Category: Software

This Afternoon at EBC

Diving Deep into Google Earth and Google Maps

Web 2.0 in Teacher Education (Program Info)

  1. My presenter notes
  2. Alternative to the term Web 2.0 is the Read, Write Web
  3. Teacher education and professional development that effectively helps teachers better integrate technology with teaching and learning
    • Allow the teachers to select their own goals and help them reach them
    • Online social networks can more easily provide the in-time assistance, coaching, mentoring, etc. that individuals during development/learning, but teachers often don’t think about using the networks
  4. How do we prepare teachers to teach in the 1-to-1 environment?
    • The emphasis should change from "teaching" to designing learning that engages the students.
  5. Resources for future teachers

Designing the 21st Century Global Learning Environments (Program Info)

  1. Building on some online discussion that has been ocurring for the past year here and here.
  2. If there were no barriers what would education look like? Brainstorming notes

Newsletter on Educational Technology

Throughout the years many of the preservice and in-service teachers in my classes, workshops, and presentations have requested that I start an email newsletter. They indicate that in addition to this blog they would like to receive occasional emails sharing rich resources related to technology integration. I’m excited to announce that I have answered these requests.

Clif’s Newsletter on Educational Technology focuses on the effective integration of technology with teaching and learning. Subscribers of this free service will receive occasional emails providing valuable resources and information about lesson plans, activities, technologies, research, etc., related to educational technology.

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Subscription to this newsletter is open to everyone. You are encouraged to share this with everyone with an interest in education (teachers, administrators, homeschooling families, friends, classmates, co-workers, etc.). Everyone is invited to receive this free newsletter.

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MANAGING SUBSCRIPTIONS
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1 Thing

I’ve added a new feature to Clif’s Notes called 1 Thing. This special section is an area where guest bloggers can communicate “1 thing” they would like to share, suggest, say, demonstrate, etc. about a particular topic. This section will forever be a work in progress, so feel free to suggest guest bloggers and topics anytime. You can easily access this section by clicking on the 1 Thing link in the main menu.

Free Concept/Semantic Mapping Software

The following free software programs are good alternatives for concept/ semantic mapping technologies like Inspiration and OpenMind. These are helpful in the development of concept/ semantic maps, flow charts, diagrams, timelines, and more.

Tools I’m Currently Using

Several have asked me to share the technologies that I’m frequently using these days. Here’s a short list of tools that I’m using on a regular basis. You can access my accounts for most of these tools using the Navigation menu.

Firefox – There are a variety of technical and security reasons to quit using Internet Explorer. Firefox is the browser of choice these days.

WordPress – It’s clearly the content management system/ blogging platform of choice these days.

Trillian – Use and access all your different IM accounts through one platform.

Del.icio.us – Social bookmarking made simple and efficient.

Twitter – Twitter is a service that “puts you in control and becomes a modern antidote to information overload.” I use the Twitbin extension so that I can use the Twitter service even more easily.

YouTube, TeacherTube, and BlipTV – Using free accounts I setup channels allowing me to organize and share video with students and those with common interests.

SlideShare – A great way to share slide presentations. Be sure to checkout how easy it is to turn your presentation into a slidecast, too.

Feedburner – The “leading provider of media distribution and audience engagement services for blogs and RSS feeds.”

Zoho and Google Apps – These are free online office/ productivity tools. I’ve recently become more a fan of Zoho than Google because Zoho offers many more tools. Zoho’s Creator makes it possible and super easy to create your own online forms and databases without having your own server.

The following resources are also useful in helping you get your message out there and get connected: Digg, Social Poster, and Twitter

Here are other tools that I’m still trying: Flock (Combine your social tools into this Firefox-based browser), Second Life (I’m out of my comfort zone with this one), flickr (Good for work uses, but doesn’t meet our family’s needs) and facebook (It works well enough, but I don’t see the need for it).

When I finally migrate from a wordpress.com blog to a wordpress.org blog I’m going to start using Share This and Jiglu.

Go 2 Web 2.0 – Claims to be the complete directory of all the Web 2.0 technologies out there.

You can also take a look at other related posts I’ve written by clicking on the Free Educational Software link in the Navigation menu.

Free Open Source Software (FOSS)

I’ve run across several lists of free open source software (FOSS) in the last few days. I’ve added each to my del.icio.us bookmarks (see My Bookmarks in the main menu) but I wanted to a bit more proactive in sharing this information with teachers, thus the reason for this post.

Free/Open Source Software for Kids – This list was generated for those teaching 3-12 year old students. It suggests FOSS for music composition, painting, space exploration, math, and more.

KDE-Education Program – This group is “developing high-quality educational software for the K Desktop Environment. Our primary focus is on schoolchildren aged 3 to 18, and the specialized user interface needs of young users. However, we also have programs to aid teachers in planning lessons, and others that are of interest to university students and anyone else with a desire to learn!” You’ll find about 30 educational software games/ tools related to math, science, languages, art, keyboarding, and more.

23 Most Valuable Free Software – A list of the most outstanding free/open source software.

GIMP – “The GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.”

Exploratree – Exploratree is a free web resource where you can download, use and make your own interactive thinking guides, concept/semantic maps, organizers, charts, tables, and more.

Firefox – A cross-platform browser, providing support for various versions of Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. However, the source code has been unofficially ported to other operating systems. This project has a large community of external contributors. If you haven’t already switched from Internet Explorer to Firefox (or at least something else) then I strongly suggest that you consider it.

Blender – “Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite.”


For even more, you can also review my previous notes on other FOSS and TeacherJay’s Free Software Guide.

Recommended Free Technologies for Teachers

Steven Yuen recently posted his recommendations for free technology for teachers. I’m surprised at how many of his recommendations with which I agree. You can quickly browse through Steven’s slideshow (below) and add these free technologies to your teaching toolbox.

Free Software: Camtasia and Snag It

Camtasia (Screen recording software for making video of computer use) and Snag It (Screen capturing software for making images of your computer screen) are currently available for free. These tools can be really useful when developing instruction, tutorials, job aids, etc. More information is available at mguhlin’s blog.

Jethro reminded me that Techsmith also has a new product out called Jing which is less technical than Camtasia, but still a great product, and it’s also free.

New Screencasting Tools

We’re getting ready to embark on our instructional digital video module in one of the classes that I teach. I ran across Joselyn Todd’s post in which she discusses the use of screencasting tools by her and by her students. Dr. Todd also provides a list of free software tools that can be used to help you and your students begin screencasting today.

Free Educational Software

My friend Neil Hokanson had an interesting post on his blog about a suite of open source (which also means FREE) educational games for young children. The software is called Childsplay and is available from SourceForge.net. Neil explains that Childsplay has “several games in the software that test basic math and language arts skills along with other exercises that practice matching, listening, and memory skills. The activities help children learn fine motor skills as they navigate the computer keyboard and identify specific number and letter keys, mouse, and mouse pad movements.”

I encourage those of you with learners that are under 10 years old to take a look at Childsplay. Please share your review of the games in the Comments below.

Clif