Welcome to this week’s edition of Treasure Chest—a list of edtech resources from the past week that you just may have missed. This week I have added an Education section as the reform/budget movement has taken an ugly turn. In addition, this was the week of the iPad 2 announcement and you can find all the information in the iOS section. Enjoy!
Featured
- Viral Post!!!: I Don’t Want to be a Teacher Any More–Anyway, whatever the reason, for the first time in 34 years it hit me, I don’t want to be a teacher any more. Over 300 comments!
- Over 100 ideas for using Twitter in the Classroom | Emerging Education Technology–These resources provide over 110 ideas for incorporating Twitter in the educational/instuctional process.
- 100 Excellent Online Lectures for Educators | Best Colleges Online–As an educator, you know how important it is to continue to learn throughout your life. With this collection of videos, you can learn all about teaching, learning, and the policies of schools. Check out our list to find the best online lectures for teachers and other educators.
- 50 Excellent Open Courses for Techie Librarians | Best Colleges Online–Techie librarians have lots of great resources available to them online, and open courses are some of the best tools for your professional development. You can learn about research, open source, technology, and much more. Here we’ll take a look at 50 of the best courses for librarians interested in technology.
- Teaching the Facebook Generation–Schools have had to act fast to try to manage the widespread use of Facebook and other social media by students and teachers, writes Ainslie Macgibbon.
- Controversy Over Grades | Nebraska Change Agent–After being on Twitter for nearly 3 years I have learned to spot a bandwagon from a mile away.
- 50 Ways Twitter Has Positively Impacted The World | Big Is The New Small–How has Twitter positively impacted the world? In order to find out, I decided to go directly to the source. I sent out the following tweet: How has Twitter positively impacted the world?
- “Skype in the Classroom” Launches to Connect Teachers & Students Worldwide–Skype usage by teachers has caught Skype’s attention, says spokesperson Jacqueline Botterill, and the company has just launched the beta version of Skype in the Classroom, an effort to support their efforts.
- AUPs shape Web 2.0 use, guidelines–As educational technology transforms teaching and learning, many districts are finding that once-solid acceptable use policies (AUPs) must be updated to reflect students’ and teachers’ increasing use of Web 2.0 technologies and other digital media tools.
- 10 Websites For Reading Children’s Stories Online–For children, stories are the window to the outside world
- The Rise and Fall of Electives | Parentella–Electives: an extinct species in many schools and school districts. Why they’re important and what we can do.
- Educational Technology Guy: Education dot com – tons of educational resources–Education.com is a site I found out about last week. The site has a very diverse range of articles, resources, and links on a variety of educational topics.
- Free Technology for Teachers: 11 Good Digital Storytelling Resources–If you’re considering developing your first digital storytelling project for your class, here some resources that can help you get started.
Tools
- Skype in Schools—Livebinder–Resources for Using Skype in Schools
- A-Z Web tools:C | Ozge Karaoglu’s Blog–Here is the third part of A-Z Web tools with the third letter:C!!
- A-Z Web tools:D–Here is the fourth part of A-Z Web tools with the fourth letter:D!!
- Best Free Online Applications and Services–The best freeware reviews presented to you by Gizmo’s team of experts
- Online converter – convert video, images, audio and documents for free–Convert files like images, video, documents, audio and more to other formats with this free and fast online converter.
- Eight Great Tools Windows Users Would Never Want To Miss–There are many apps out there for you, but getting by free and good ones is not that easy
- TI-Nspire graphing calcs get full color displays, 3D, WiFi, and new OS – Engadget–Tech Powered Math is reporting a mid-April release date, for an MSRP of $165. Totally psyched?
- QR codes in Education: qr codes education | Glogster EDU–See the Glog! QR codes in Education
- Masher – create free online video, photo and music mashups–Online video editing, mash-ups, mashups, mix, mash, share, free content, video and photo mixing, best slideshows, free BBC video content
- Dropbox Plugin for Windows–Dropbox is a nice service where you can sync your files and share them online by copying the files on to the Dropbox folder
- The Top 5 Best Search Engines To Find Photos On Flickr–Do you have a Flickr account?
- Download YouTube Videos In Full-HD (3072p) Format With youtubeFisher–youtubeFisher v3.0 Beta for Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 has been released with minor changes and support for additional video formats including the Full-HD
How-To
- How to Create Your Own Custom News Sections with Google News–Learn How to Create Your Own Custom News Sections with Google News.
- Convert PDF to Doc for Free using Google Docs–How to convert PDF documents to Word or text format for free using Google Docs
- Five tips for backing up your data to the cloud | TechRepublic–Cloud backups may seem like an ideal offsite storage solution. But as Brien Posey discovered, you need to do your homework before selecting a cloud backup service.
- How to Convert an MP4 Video into an MP3 Audio File – How-To Geek–MP4 is a widely-used video format; you can grab MP4 files off YouTube, Vimeo, and many other online video websites. But what if you have a video of a song you love, and want to extract just the music? Read on to see two different ways to do just that.
- DropSpace Syncs Android Files to Dropbox – How-To Geek ETC–DropSpace is a free Android application that fixes the primary issue that plagues the official Dropbox app for Android–the lack of true file synchronization
- How to Easily Convert PDF to a Nice Looking Flippable Book for Free–Flip pages in a PDF document or ebook, like a real book. Check out this amazing and free app to get that done.
- Three Lesser Known Google Search Operators–Here’s a follow-up to the previous tip that discussed the undocumented AROUND operator. Although they are documented, there are three other Google operators that are not well known and in this tip, I’ll describe them. Make use of these and you can improve your search results.
iOS
- How the iPad 2 Will Revolutionize Education | Fast Company–iPad in the classroomThe iPad 2′s wealth of new features is a boon for tech-hungry classrooms.
- No, The iPad 2 Will Not Revolutionize Education | Hack Education
- Walt Mossberg on Apple’s iPad 2 | Walt Mossberg | Mossblog | AllThingsD–After Steve Jobs’ unveiling of the iPad 2 in San Francisco yesterday, Walt shared his initial thoughts with Stacey Delo of The Wall Street Journal.
- iPad 2 – Should you Upgrade to the new iPad?–Apple launched the second generation iPad – dubbed iPad 2 – recently and the new version is slimmer, faster and comes with two cameras. But should you upgrade?
iPad 2 Features
iPad 2 Features
- iPad 2 Specs & Announcement-Everything About Apple’s Latest Tablet–Apple has made a number of improvements to the device since the original iPad, so we’ve drawn up a iPad 2 vs. iPad 1 comparison.
- The Impact of the iPad on K-12 Schools–Find out the technical and instructional implications of the iPad in the classroom.
- iPads in Schools–Resources for using iPads in schools.
- Meredith Ely: iPad 2 Could Level Playing Field For Learning–The iPad 2 has the capacity to shift learning in drastic ways. Lower cost, mobility, and intuitive design means kids will have more access to better opportunities.
- Resources – Digital Storytelling with the iPad
- Twitter 3.3 For iPhone, iPad Brings Trending Topics Quick Bar–Twitter 3.3 for iPhone automatically shortens URLs, has a revamped DM conversation view which now looks similar to SMS or Chat thread, automatic URL completion.
- iPad 2′s New Features: Video Hands On | News & Opinion | PCMag.com–PCMag played around with the Apple iPad 2 and got video of its most exciting new features at the San Francisco launch event.
Education
Crisis in the Dairyland!
- Diane Ravitch On The Daily Show Talks Teacher Bashing, Education Reform–Historian and author Diane Ravitch joined Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show” Thursday to discuss education reform. In between Stewart’s comical quips, he took time to acknowledge one of his favorite teachers: his mother
- FLASHPOINT: Bring teachers into effort to reform education–Demonizing a person or group of individuals is a technique that is often used to justify reform.
- Teachers get a big dose of new tech – Education – Modbee.com–When test scores plateau or the dropout rate rises, the cry goes out for better teaching and more services. Hundreds of teachers gave up a clear, sunny Saturday to take up tech topics at two Modesto seminars this weekend.
- Bill Gates – How teacher development could revolutionize our schools–How we can spend less on education and still boost student achievement.
Bill Gates: How State Budgets are Breaking US Schools
- Gary Stager: Who Elected Bill Gates?–Who elected Bill Gates and gave him control of a national treasure, our public schools? Would someone please suggest that he return to the corporate world?
- George Lucas: Join the Movement to Transform Learning–What we need today and in the future are citizens who can wield the tools of technology to solve complex problems.
- Teacher layoff policies a lesson in union survival–It looks increasingly likely that organized labor will manage to cheat death in Wisconsin. But where does that leave unions?
- The Answer Sheet – The Bill Gates problem in school reform–How our celebrity-obsessed culture affects school reform: If Bill Gates had no money, would anybody care what he has to say about how to fix public schools (especially since he lacks strong evidence to back his positions)?
- Why unions hurt higher education – USATODAY.com–As the nation’s colleges slowly embrace the union label, expect more entrenched, hard-to-fire, left-leaning professors.
- Podcast: Are teachers getting a bad rap? – This Just In – CNN.com Blogs–From Wisconsin to New Jersey, many public school teachers feel they are too often criticized as lazy and overpaid. So is there, as some suggest, a prolonged political attack on teachers? Diane Ravitch told CNN that teachers, and the unions they belong to, are convenient political scapegoats.
- Why Bad Teachers Survive [Infographic]
- Why Your Boss Is Wrong About You – NYTimes.com–Performance reviews are more often subjective evaluations than an indicator of an employee’s effectiveness.
Miscellaneous
- 100 Best Websites for Science Teachers | Forensic Science Technician : Online Schools Guide–With science and math in the headlines, teachers are under more pressure than ever to keep kids up to date. But with shrinking budgets and growing class sizes, it is getting more and more difficult to do so.
- 100 Intro Open Courses on Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Learn | Best Colleges Online–While the classes you take through online college are a great resource, you can augment your learning by taking some time to see what entirely free courses are out there offered by universities
- 20 Free Web Apps for the 2.0 Student–Productivity has to be priority number one when you’re a student. Between class, study time, and extracurricular activities, there just aren’t enough hours in the day.
- Sixty Symbols – Physics and Astronomy videos–Curious and quirky videos describing the various symbols used in physics and astronomy
- Elementary Music Games: Online Resources for Music Teachers–These online elementary music games are a great way to introduce some educational games into the music room
- Classroom Tech: What to Do When Students Know More Than Teachers?–In a day and age where students know more than their teachers about different forms of technology — whether it be iPhones, computers, or video games – schools are making every effort to get their teachers talking tech
- See your Facebook Friends on a Google Map–Meet an interesting mashup that will help you visualize the geographic location of your Facebook friends on a Google Map with a click.
- High Def Teacher: Top Websites for Teachers–Welcome to High Def Teacher, a totally free community of teachers dedicated to finding the best resources on the web!
Video/Slideshow
Space Shuttle Launch: Viewed From an Airplane
Space Shuttle Launch: Viewed From an Airplane
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