Education Jargon Maker – Angela Maiers shared this one via Twitter.  Sure wish we’d known about it while we were still writing our ERT documentation!  Have some fun typing in a phrase and seeing how it is converted, ex: math skills translates as “deliver visionary critical thinking.”

If you don’t already follow her blog or twitter feeds, you NEED TO ADD HER RIGHT NOW!

Go on.

I’ll wait.

Hmmm, Hmmm, Hmmm, Hmmm.

Done?

Good.

Once you follow her you’ll find she shares a bunch of excellent educational resources as well as thought provoking posts.  While I was over on her page just now, I happened to see the following YouTube video “Goomoodleikiog” (Google, Moodle, Wikis, Blogs), which is a great introduction to an ideal virtual classroom ala CommonCraft style.  I SOOOOO, would love to develop something like this with one or more of my teachers (ahem! Mr. Forston, you reading this???)  I’ve attempted to embed the video below, but it is YouTube, meaning it is blocked by our district and you’ll have to watch from home.  Sorry, it hasn’t been posted in TeacherTube yet.

There is also a “sequel” for students “Goomoodleikiog 4 students” that is just as good, if not better, with two sock puppet students discussing the classes virtual classroom.

I hope you enjoyed the videos and have taken a moment to subscribe to Angela Maiers blog and twitter.  You won’t regret it!  I’ve got a bunch more resources to share, but I’ll pass them along in another Odds & Ends post later.  I was just too excited to share these to do a “proper” odds & ends piece!

Once again, playing catch up.  Most of the items being covered I’m familiar with – and while I may not have used them all, I think I’ve got a pretty good handle on how they work.

#16: Wikis – Task, explore some and write about your thoughts and experiences.  I love the concept of Wikis and would love to use them with teachers and/or students.  I especially like all that Joyce Valenza is doing with wikis and the TeacherLibrarian Wiki.  Unfortunately, or fortunately depending upon your viewpoint, this requires a level of collaboration between teacher and librarian that requires pre-planning.  This may be an activity for us to develop for next year (or semester) and would hinge on the district allowing access to a wiki.

#17: Add an entry to the SCASL Wiki – I’ve already updated the SCASL librarians who twitter, blog, and podcast (although our podcast page hasn’t been updated in quite some time!)  Will have to think of something to add to the “Your Favorites!” section o.

#18: Zoho Writer – great thing about Zoho is that I can use my GoogleID instead of having to create a whole new account.  Zoho seems to do the same and more than Google Docs and I like the Notebook feature.  Can see using this to take notes at a conference and exporting them to my blog.

I’m already a Google Docs user and have advised some of my students to use them as well.  We have a huge problem with floppy discs and thumb drives not working in our school computers.  By using Google Docs (and as long as we have an internet connection), students have a way of retrieving their work.  Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten teachers to try it out, yet!

#19: LibraryThing: Kinda neat.  I’ve created a LibraryThing catalog to share on my blog (see the widget below the blogroll & links) to list the books that I’m reading now.  I’ve entered the six that I’m currently trying to finish.  All are available in the school library.  As I finish them I’ll write a review.  I’d be interested to see what others think of the books.

That’s all for now.  This week we’re to look at YouTube and other video sharing sites.  Should be fun!

“Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.”

Great for:

• primary source materials for DBQs (Document Based Questions) for AP History
• helping students grasp concepts in history – visualize events
• sparking class discussion
• use in student projects

You can search Google Images just for LIFE photos by using ’source:life’ in your search.  For example, if I wanted photos of World War II, I’d type “WWII source:life” in the search box.

I’ve moved my RSS reader from Google to Bloglines since Google doesn’t notify me when I’ve updated my Tech Tips blog. I’ve unsubscribed and re-subscribed to it twice and it still wasn’t working right. No problem since moving to Bloglines. Hopefully, I’m the only one with this problem, but I doubt it. Will have to remember to email my school folks that if they are using Google Reader and haven’t been getting my Odds & Ends posts, then they need to subscribe via email and/or possibly switch to another reader.

Its been difficult switching over all of my feeds (plus adding new ones!) and getting used to the new interface. I have to admit that I “mark all as read” for many of the posts, especially for news and entertainment blogs. Now that I’ve had more time (Whoo Hoo! Spring Break!), I’ve been catching up and here are some articles I’ve found interesting today:

USATODAY.com: “Microsoft Surface arrives at AT&T first” – AT&T the first to use the Microsoft Surface tabletop like computer. For additional details on the new computer, go here.

USATODAY.com: “Google searchers could end up with a new tpe of bug” – hackers adding code/program that takes searchers invisibly to the hackers site then to correct site and leave a bug on the searchers PC that can steal your personal information.

USATODAY.com: “Personal gene scans: Vanity or science?” – for $1000-2000 you can have your genes scanned for 500,000 to 2 million of the 3 BILLION gene points. The scans look for specific health conditions, but is it really worth it?

Lifehacker.com: “Whiteboard: Erase permanent marker from your dry erase board” – I’m going to put the steps here since I know the site is blocked at school:

1. Get the board you want the stuff off.
2. Get a dry erase marker (yes, we will make marks to take marks) and a dry eraser.
3. Draw over what you want to erase (make sure you draw slowly to fill it in better).
4. Erase.
5. Done!

Endgadget.com: “Researchers turn brushing your teeth into child’s play” – a computerized toothbrush!

That’s all for today. More to follow, I’m sure!