If you missed some of the concurrent sessions or the Lunch and Learn breakout sessions, our new Regional Coordinator, Cynthia Brown, collected resources I am sharing here. In addition, Patti Duncan created Edmodo codes for each session, so I culled the resources from the Lunch & Learn sharing sessions. Sit back and relax as you [...]
One of the big buzz terms of the last few years has been “Digital Storytelling.” Teachers of all grades want to integrate digital storytelling into their curriculum to enhance student learning. This has the added benefit of being fun and creating a pretty impressive final product that can be published and viewed anywhere. You can’t [...]
This tip is for those teachers who occasionally write letters on their computer and then email them off without ever touching a sheet of actual paper. For instance, if you apply for a job and need to upload a letter of introduction or if you email a document to your office, it needs to be [...]
After recent posts about Firefox capabilities and tricks, as well as Microsoft’s latestversion of Internet Explorer, I thought it would be appropriate to provide a link to Google’s latest venture into the browser world. Check out “Google Chrome” here. They have some nifty new features not found in other browsers, like the ability to add [...]
I’m sure the folks at Microsoft read one of my previous postings about how I prefer Firefox and it inspired them. The newest version of Internet Explorer is out and has some pretty groovy new features. Check out IE 8 Beta 2 and read the review by EWeek here. I have to say that one [...]
I like to multitask. At any given time I usually have about 6 different application windows up and running on my laptop (not to mention all the items running in the background). So, it would follow that I similarly have a ton of tabs open in Firefox. Here are two tips for those wanting to [...]
Last Monday, my high school students couldn’t stop talking about the most recent Indiana Jones movie they had watched over the weekend. Normally, it would be one of those topics that I would have steer my students away from as we began our lesson, but this week I engaged it head on and integrated their [...]
This past February Google released a great new tool for educators, students, business’s and all around website needing folks. This new creation is Google Sites. Google Sites claims it fills the need of sharing a group website, which seems to be part wiki, part blog and part modular website. I found Sites to be pretty [...]
Everyone loves educational games. Learn and have fun. What a treat! I love Jeopardy! There, I’ve said it; I’m one of them. I even tried out for the show in Hollywood once (didn’t make it ). Perhaps you’ve heard of the Jeopardy PowerPoint that has been floating around the internet for along time now. It’s [...]
If you are using Google Docs (and Spreadsheets and Presentations…) you’ll be happy to hear about some of their latest changes and additions. Some of the cool ones are the ability to create forms and have people fill them out. Then when they are updated you can view the data in your aggregator. Some people [...]
While these tools are great, please, please, check with your district’s/school’s teacher acceptable use policy before using them. Many districts block certain sites for many reasons. We don’t want any teachers “in trouble” for going around the system…. ~DEN Management I’ve had a lot of success using the online file conversion tool, Zamzar. I’ve used [...]
I teach elementary school (there, I said it. Please don’t judge me ) In my classroom, I like to use quiet music in the background when students are working. I know a lot of teachers find the value in a peaceful work environment and students working quietly to the sound of Enya (or something else [...]
We all have our favorite websites for learning. I’m talking about sites that provide useful tools, frequently Web 2.0 style. These are mostly things that we couldn’t even have imagined in a desktop environment a few years ago, let alone on the web. With thousands of great sites out there, and more coming every day, [...]
Last week I decided to do my periodic check of Google’s latest products. I usually just go here and scan the list to see if there is anything I haven’t yet used. One tool that has been around for a little while is Google Notebook. I’ve heard about educators and students using it, but had [...]
These days, we all use different applications to modify our websites. Some people use MS Frontpage or Dreamweaver, some use Mac accounts and many people have different types of web hosting, such as Google Pages, Teacher Web, or even Word Press (such as this blog). Whatever tool you use to host your site, sometimes the [...]
You likely know what a podcast is, but do you know what a screencast is? How about a sketchcast? I’ve been using screencasts as tutorials and marketing elements for quite some time now. A screencast is essentially a video of what a user sees on his or her computer monitor, complete with mouse trails, text [...]
Well, I have to say that I haven’t owned an Apple computer since my Apple II C, but I wanted to share a neat tip from a few of our fellow DEN members: Howard Martin, Austin, TX and Dennis Grice, CA I didn’t know this, but this may be old news to some of you! [...]
Have It Your Way! As we get deeper into the digital world, we find ourselves using all kinds of digital media. For better or worse, the media formats we use are getting more and more broad with every new technology that emerges. Sometimes,we need to convert an Open Office document to a Word doc or [...]
I can remember many moons ago, way back when I was getting my BA…All the fun of communicating with my friends through instant messaging (IM). Back then, almost everyone used AOL IM, whether you had AOL or not. It was free and you could communicate with anyone else who was online, quickly and easily. I’m [...]
Flash animation is one of the fun new media tools that has made the internet more engaging. Flash has applications in storytelling (click on the small town on the horizon), mindless games and even the news. But if you’ve ever tried to learn Flash you know the learning curve is steep. However, thanks to a [...]
If you haven’t tried the online office suite, Zoho, you’ve been missing out. While Google Docs and Spreadsheets and Think Free are great tools, Zoho usually ranks at least as good or better according to reviews in many major magazines/websites. Anyway the good folks over at Zoho got their creative juices flowing again and came up [...]
By now, I think most of us are familiar with the process of turning PowerPoint slides into jpeg images to insert into a Photostory3 project. If not, search that under the DEN resources. It’s really simple and effective (essentially saving your PowerPoint in the “save as” box as jpeg file interchange). Here is one that [...]
Another Great Post about Free Tech Tools for Teachers from Guest Blogger Dave Kootman… Microsoft continues its domination of the office and the school with its flagship productivity suite, Microsoft Office. We’ve all used it; odds are it’s installed on your computer right now. It certainly gets the job done, but for $150-500, it can [...]
Brought to you by guest blogger: Dave Kootman I would like to share with you some great software that you can use both at home and at school. I will be reviewing different software that will make your life easier as a teacher and a computer user. The best thing about all the software I [...]
A few months ago I received a call from a gentleman that wanted to learn more about the Discovery Educator Network. Upon returning his call, I learned that he had already applied to the DEN and was anxious to be approved and have the opportunity to tap into our resources. We spent quite a while [...]
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