Tools

10 Google Forms For the Classroom

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August 26, 2010
by Mark

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I must admit that, even though I have had an account for a while, I have only just really started to utilise GoogleDocs.

I’ve found it to be a tool that I can start to build on and use; it’s also a great way to share live documents with colleagues or students. That’s why I was excited to come across this article from Tom Barrett explaining ten Google based documents that designed for use in the classroom. I suggest that they be good starting points for integrating (I hate to say it) the power of Google into your class setting. The ten forms are;

  1. Get to know your class
  2. Emotion graph
  3. Spelling test
  4. Comprehension questions
  5. Weekly Reading Record
  6. Maths data handling
  7. Guided Reading Record
  8. Prior Learning Assessment
  9. Library Book Review
  10. Learning Success

Get your own copies from the article, which can be found here.

Popularity: 8% [?]

: Resources, Tools
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Quick References for Your Workplace

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August 24, 2010
by Mark

Picture 2.jpgJust quickly pointing you to some quick reference guides for your workplace.  

Custom Guide is an online learning environment that host a variety of guides that cover many programs, for both Mac and PC and even Adobe.

They are free to download and permission is giving for workplace distribution either via email or hardcopy. They are even allowed to be reproduced for your school’s website. A great pre-made tool for any PD or presentation you’re doing.

Popularity: 4% [?]

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Bloom’s Taxonomy According to the Pirates of the Caribbean

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August 6, 2010
by Mark

This video did the rounds this week, and for all the right reasons. Have a great weekend everybody!

Popularity: 6% [?]

: Tools, Video

Application: Word Searcher

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August 5, 2010
by Mark

Application: Word Searcher

Here’s a nice, simple and effective way to search for words. Type in your word pattern and this site will generate all the words containing that sequence of letters. With some simple programming, you can also put parameters in to match sounds, ends of words etc. There is a table that explains these programming code. It’s not as scary as it sounds. Have a look, have a play. Did you know that there are 6890 words that contain ‘ing’? Impressive, and all thanks to Word Searcher.

Popularity: 6% [?]

: Literacy, Tools
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10 Tips For When Someone Follows You on Twitter

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July 16, 2010
by Mark

What happens when someone follows you on Twitter? Should you automatically respond with a ‘follow’ back, or is there more to this Twitter thing than meets the eye? Terry Freedman has written a fantastic article highlight ten things he does when somebody follows him. Quickly, those ten things are;

  1. Asking, “What’s in it for me?”
  2. Checking the tweets
  3. Checking the numbers
  4. Searching “Who’s Who?”
  5. Check their profile
  6. Check if they have a website
  7. Look at their website URL
  8. Check their website
  9. Check their profile or ‘about’ page
  10. Home at last – The Follow button

Terry’s written some excellent tips within those points, and I’d like to recommend that you read his thoughts, particularly if you are keen on building up an accurate and valuable PLN. You can find the article at Terry’s website – ICT in Education.

Popularity: 7% [?]

: Tools, Twitter
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Teen Chat Acroynm Decoder

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July 13, 2010
by Mark

tcd.jpgApplication: Teen Chat Acronym Decoder

Social networking comes with its own language, and there is nothing more frustrating than seeing a list of letter combinations and not knowing what they mean. If you’ve ever used Facebook, Twitter, other social networking sites, used MSN or even sent an sms, then you will be pleased to know that there is a tool out there to help you decipher what it all means. You may be a parent or a teacher wanting to understand further the online language of your teen or student; this site will help.

The Teen Chat Decoder website exists to simplify and decode the language used online. For example, have you seen, or are you aware of the following;

Picture 3.jpg

As parents, when our kids started to use the Internet more and more, we did what any good parent would do – we monitored their online activity.

We reviewed their browser history, or some parental control software product like PC Tattletale. But it was really frustrating when we found that our kids used abbreviations and acronyms in when chatting online or via their cell phones.

Now some acronyms are pretty easy to figure out, like “LOL” (Laugh Out Loud), but many made no sense at all – unless you were 15!

So several years ago we put together what would eventually become the largest “Teen Acronym Only” database on the net. Teen Chat Decoder was designed to help parents understand what their kids were “really” saying online and to help keep them safe.

It’s as easy as following the instructions below;

tcd2.jpg

Not only is it an easy to use online database there are some other great resources. You can download the desktop version which is provided free. There is also the ability to add to the database should your acronym not be found.

Using this application for education and sharpening your knowledge of the ‘teenspeak’ is indispensable. Who knows, your teenage or student may just thankyou.

Link: Teen Chat Decoder

Popularity: 5% [?]

: Resources, Tools
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1001 Helpful and Useful Social Media Resources

2
July 10, 2010
by Mark

social-media-agency-consultant2.jpgThanks to the resources of the Web2.0 search engine somebody, who seems to have a lot of time on their hands (of which I am not complaining of) has compiled 1001 social media resources. Listed here on the EduDemic website, these are broken down into categories, and one of the features includes the ability to see similar products;

What follows is a huge and long list organized by subject. You’ll likely want to scroll or hit CTRL+F to find what you’re looking for. For example, you can hit CTRL+F and type ‘Pandora’ to see all the other competing companies that are like Pandora, but a bit different. Enjoy!

As I wrote, all the applications and sources are broken down into categories. The categories include;

  • Audio
  • Blog2Pod
  • Blogging
  • Browser
  • Calendar
  • Chat
  • Collaboration
  • Collect
  • Comix
  • Communication
  • Community
  • CRM
  • Database
  • Design
  • Dictionary
  • E-commerce
  • Economy
  • E-Learning
  • Email
  • Filesharing
  • Financials
  • Fun
  • Gambling
  • Games
  • Hosting
  • Identity
  • Images
  • Imaging
  • Jobs
  • Knowledge
  • Lists
  • Mapping
  • Marketing
  • Memo
  • Multimedia
  • News
  • Office
  • OS
  • Outlook
  • Personal Manufacturing
  • Polls
  • Portals
  • Powerpoint
  • Projects
  • Publishing
  • Read
  • RSS
  • Scheduling
  • Search
  • Software
  • Stats
  • Tagging
  • Task Manager
  • Text
  • Text2Speech
  • Time Management
  • Track and Trace
  • Video
  • Voice2mail
  • Voicemail
  • Web2Feed
  • WiFi
  • Wikis
  • Wishlist
  • Word
  • Write

As I noted, there are heaps of categories, some of which I had never heard of. You can imagine the list that these categories provide. Have fun searching, finding and using products for your teaching and learning. Again, here’s the link.

Popularity: 8% [?]

: Resources, Tools, Web2.0
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Updates to SignAppNow.com

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June 29, 2010
by Mark

Last September (09) I posted a review on the web application SignAppNow.com – a site where you can freely host and create simple sign up sheets for sessions or events that you are hosting.  I just received a message from Milo, one of the admins of the site.  He’s alerted me to some updates and tweaks at the site including, probably most important of all, is that there is now a free and a membership version of SignAppNow.  After a free 30 day trial period you have the option to pay a $9.95 membership fee.   The membership now gets you;

  1. The ability to edit and delete sheets and sign ups
  2. Your own personalised URL For example http:<yourschool>.signappnow.com
  3. Access to expired sign up sheets
  4. An ability to set a limit to the number of sign ups.  A ceiling can now be put on the participants of a session
  5. An ability to create private sign ups

These features are not available for the free version.  However, over the last few months, there have also been some adjustments too in this gratis version.  These include;

  1. A spam stopper which they have installed to obviously stop the spam sign ups
  2. No email address is required now; although the option remains to provide one if needed
  3. The ShareThis widgets have been added to the site

You can follow further developments and read more about the enhancements and changes listed above via the SignApp blog.

The SignAppNow site can be accessed here

Popularity: 4% [?]

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Some Lemonade

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April 27, 2010
by Mark

Application: Some Lemonade

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For many people, the internet does not just revolve around Facebook, or Twitter, or Tumbler, or Youtube. In fact, many internet users have accounts at all these applications and more. Some Lemonade exists to simplify the feed that comes in from these accounts. Some Lemonade allows you to ‘filter’ the feeds that you wish to view. Starting with your Twitter sign in, options continue to exist for other application sign ups.

One thing I was particularly impressed with was that the links to pictures and videos that are shortened in the Twitter updates are shown in full blown colour and size.

No doubt applications like this will continue to be launched, and Some Lemonade has shown a cool and refreshing way to update, favourite and read your feeds and accounts.

Popularity: 19% [?]

: Resources, Tools, Twitter, Web2.0
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Better than Wordle? Try Word Mosaics

2
April 14, 2010
by Mark

Application: Word Mosaics

We all love Wordle and we have found heaps of uses for that particular web app. For the classroom they are great. They’re eye catching, fun and a great visual aid. However, there is another application which is just like Wordle, but adds another dimension. Word Mosiacs is part of the Image Chef website and just like Wordle will list randomly words that are inputted. The twist comes when you can then put those words into shapes. Here’s one that I made in a matter of moments – ‘Nothing Without Joy’ is mantra that my boss often uses and was, for some reason, the first thing that came to my head. I like the avenues of sharing your creations. You can Facebook it, Tweet it, MySpace it (what?) and even embed into blogs or other web pages. You can also save the image, something that Wordle can’t do at the moment.

I suggest that you have a look for some fun and visually stimulating effects that take word usage another step up from Wordle.

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Popularity: 27% [?]

: Literacy, Resources, Tools
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