Another great alternative to YouTube is WatchKnowLearn.org, a collection of videos with an educational focus. Within a few clicks I was able to find a well-made video introducing JavaScript programming.
Archive for the ‘Technology’ category
Watch Know Learn
December 1st, 2011PBS’s collection of research on educational technology
November 10th, 2011There is definitely a push to use technology in education, which makes sense since much of life in the United States involves some form of technology. Throwing technology at students for technology’s sake, though, is not best practice.
That’s where PBS comes in as a great resource with their collection of articles about using technology in education, complete with research as evidence and essays on effective use. If you’re an educator, it’s something you will want to check out by clicking here.
One of my favorite features is a database of technology lessons that you can search by content area. With just a few clicks, I found 78 pages (as of the time of this post) worth of lessons for using technology in Reading and Language Arts classes.
Six pre-made HTML 5 lessons
November 9th, 2011This one’s for the teachers of technology. If you are doing any instruction on what HTML 5 is, check out Microsoft’s faculty page here for pre-made PowerPoints for six lessons. The page also includes all of the project files, which gives you a lot to pick and choose from when modifying it for your own classes.
“If you believe S. E. Hinton is engaging in abusive behavior on Twitter, you may report S. E. Hinton for spam.”
October 31st, 2011Oh, technology.
First, the autocorrect on my phone changed “S.E. Hinton” to “S.E. Hilton”, making me look like I was clueless about one of my students’ favorite authors as I posted about her on Twitter. Then, I get an email from Twitter giving me an option to report the queen of YA for SPAM abuse.
But then I think about a benefit of instant access through technology: I was able to go back and forth with one of Young Adult literature’s finest. She was friendly and had guessed that it was an autocorrect error.
She’s at se4realhinton on Twitter. Give her a message.
FlashNotes – A game to speed up note recognition
October 19th, 2011If you’re looking to practice note identification, a great resource for that is FlashNotes. It’s sorted by clef and skill level.
Treble – Beginner
Treble – Advanced
Bass – Beginner
Bass – Advanced
I especially like the frantic music in the background and the countdown timer. Nice find, Mr. Durham.
Class Parrot
October 7th, 2011I am really intrigued by Class Parrot, a service that lets you set up a text message subscriber list for your classroom.
As a teacher, you create classes on the main site and Class Parrot creates an opt-in code that parents and students can text to Class Parrot to sign up for messages.
The thing that really grabs my attention is that you use the site, not your phone, to send out messages. Your cell number is not used. Also, you don’t know student and parent cell numbers. The only numbers people need are the opt-in code and Class Parrot.
I’m going to look more into the service and see if it’s something that we can do to better communicate with our community.
TenMarks
September 26th, 2011
At TenMarks, teachers can create online classes for students to practice Math lessons aligned to the common core standards.
Teachers and students can track academic progress, honing in on which Math concepts need more practice. There’s also a game unlock system, which adds a little bit of motivation.
Once you understand that sending a message in TenMarks is the equivalent of assigning homework, the interface is clear and useful. This is perfect for teachers wanting a way for students to practice Math at home for reinforcement.
New page: Technology in Education
September 15th, 2011I don’t know why I didn’t do this before. I use a lot of different websites with many different teachers, so I’m going to dedicate a page on this site to organizing all of those sites.
The new page is called ‘Technology in Education‘.
It will be a growing list, so check back frequently.
Renting books
September 12th, 2011I’ve talked with friends before about a Netflix-like service where you could mail in a book and get a new one sent to you. The obvious limitation is that a book weighs significantly more than a DVD.
Now Amazon is in talks about renting ebooks to readers.
I wonder how this will fare, considering gutenberg.org and a number of other sites offer free books for keeps. Public libraries also offer free ebooks for a time, like the Southeast Regional Library’s Overdrive service. I guess it will come down to an issue of cost versus selection.
Is Netflix trying to psych us out?
August 26th, 2011edited 8/26/11 4:40pm: Clear your cookies for Netflix. Cookies store passwords and other information for websites. If you don’t want to clear all your cookies, you can check your browsing history and right-click (in Firefox) on the site in the list and ‘Forget this site’. It will look different on other browsers, but the idea is the same.
As September 1, and the new Netflix pricing, approaches, many people I’ve talked to are ditching the DVD portion of their Netflix subscription.
I find it interesting that since last night I’ve seen this on Netflix’s homepage:
Are they trying to prove that streaming is not reliable? It’s just on the website; my 360 is still streaming fine. Will the website have improvements? Is Netflix going to surprise us with a Watch Instantly library that includes more than low-budget movies from the early 90s? Is this another attack from Anonymous?
Whatever the cause for the outage, have you seen downrightnow.com? For any website, you can visit this site instead of hitting refresh over and over again (if you’re like me). downrightnow can help you diagnose if the site is really down or if it’s simply on your end of things.
