Tech Chick Tips

Tips and tricks for teaching 21st century students using 21st century skills from two Texas educators obsessed with anything digital! RSS Subscribe to RSS

Episode 45 - In the Can!

Helen’s fault we haven’t podcast. On the road again! Anna has a broadband card! TinyURL DOES save your URLs forever, but MooURL is still cuter! And customizable. So there! Shout out to Region VIII in Mount Pleasant! Hi Melodie! Visit us at NECC! Make us a t-shirt! Check out Steven Katz’ Teach with Video book! WordWorld on PBS is SOOoOoOoOO cute! Spin & Spell is great for early literacy! Take a look at LookyBook! I learn technology from iLearnTechnology! Old news now, but we finally have Google Docs offline! Get the skinny on a zip code with ZipSkinny! If only I could see that web page, I know I’d recognize it! SearchMe!

 
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Posted on : Jun 19 2008
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Posted under podcast |

Episode 44

Twittermania
Creative Commons License photo credit: Thomas Hawk

Twitter Commentary in response to blog post by David Jakes (sorry–we’re a little long winded, but we just had to do it…). If you’re sick of hearing about Twitter, fast forward about 23 minutes. Hey… you were warned!

Resources
Newbie’s Guide to Twitter
http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9697867-2.html
Good beginner’s guide for anyone new to Twitter from Rafe Needleman whose name Anna dubbed in later because she had a flub. It’s a terrible edit. Painful. We’re human.

Long Portraits
http://photojojo.com/content/photojojo-original/long-portrait-video
A quick and easy, but powerful example of digital storytelling. 30 second or less video of someone responding to a question. Great to take at the beginning of the year and then end of year, or from year to year, maybe with the same question each year, to watch the kids grow and change. Good for career days.

Artsonia
http://www.artsonia.com/
World’s Largest Children’s Art Museum

MooURL
http://www.moourl.com/
Web’s cutest URL shortening service. If you have a really loooong URL, just paste it in the text field, and they’ll milk it, creating a moourl for you. It lasts forever, It’s automatically copied to your clipboard, and It’s really cute.

We’re dropping our forums…but you can communicate with other edutechs:

  • use Twitter
  • use comments on episode notes
  • use Diigo
  • IM us
 
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Posted on : Apr 29 2008
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Posted under links, podcast, ponderings |

Episode 43

Shout Outs:

  • Greg Smith from Round Rock, TX, for promoting our podcast in his district. We love to hear from our listeners.

Google Docs & Spreadsheets
http://lifehacker.com/374302/google-docs-offline-access-rollout-starting-today

It’s going offline! Yay! It wasn’t an April Fool’s Joke! We don’t have it yet but we’re sure looking forward to it!

JotForm
http://jotform.com/
Create forms with drag and drop. Publish to spreadsheet. Share data. Free account only allows 100 submissions a month. $9 a month will get you unlimited plus a little more.

Education Packs on Twitter
http://twitterpacks.pbwiki.com/Education+Pack
A PB wiki site for building your Twitter network. We’ve linked straight to the Education pack but you can add yourself anywhere. And find other Twitterers with commons interests

Twubble
http://www.crazybob.org/twubble/
Loads up people you follow and then lists people THEY follow telling you how many of the people you follow follow them but you don’t follow. Do you follow?

Mnemograph: Web Based Timeline (thanks to tbarrett’s del.icio.us share)
http://mnemograph.com
A web-based timeline software application for creating, and sharing history and planning diagrams. Beautiful displays. Easy way to pull in Flickr images and Wikipedia history.

XTimeLine
http://www.xtimeline.com
Another web based timeline. Already has many historical timelines to view. Have to have a (free) account but you can add editors to the same timeline.

CompFight
http://compfight.com/
An advanced Flickr search. Turn safe search on/off. Creative Commons. Get all thumbnails on one page with a hover over for the size of the original images.

Jing Project
http://jingproject.com/
Capture video, images and allows you to publish on their site or locally. Embed link, email. All free.

Start Your Search Engines
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6545435.htm
April feature article we wrote on search engines.

 
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Posted on : Apr 12 2008
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Posted under podcast |

Episode 42 - Ha! Bet you didn’t think we’d be back that fast!

Funky world Q_Q
Creative Commons License photo credit: *Katch

So we felt guilty about the lapse between episodes 40 and 41, so we’re following up 41 with 42-brief, but still full of the goodness you’ve come to expect! *uh…any extraneous noises may be Anna’s kids, but there really aren’t many–they did a great job and were quiet while we recorded! :-) {update by Anna: Let’s play “listen for the kids!” First person who hears them arguing in the background gets a free t-shirt!}

Shout Outs:

* @njtechteacher for Panwaba even though it was already on our list. Thanks for sharing ideas!
* @dmcordell for Student 2.0 site.
* @katiemorrow is a new follower and is a new blogger–go by and encourage her AND learn from her!
* @BarbInNebraska and @cnansen for helping us call out a plagiarizer!
* Our Twitter network for contributing links on search engines that we added to ours for our upcoming article (SLJ-available April 1st).
* btw…if you’re not on twitter yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! What a great learning resource!

Resources

TweetMap
http://www.mytweetmap.com/
Twitter and Google Maps mashup that works as a Twitter client and allows you to see where your Friends’ tweets come from (thanks to @cnansen for sharing his students’ work).

TeachStrong
http://teachstrongnetwork.ning.com/
An online Professional Learning Community for educators interested in becoming stronger teachers through the use of digital technologies.

BeFunky
http://www.befunky.com/
Two free online applications which will allow users to create self-expressions. “Cartoonizer” re-creates images/videos by turning them into digital paintings, cartoons and comics. Uvatar (coming from avatar where u represents “You”) which helps to create an exact illustrated representation of its owner. We think the cartoonizer may be helpful for creating avatars for students to use to protect their identity.

Electronic Student Portfolios
http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic82.htm
Fairly comprehensive listing of URLs all about portfolios for teachers and students.

Diigo
http://www.diigo.com/
Bookmark and highlight the web. Add sticky notes. Access and search your findings from any PC or iPhone. Create groups to pool resources for specific projects.

Bonus song: Ctrl Z by Popple

 
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Posted on : Mar 26 2008
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Posted under links, podcast |

Episode 41

Let's Get Green! Please take a moment to read...

Creative Commons License photo credit: ecstaticist

We know it’s been a while, but we’re back! This episode is packed with links that we’ve been wanting to share with you. And special thanks to Anna’s Mom and Dad who let us arrive unexpectedly and use their wireless this morning. Long story, but you’ll hear it on the podcast…and we have to get this posted, so it’s not as edited…hope you can bear with us!

What Could It Mean
http://whatcoulditmean.wikispaces.com/
Using VoiceThread, contribute a single photo of your country depicting a unique tradition, custom, routine, etc. Students post their thoughts on what that image represents.

VoiceThread Revisited
http://ed.voicethread.com
Providing a secure, collaborative environment for educators and students. $10 fee, but that’s almost free.

Kerpoof
http://www.kerpoof.com
http://www.kerpoof.com/teach
What is Kerpoof? Kerpoof is all about having fun, discovering things, and being creative. Here are just a few ways you can use Kerpoof:

  • Make artwork (even if you aren’t good at drawing!)
  • Make an animated movie (really! it’s easy!)
  • Earn Koins which you will soon be able to spend in The Kerpoof Store
  • Make a printed card, t-shirt, or mug
  • Tell a story
  • Make a drawing
  • Vote on the movies, stories, and drawings that other people have made

Linked to Texas and Washington standards; committed to being kid-friendly! Educator page has ideas for using the site as well as lesson plans and other resources.

Panwapa
http://www.panwapa.com
Developed by the educators behind Sesame Street, geared towards 4 to 7 year olds with the intent to promote global awareness. Awareness of the wider world, appreciating similarities and valuing differences, taking responsibility for one’s behaviors, community participation and willingness to take action, and understanding of and responsiveness to economic disparity. Several languages, video and print. Lesson plans coming soon.

Levelator
http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/
Free software that runs on Windows, OS X (universal binary), or Linux (Ubuntu) that adjusts the audio levels within your podcast or other audio file for variations from one speaker to the next, for example. It’s magic–levels of both people speaking are magically “levelled” out–your podcasts (or any audio recording) will sound professional!

Gigapan
http://share.gigapan.org/easter.php?window_height=697&window_width=1297
GigaPan consists of three technological developments: a robotic camera mount for capturing very high-resolution (gigapixel and up) panoramic images using a standard digital camera; custom software for constructing very high-resolution gigapixel panoramas; and, a new type of website for exploring, sharing and commenting on gigapixel panoramas and the detail our users will discover within them. The GigaPan website allows hosting and sharing all kinds of panoramas, and so the robotic GigaPan mount is recommended but is certainly not required to be part of this community. Think digital online “Where’s Waldo”.

HP Project Idea
http://tiny.cc/j3KGo
Do a scavenger hunt with your students. Make it a Math hunt. Find an example of 4/5th. Or find a parallelogram. Extra points for using an original example.

100 Ways to Use Your iPod to Learn
Sorry guys! We were so wowed by all the links that we didn’t read the comments all the way through! “ipod-hacker” apparently plagiarized this article from the Online Educational Database. Please see the original article:
http://oedb.org/library/beginning-online-learning/100-ways-to-use-your-ipod-to-learn-and-study-better
http://the-ipod-hacker.blogspot.com/2008/02/100-ways-to-use-your-ipod-to-learn-and.html
Lists of study guides, tutorials, podcasts, applications, and other downloads to help users get the most out of their iPod and really use it as a learning tool. Some services are for charge, while others are free.

Poll Everywhere
http://www.polleverywhere.com
Now free accounts come with 1000 votes per month! Much more user friendly for educators–thanks for listening!

2008 SIGTel Online Learning Award Competition
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/yteachers_community/message/112
Looking for original, online learning activity. Awardees will be honored at NECC 2008 and SIGTel will publish the winning entries, and the respective authors’ reflections in its online publication, SIGTel Bulletin, and archive the work as exemplary projects on the SIGTel Web area.

Students 2.0 and Student Voice
http://students2oh.org/
Many thanks to two students who contributed their voice to Anna’s professional learning at her campus. Check out their thoughts online and find ways to hear your own students.
Arthus: http://myfla.ws/
Lindseak: http://lindseak.wordpress.com

 
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