I usually write about technology tools you should try in your classroom and explore with your students. Today I am writing about a tool you should beware. Yik Yak is a location based anonymous social comment phone app. It allows you to post and see the posts of people near your location. Recently it has […]
The Amazing Emaze by Janet Hallstrom PowerPoint has always ruled the presentations at my high school. Everyone seems to have a mastery of creating presentations with movies, sound, narrations, animations, and transitions. Wowing the students with PowerPoint is not even possible anymore. Prezi provided a new way for teachers to capture student interest in their […]
I have been using Black Board with my students for a year now. One major disadvantage of Black Board is you need someone to host it for you. At my school we have a hosted solution. However, not everyone does. Fortunately Black Board introduced Coursesites.com last year. It has grown to 74,000 instructors. It allows you to […]
I ask myself and others the question “How can we get our students to become produces?” It was just recently published that we will have a space elevator in 10 years. We are on the verge of major advances in all fields of science and technology. It is imperative that our students move from consumers […]
I began my teaching career in 1995. Over the past 18 years, I have integrated information technology into my instructional process and curriculum development. I have accomplished this by looking for technology that improved student learning and made me a more effective teacher. My guiding question when evaluating technology has been “What technology will help […]
In the world today of video teaching I have often found it difficult to deal with my face out there on the computer screens of thousands of people. I have made videos of just screen shares and my voice in the background, but sometimes there is a lot of static screen and just my voice […]
WOW is my first response to our celebration of Computer Science Education Week. We kicked things off Monday with a short version of the “Hour of Code” Video. Tuesday we had a snow day so with some scheduling adjustments we picked up on Wednesday with our school wide participation in the coding tutorials found on […]
Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to visit AWeber. They are going to take part in our Hour of Code events next week. They have helped us organize several technology companies to come to our school district. These companies will demonstrate what they do and the paths that lead to employment in a technology company. One of the goals […]
In 2008 “Randy” Pausch died. You may have heard of the last lecture series, Pausch delivered his “Last Lecture”, titled ‘Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams’, at Carnegie Mellon on September 18, 2007. This lecture was modeled after an ongoing series of lectures where top academics are asked to think deeply about what matters to them, and then […]
First of all I am taking advantage of my blog by saying “Thank You” to my wonderful wife for all that she does. Today is our wedding anniversery. I love you “Mo Bhean Chéile Álainn” In honor of the Hour of Code coming up (December 9th – 15th) I thought I would devote the […]
Google Web Designer BETA is a full featured FREE website development environment. It was created in a way that designs sites that work on every device. The designer handles the HTML5 and CSS3 so if you don’t know how to do all the technical stuff you can still create. If you want to you can still […]
Piazza is a free online Course Communication system. It is an online platform that facilitates interaction among students and instructors in an efficient and intuitive manor. It was started as a way to help students who were stuck on homework problems get unstuck with the help of their classmates, TAs and professors. The list of what you can […]
GoodReader is probably my favorite app on the iPad and the one I get the most use out of. This is a universal file reader and annotator. It supports file formats: PDF, TXT,• MS Office – .doc, .ppt., .xls, iWork ’08/’09, HTML and Safari webarchives, High resolution images, Even audio and video!. I use it […]
The ability to edit photos has become an indispensable tool in an educators box. I am a math teacher and in order to create assessments, worksheets, study guides, lesson presentations…etc. I need to be able to edit pictures, create drawings, and combine elements of them both into one element on a page. Until the last few […]
What is a MOOC? (see video below) It is a Massive Open Online Course. Most times it is completely free. Carnegie Mellon offers “No instructors, no credits, no charge.” Forty public universities will offer free online courses with full credit starting spring 2013. Why would a school do that well in an effort to entice potential students […]
Hello to all readers of the DEN Techformation blog series. We had a good run for a while and then took a bit of a break. Let’s jump back in and get stated again. What do you think? If you are interested in writing a post in the DEN Techformation series let me know […]
A teacher is working with a small group and doesn’t want to be interrupted with every small question, so they set the policy “Ask 3 before me.” This simple phrase was the inspiration for TechSmith’s app Ask3. While there are other strong educational screencasting/interactive whiteboard apps like Explain Everything and Show Me, there are a […]
Use the free tools at classtools.net to help you randomly pick students to call on, create interactive activities to use with your whiteboard, and engage students with an abundance of interactive learning tools. Students can make fake social media pages for historical figures , scientific elements, or any other creative educational use you and your […]
Universal Design for learning, or UDL, is a set of principles that give all students an opportunity to learn. The following websites provide all the information teachers need to start using UDL principles in their classrooms.Use this summer to familiarize yourself with UDL and be ready to implement it in your classroom on the first […]
So the summer has finally come and your looking for something to do on those rainy days ( like the next few on the east coast), how about puttin on some slippers in your PJs and taking a look at SimpleK12.com. They are a website dedicated to professional development for teachers through the use of […]
Posted for Jessica Donaldson * Flipped learning is a trend in education that is becoming a popular way to address the increasing needs of diverse learners. One component of flipped learning is the creation of content or tutorial videos, a component that leaves many educators feeling intimidated and hesitant to take the plunge. But video production […]
Have you seen DEN Techformation, a weekly series on the DEN Blogs, about various tech tools? Several DEN members, including Tom McLaughlin, Valerie Burton, Janet Hallstrom, and Karie Huttner, have taken the lead and are sharing information about various tools and how they can be used in education. They done a tremendous job and this […]
This week’s post adds a tool to your PUBLISH and SHARE tech tools toolbox. Smore.com allows you to create quality posters, newsletters and flyers for projects, presentations, and events. It is easy to create a poster: 1st sign up. 2nd choose your desired layout. 3rd Arrange the elements to your purpose. 4th add necessary text, […]
Google Apps it’s more then just Google Docs with a catchy slogan. It’s real power is in the App Marketplace. There are 90 apps just listed under the EDU category alone and most of them are free. Just click on the App Marketplace link or search google for App Marketplace and you will get to […]
The above video was made with Powtoon.com as a hook to a lesson we use to introduce students to EasyBib. When I was a student, many, many years ago, and was assigned a research paper, I truly enjoyed doing the research and writing the paper. I truly hated writing the bibliography. Back in the day, […]
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