LibreOffice is a free, open-source, powerful office suite software that is a great alternative to Microsoft Office. I use it on my home computers. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and has six applications: Write (word processor), Calc (spreadsheet), Impress (presentation), Draw, Math and Base (database). It works great and the [...]
iPad Apps for School is another site from Richard Byrne, author of Free Technology for Teachers and Android 4 Schools. In this site, Richard and his guest authors will be sharing resources and reviews of apps (mostly free) that can be used in K-12 schools, along with ways that those apps can be used in the [...]
Google has just launched Keep, a note taking service, that is free. It is a cool note taking system, that allows you to quickly jot down notes, checklists, transcribe a voice memo, search your notes, and more. Your notes are saved in Google Drive and synced to all of your devices. There [...]
Google Docs/Drive is a great, free resource that allows you to create, edit, share, collaborate on, and comment on Documents (Docs), Spreadsheets (Sheets), and Presentations (Slides), all online. Think Microsoft Office in the cloud with some other great features. I use Google Slides (Presentations), the equivalent of PowerPoint, for all of my presentations. [...]
Tackk is a free web service that allows you to instantly and easily create and share content online. No login, no fees. Just go to the Tackk page and start typing. When you are finished, you can share it via the web or social networks. You can have a title, subtitles, photos, change fonts and [...]
MyPhysicsLab is a free site that contains, you guessed it, physics lab simulations. They are simple and created in Java, but illustrate the physics concept quite well. They are organized into topics: springs, pendulums, combinations, collisions, roller coasters, molecules. There is also a section that explains how they work and the math/physics/programming behind creating [...]
Any.do is a very popular, free, to-do list app for Android, iOS and Chrome. It has now added 12 new languages and is available in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Chinese (simplified & traditional) & Russian. This makes this highly popular task app even better. What’s nice about Any.do is that [...]
Clouds Over Cuba is a new interactive history lesson about the Cuban Missile Crisis. It is a multimedia documentary on the Cuban Missile crisis and was just released, 50 years to the day that JFK learned that the Soviets were building missile sites in Cuba. The project was developed by the Martin Agency [...]
Google has a cool new app for Android, called “Field Trip“. It helps you find things about what’s around you. It runs in the background and when you get close to something interesting, it pops up with details about that location. You can use it to learn more about historical locations, buildings, stores and [...]
Jumpshare is a service I just learned about that lets you easily share and view files online, for free. Simply drag and drop your files to the site and then you can share them. Other sites let you do this, but Jumpshare has a very cool feature of it’s own – people can [...]
Enthread is a web based image editor that has some easy to use, simple editing features. Simply drag your image to the center of the page and get started. Adjustments include: Hue/Saturation/Lightness, Brightness and Contrast, Colors (RGB), Filters (sharpen and blur), and Process (Sepia, Desaturate, Solarize, Invert, and Edges). You can undo [...]
Skitch is Evernote’s sketching app. It is a great app that allows you to create sketches and annotate, edit and save photos and sketches. It is very useful for taking notes that can’t be typed, annotating photos, and making sketches. It is available for desktop, iOS and Android. Steve Lai, a teacher in Canada, has some [...]
I love Evernote. I use it for everything. Lesson plans, lesson schedules, notes, web clippings, lesson resources, travel notes and much more. I can access it on any computer and from my smartphone. I can even share notes and notebooks with other people (like my students). It is an indispensable app for me. [...]
This week, Tech & Learning and Intel released their improve K-12 Blueprint web site. The site has resources for educators about planning and implementing technology initiatives. The site has resources about one-to-one programs, BYOD, digital content, reviews about technology, success stories and case studies, tips and ideas, webinars, educational technology news, and much more. This is [...]
Google Course Builder is a new resource from Google that allows you to create your own online courses. Google used it to create their Power Searching with Google online course. It has all of the software and instructions for creating an online course. Your course can contain lesson materials, student activities, and assessments. There are also instructions for integrating [...]
This is the presentation I did this past Saturday at the New England Day of Discovery, in Groton CT. There are some great, free resources from Discovery Education available that can help teachers, students, and parents. The content and design of these resources is excellent are are great resources to help students learn. [...]
Every year people ask me what my favorite tech tools, apps, and other resources are and what I use on a daily basis. Every year, this changes a little bit. I just had someone ask me for a list of what I use the most and what my favorite Ed Tech resources are, so [...]
This week is Open House Week at the DEN, so I decided to share what I like about the DEN. Discovery Education is an excellent resource for educators. They have great fee-based products (Streaming, Assessment, Science and more) and over 30 free resources available for educators. The Discovery Educator Network is also a great resource for educators where [...]
Welcome back to school! I hope everyone had a great summer and was able to relax and recharge. Our district starts with teacher professional development and classroom setup this coming Thursday, K-9 start next Tuesday, and 10-12 start Wednesday. The summer has flown by! The beginning of the year is always a little crazy [...]
This past Friday I attended EdcampCT and had a great time learning, sharing, and meeting new people. I facilitated a discussion about Evernote and one of the questions I got was “why not just use Google Docs for notetaking?” I went on to explain all the features of Evernote but wanted to expand on it a bit. [...]
I’m a huge user of Google’s many apps and services. I use Sites, Blogger, Chrome, Chromebook, Android, Search, Reader, Calendar, Gmail, Tasks, and much more. While I have shortcuts on my new tab page in Chrome and on my Chromebook, I can’t fit all of them on one page. iGoogle is also being shutdown so I won’t have [...]
School is starting soon, or has started in some places, so I thought this would be a good time to share a bunch of great resources for new teachers. Us veterans can use these too! Please share with your colleagues. Here is a collection of resources for New Teachers: New Teacher Advice and [...]
Shelly Blake-Plock is the creator of the blog “TeachPaperless.” It was one of the first education blogs I found and started reading years ago and was one of the ones that convinced me that I should start my own blog. His blog was not limited to articles on going paperless, but rather had articles about thinking [...]
This past January I wrote “10 Tech Skills Every Student Should Have” and I have decided to modify it for the “10 Tech Skills Every Educator Should Have”. Here’s my list. Overall, educators need to understand some basics about technology and that it is not a be-all-end-all solution to everything in a classroom. Technology can help [...]
Tips to Extend Projector Lamp Life is a nice infographic from Project Lamps World that has some really good tips for helping you extend the lamp life of your computer projector. Most teachers now-a-days use a computer projector in their classroom (I think it is an essential tool for all classrooms). The projectors can go [...]
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