Seeing Technology In A New Light....NC Kaleidoscope

One of the hardest tasks I have found for teachers is the integration of the technology skills (NETs) that students must have. We often see teachers working with students on word processing documents or Power Points but regularly neglect to teach the essential skills. I find that it is not because they do it intentionally. They do it because they just don't understand how it integrates into their curriculum.

This is where NC Kaleidoscope comes to the rescue. Designed for grades 5-8 there are tools to help teachers, students, parents, administrators, guidance counselors. and staff development coordinators teach those required technology skills from the Technology Skills Curriculum.

What I think is the most beneficial parts of the site are the week-by-week tutorials that teachers can use with their students to work on the essential technology skills at the specific grade level. For example in 5th grade students work their way around an amusement park working on things like spreadsheets, multimedia presentations and more. The site takes it one step further and shows teachers how each weeks lesson can be integrated into what is being taught that week so that the teacher does not feel like they have to give up class time.

The point that the site likes to make is that the integration of technology skills into the daily curriculum is easy. It is a matter of changing just a few things that teachers do everyday like providing for alternate forms of assessment, cross-curriculum integration projects or effective ways to monitor students in a computer lab setting.

It is a very valuable site for both you, your staff, students and parents.

Check it out!

NC Kaleidoscope

Smart Notebook 10-The Shape Pen

In today's Smart Notebook 10 Video, I demostrate one of the most requested features in the new version, The Shape Pen.

Battle of Wits...JeopardyLabs Online

Secretly I have a dream to be with the mustached one known as Alex Trebek and take down Ken Jennings as the most winningest person on Jeopardy history. However, deep down I know my dream may never become reality.

But I can get a little a closer (and so can you and your students) with JeopardyLabs Online. Before now there were two ways to play this highly interactive game in the classroom. You could buy the actual game with controllers, scoreboard and question cartridges. Often, I have found, that teachers need lots of help setting that up. The other way was through Power Point. I can not tell you how many Jeopardy templates I have for all sorts of grade levels. I usually do a workshop to teach teachers how to make them.

No longer! JeopardyLabs does the work for you. Now teachers and students don't have to worry about making sure slides are linked correctly or making sure the questions disappear after they are answered. All you need is to go online, fill out the board with your dollar amount, categories and questions and you are ready to go. I created one in about 10 minutes! But JeopardyLabs takes it one step further in that you can share your board with other teachers and you can search boards other teachers have made. Looking for weather, Civil War, or Romeo and Juliet? There are several boards that others have all ready made. So if you are in a pinch use the search and find your board. But what if you find a pre-made board but one or two of the questions don't suit you. No problem! You can edit it and save it as your own!

But wait there is more! How is this site kid and classroom friendly? There is no registration! All you need to do is pick a password so if while you are building you need to come back. No need to create email addresses for your class. This could be a great way for kids to interact with each other and demonstrate learning after a lesson or unit.

Here is a board that I modified as if I was teaching a unit on Chemistry. I simply searched for Periodic Table, found what I wanted and modified it for me.

I encourage you to add this site to your arsonal of creative ways to assess student learning.

JeopardyLabs

New Blog On Cyberbullying

A new blog on Cyberbullying, cell phones in the classroom, and other technology topics has recently come across my desk. Mike Tully specializes in education law and has created Substantial Disruption, a place where educators, lawyers, and other members of the education community can come together to talk about technology in education, specifically on topics like cyberbullying.

From The Blog:
"This is a place where legal and educational professionals can meet to discuss ideas, share information and research, and even share drafts of articles. This blog and its parent website represent one channel in a growing number of sites devoted to the issues brought to us by cyberspace. However, the goal of this site is to help educators and lawyers meet and greet in cyberspace and help each other define the rules for our brave new cyberworld. Attorneys who are involved with schools have a perspective that educators don’t share, and vice versa. Neither discipline, acting alone, is likely to make any progress toward a world in which we balance Internet-based expression with the need to provide safe schools and secure learning environments."

There are some very interesting posts here. I encourage you to check it out!

Substantial Disruption

Smart Notebook 10-The Magic Pen

A new feature here on the Web 2.0 Classroom is instructional videos aimed at helping teachers get the most out of technology in their classroom.

In today's video I talk a little about one of the new features in Smart Notebook 10, the Magic Pen.

Keeping The Classroom On Track

When I was teaching middle school science I was notorious for letting my kids out late for their next class. We either got caught up in a riveting discussion or in an exciting lab, that time just got away from us. Well, that comes to an end with Class Timer.

The Class Timer is a simple, web-based appilcation that allows you to either count up and use it as a stop watch, or count down and use it as a timer. You can give the timer a name and even have it play a sound when the timer is finished.

Class Timer

Cloud Storage With ZumoDrive

If you are like me you have lots of flash drives and external hard drives storing multiple copies of your documents, pictures, lesson plans, etc. Sometimes it can be a pain. I often leave my drives on my desk in my office and then either have to drive 40 minutes back to get them or suffer until the next time I am around. There has to be a better way?

Now there is. There are lot of online backup storage solutions out there. Some are really easy to use but cost a fortune. Others only allow you to back up all at once and retireve all at once. There is a much better option out there in ZumoDrive.

I have been testing/using ZumoDrive for about 2 months now and it is awesome! I never have to worry about forgetting my drives on my desk, loosing my work or worrying about my drives crashing. I can access my files from anywhere I have an internet connection, including my iPod.

When you signup and install ZumoDrive a new drive appears in your drive list. All you have to do now is drag files there and ZumoDrive does the rest. You can then access those files through that drive or from your online account. You can even share documents via a link that you can send out to colleagues and friends. But what if you want to make changes to a docuement? Simply open it from your ZumoDrive, make your changes and save. ZumoDrive will re-sync with tbe new settings.

Storage starts at 1GB for free and goes up from there. But 25GB is only 7 bucks a month. That is the perfect size for most users.

Check it out!

ZumoDrive