same way—only putting those resources I deem worthy. For new readers, this list is only about resources from the previous week. I do this every week on Sunday and if you want to look at previous week’s Treasure Chests then click HERE!

Yes, it is a record week with 79 Resources–sometimes you just get a feeling!

Featured

Zipcast from SlideShare Makes Web Presentations Oh So Easy–SlideShare, the popular presentation hosting, sharing and perusal website, launched a new feature today that allows users to host a live one-way video presentation right next to the …
Watson Jeopardy! computer: Ken Jennings describes what it’s like to play against a machine. – By Ken Jennings – Slate M–When I was selected as one of the two human players to be pitted against IBM’s “Watson” supercomputer in a special man-vs.-machine Jeopardy! exhibition match, I felt honored, even heroic
Awesome Library–Awesome Library organizes 37,000 carefully reviewed resources, including the top 5 percent for teachers, students, parents, and librarians. It includes a search engine.
Will it ever be time for Facebook? | ZDNet–Where are students at night? Right, on Facebook. Most likely, their parents at least check in once or twice as well. So wouldn’t it make sense that school announcements, homework assignments, or report card notices should be on Facebook, too?
Teacher Suspended for Blogging About Students – Teaching Now – Education Week Teacher–Attention all teachers with blogs: Be careful with your words!
FERPA and Social Media | Faculty Focus–FERPA is one of the most misunderstood regulations in education. It is commonly assumed that FERPA requires all student coursework to be kept private at all times, and thus prevents the use of social media in the classroom, but this is wrong
Moving From Web 2.No to Web 2.Go–For years I have been hearing and reading about the need to open up Web 2.0 tools for student and teacher use in schools as well as moving toward 1:1 computer/device access for students
Three downsides of the idea of the guide on the side – Articles – Educational Technology – ICT in Education–By stating that the only role for the teacher, or at least her most important role, is to act as the guide on the side, we are in danger of the following…
How the Cloud Flattens Formats and Changes the Way We Create and Edit Documents – ReadWriteCloud–It’s a gradual move that we see people make to the cloud. It may seem slow at times but it is happening
QR Codes: The nuts and bolts–When I got over the initial “huh?” response as to what they are, and they understood that the code can contain type of data, we started to get somewhere really quite quickly.
Video Tutorial on QR Codes
10 Ways to Use QR Codes in Your Classroom | Technology Teacher–If you’ve never heard of QR codes before, I’m guessing you’ve probably seen them. QR is the abbreviation for “Quick Response,” and this code does exactly that.
TeacherLED—IWB Interactive Resources—Lots of Flash based great interactive resources whether or not you use them with an IWB!
The Best Guides For Helping Teachers Develop Personal Learning Networks | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…–Personal Learning Networks (PLN) is the phrase often used to describe connections that educators develop with other educators throughout the world
The Innovative Educator: 10 Ways Facebook Strengthens the Student – Teacher Connection–I had the pleasure of attending a panel featuring students who shared the importance of, “teachers relating to them as people, not just students”
Google Docs Secrets: 21 Power Tips for the Productivity Suite – PCWorld Business Center–Google Docs has become a serious contender among office productivity tools, and it keeps getting better. These 21 quick tips uncover hidden, useful features to help you get more done with the Web-based suite.
Ten great sources of free teacher resources | Curriculum | eSchoolNews.com–With cuts to school budgets, teachers are often left searching for ways to innovate without breaking the bank. There are numerous sites that can help, but we’ve picked 10 that our among our favorites.

Tools

Twurdy–A powerful tool to search the web by reading level
Over 20 Free Digital Classroom Tools… Customize… Plus No Log In–You will find descriptions of each tool, an overview of and samples of specific tools (if provided), and any related video (if provided).
Startingpage Search Engine–Startingpage search engine, the new private way to search Google. Protect your Privacy with Startingpage!
8 Free Tools to Visualize Information on Twitter–Another interesting way to filter through what is being said on Twitter, and better yet, analyse it, is to visualize it
5 Free PPT to Video Converters | Free Software–Here are 5 Free PPT to video converters that can convert Powerpoint to video free. Download free PPTX to video converter.
Comprehensive list of Search Engines – The Search Engine List–Over 200 Search Engines!
WinX DVD Author Now Freeware–If you are looking for a solid DVD authoring software you may want to point your web browser to the DVD Author page over at WinX DVD
Pump up Your Online Discussions with VoiceThread | Faculty Focus–At its best, the discussion board can be the heart and soul of the online classroom
Auto Change Video Size Of YouTube In Chrome – Smart Video Enlarger–Since there are not many scaling modes available with YouTube videos to upscale & downscale the size of videos …
Integrating Google Tools 4 Teachers–Come learn how you can use the FREE Google tools to encourage collaboration in your classroom.
Google Tools Glogster—A nice wiki of resources for Google Tools
Best Plugins for Windows Live Photo Gallery–Windows Live Photo Gallery supports plugins that help to extend its features and function. Most of these plugins are free, and several are published by Microsoft
CoSketch.com – Online Whiteboard Collaboration–CoSketch is a multi-user online whiteboard designed to give you the ability to quickly visualize and share your ideas as images. No registration or plugins required.
IdiomDictionary.com – Online Idiom Dictionary–IdiomDictionary.com. Easy-to-use free idiom dictionary with over 5,000 idioms and phrases explained. A concise, clear, and comprehensive explanation of all commonly used idioms
Educational Technology Guy: Google Dictionary – online dictionary with great info–Google Dictionary is another great resource from Google.

How-To

HOWTO: Start Using Twitter For Your School–Does your school have a Twitter account? It should. Follow this blueprint to help you start using Twitter for your school
How To Check If Someone Is Stealing Your WiFi – And What You Can Do About It–WiFi running a bit slow lately? If your router is still using old security methods such as WEP, then there’s a very real possibility that someone has hacked in
How To Use Google To Search–Google is the most popular search engine in the world. But while so many people use it, few actually get formal instructions on how to search with Google
How to Use Windows Live SkyDrive–Windows Live SkyDrive is free online storage space provided by Microsoft. You can get up to 25 GB of free online backup space for your documents, photos, videos and Microsoft Office files.
How to Save Tweet Links for Later Reading from Your Desktop and Phone – How-To Geek–Have you come across a lot of interesting links from Twitter, but you don’t have the time to read all of them? Today we’ll show you how to read these links later from your desktop and phone.
How to Find Old Newspaper Articles and Magazines–In the past, the only way to get hold of an old newspaper or past magazine issues was your local library but with digitization and the rise of Internet, you can get access to old newspaper articles and magazine with a simple click.
How To Check If Someone Else Is Accessing Your Facebook Account–What’s the number one issue people have with Facebook? That’s right, privacy. Ever since there’s been a Facebook, people have been voicing their privacy
Rotating Videos with Windows Live Movie Maker 2011 | Windows 7 Tutorials–Sometimes, when you import videos into your Windows library, they end up being oriented incorrectly. This is particularly an issue with cell phone videos, which can be shot in landscape or portrait mode.
Facebook Photo Viewer – How to Go Back to the Old Classic Layout–The Facebook photo viewer now displays pictures in a dark pop-up window. Here’s how you can switch to the classic layout.
How to Create a Zip File–I find myself constantly running into the dilemma of having to send a large number of small files to someone and having limits on the number of attachments
How to Slow Down or Fast Forward Videos on YouTube–The YouTube player lets you alter the playback speed of a video so that you may fast-forward, or slow-down, videos with a click.
Configure Windows Live Writer for Blogger and enhance it using Plugins | The Windows Club–This article tells you how to Configure Windows Live Writer for Blogger and enhance it using Plugins available for free

iOS

Ten Sites Supporting iPads In Education… A Post Of Resources! | 21 st Century Educational Technology and Learning–Discover ten more sites that will bring out your need to keep filling the memory chip or your iPad, iTouch, or iPhone!
High School iPad Apps–This page will house suggested iPad apps for High Schools
TextNow – Unlimited Free Texting and Picture Messaging (SMS & MMS) for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store
faad—Free App a Day
iPad Apps, iPhone Apps, Deals and Discovery at App Shopper – Top 200 (Free) in Education for iPad–iPad, iPhone and iPod touch app store listings, news, and price drops
60 iPad Apps in 60 Minutes–VSTE Annual Conference | Monday December 6th 11am, Room 102
iLearn with iPads—Livebinder Presentation
100 Awesome iPhone Apps for Studying Abroad

Miscellaneous

50 MORE Ways to Integrate Technology – Ways to Anchor Technology in Your Classroom Tomorrow
Web 2.0 in the Classroom: 33 Ways to use blogs in your classroom and in the educational setting–Drawing a blank on how you might use a blog in your own classroom?
How’s the Weather? Websites for Students–Websites about weather for students
250+ Places for Free Books Online–This is a listing of 260 sites that legally offer free books (eBooks) for download or for online viewing.
Steps in Creating a Teacher Website–Creating a teacher website is easy. Get the basic instructions, including what categories you may want to include. Find out some website dos and don’ts to engage students, parents, and administrators. Don’t run from technology. Embrace it.
157 of the Most Useful Websites on the Internet | The Social Media Guide–157 of the Most Useful Websites on the Internet
Harvard Websites for Educators–The Monroe C. Gutman Library.
For Teachers (Library of Congress)–Library of Congress resources for teachers.
FREE — Teaching Resources and Lesson Plans from the Federal Government–More than 1600 federal teaching and learning resources organized by subject: art, history, language arts, math, science, and others — from FREE, the website that makes federal teaching and learning resources easy to find.
The 5 Best Brain Training Learning Software Programs Online–Are you looking for the best brain training learning software programs online? This roundup of the top 5 sites for schools is guaranteed to help promote higher level thinking skills in your students.
Google Advanced Search: now with reading levels! | Welcome to NCS-Tech!–Thanks to a tip from the inimitable Lisa Thumann, I learned today that Google Advanced Search now allows you to request reading level information in your search results:
Gmail Now Opens PDFs with Chrome’s Built-In Viewer–Google Chrome added its own built-in PDF reader awhile back, and Gmail’s now using this plugin to view PDFs instead of the somewhat slower Google Docs. You can enable the PDF viewer from about:plugins in Chrome
Google’s Search Results Get More Social; Twitter As The New Facebook “Like”–Your friends’ activity on Twitter, Flickr and elsewhere — but for now, not Facebook — will soon be a lot more visible in Google’s search results
Funschool – Fun and Educational Games and Activities for Kids–Funschool offers free online educational elementary games for kids as well as printable activities, coloring and crafts that will help kids learn and get ready for school.
Encyclopedia of Life–The Learning + Education Group works within EOL and with partner organizations to create or foster the development of educational tools and materials that encourage collaboration, participation, and in-depth exploration about biodiversity by learners worldwide
Audacity Tip Sheet–This is an Audacity recording tip sheet designed for students. It is not necessarily a how-to manual, but rather a quick explanation of some of the buttons and tools that are displayed in the program. by jmikulski in Gadgets and How-To Guides/Manuals
Coudal Partners | The Museum of Online Museums | MoOM–Welcome to the MoOM. The galleries are updated continuously, and new exhibitions are hung each quarter.
YouTube Facts: 10 Things You May Not Have Known–The average YouTube user spends 15 minutes a day on the site, but how much do we know about the world’s largest video sharing site?
Techmeme–The web’s technology news site of record, Techmeme spotlights the hottest tech stories from all around the web on a single page.
100+ Free Internet Resources for Real Teachers in Real Classrooms–Free resources for every classroom.
Albert Einstein’s 10 Best Quotes | Top Cultured–Albert Einstein is man of great wisdom. Unfortunately his final words before his death were in German and the only person within earshot, his nurse, spoke only English and did not understand anything he said. Luckily he left us these gems.
SnapHow | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…–SnapHow has tons of accessible screencasts showing how to use software and online tools