Computer Position

Wow, its been over two months since my last blog post, I do apologize, sometimes life just takes over and doesn't allow us much time for anything else. In addition, I have also been quite busy trying to get settled into my Masters program in EDTECH @ Boise State University.

So far things are going really well and I look forward to sharing many of the new great things I will learn, with you.

To help me get back into the swing of blogging, I have this great video to share with you that was shared with me by one of my students.

Enjoy!

Where I want to be in one less click!

Wow!

So maybe I might be a little behind the times, but I just discovered Google Apps!

I have heard of their Apps before and after a quick glance, I became aware that I was already using some of them. However, last night was the real discovery : life is much easier with Google Apps!

Basically, I chose all the Apps that correspond to my daily online usage and determined how using the app brings me to where I want to be in less time!

Screen Shot of Google Apps!

In addition to my daily usage apps, I found some really neat apps to use with my students:

Diigo Web
Type Scout
Evernote Web
Picasa
Prezi
Sketchpad
Typing Test - Key Hero
QR Code Creator
Weebly
Google Docs
For Language schools there is Google Translate
For teachers, the Webpage Screenshot app is awesome!
And many more...


Another great thing is that we already use Google Chrome as our Internet browser at school ( I would highly recommend you install Google Chrome on your school computers, especially if you also work with Google Docs). By adding educative apps to the Chrome home page, it makes it that much easier to share app links with our students. In addition, each app has its own image. Therefore, it is much  easier to guide our younger students to where we want them to go.

Happy Apping!

Tools for using YouTube safely in class!

For me, YouTube has become one of the first places I look to get a great "hook" to catch my students attention at the beginning of a new unit (and throughout). When I'm in the drivers seat, I can control what my students see.  However,  more and more my students are driving and this year I am offering an online course to my students,  therefore, I have been paying a lot more attention to the content on YouTube. Whether it be the comments at the bottom of the video, the video's that are available in the sidebar, the video's that show up after the video chosen is done, etc,  I am much more conscious of the video links I share with my students....until now!!!


After attending another fabulous Webinar organized by SimpleK12 (http://simplek12.com/tlc/webinars/),  I was introduced to some amazing tools that let you chop and purify those great videos!


1)  TubeChop allows you to easily chop a section from any YouTube video and share it. (You can also embed your chopped video into your website, wiki, blog, etc.)

http://www.tubechop.com/

2) Safe Viewing

• Safeshare: http://Safeshare.tv - Generate a link without the comments and related videos. (Ability to share the video via Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

• QuietTube http://quietube.com/ - This provides you with a button to put on your toolbar. When you open YouTube or other video sites, click on the button, and your video will be displayed without any ads, comments, etc.

• ViewPure http://viewpure.com/ - Very similar to QuietTube, however has a few more options.

Now I can share video's with my students without having to worry if something inappropriate or offensive will show up while they are viewing the video's links I have shared with them.

Did you also know that YouTube has a section for educators?

Check out : www.youtube.com/education

As well, for all the history teachers out there, this is really neat: YouTubeTimeMachine - http://yttm.tv - Where you can get videos from any year. Your students might really enjoy searching and watching video's of a certain time period!

For other additional resources visit: http://livebinders.com/play/present?id=172921 which also includes a list of YouTube alternatives.

Enjoy!

Thriller

Hello fellow bloggers,

I apologize for being absent the past few days. I have a lot of great new tools to share with you so please bare with me, I will be posting and updating my resources this weekend. Please check back in a few days.

In the meantime, check out this how to dance to Michael Jackson's Thriller, a great activity I like to do with my students during Halloween :)

The how to :


Dance with the music:


The music video: (Start the video around 1 min 44 secs for the dance)


Happy Halloween