Monday, March 29, 2010

Current Technology Tools

Technology changes so fast it seems just when you learn to use one form of it, it's time to learn another. You may already be familiar with some of these technologies. Please enjoy the collection presented below.There will be more to come.

  • A Wiki is a collaborative website whose content can be edited by anyone who has access to it. You can post homework, embed videos, share student work, list class notes, and post flip charts.



  • A blog (a contraction of the term "web log")is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.




  • Podcasts are digital audio files (typically MP3s) posted to the Web for anyone to download and listen to in a compressed digital format, delivered via an RSS feed over the Internet to a subscriber and designed for playback on computers or portable digital audio players, such as the iPod.




  • A Screencast is a digital recording of a computer screen that is shared with other users in video format. In online education, this technology allows the student and teacher to interact easily over any distance.





  • In social bookmarking websites, users create and store bookmarks of their choice. These bookmarks can be viewed by others and that let them know about new services and latest concepts which are making news in the online world. For example del.icio.us, Digg, Reddit are some of the most popular social bookmarking websites.



    • del.icio.us - Biggest collection of bookmarks in the universe

    • Digg - The best news, videos and pictures on the web as voted on by the Digg community. It posts breaking news on technology, politics, entertainment, and more."

    • Reddit.com - reddit is a source for what's new and popular online. vote on links that you like or dislike and help decide what's popular, or submit your own.

    • Portal Portal - It is a web based bookmarking utility that lets you store links to your favorite websites online. Now your bookmarks are no longer limited to any one machine.








  • A Dropbox is a simple online virtual storage utility that allows you to make your files accessible from almost anywhere. The Dropbox interface is just like any folder on your computer. You simply drag and drop to move files around and any files or folders that are uploaded to Dropbox will immediately be synchronized within your account. Where Dropbox really shines is the way it allows you to share whatever you want with other people. This file sharing system is perfect for team projects involving music or video editing, computer and system repairs, or for anything which needs collaboration among its members.





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Great General Sites for Teachers

I have collected what I think are a group of great sites to help teachers work smarter and not harder. Please enjoy and feel free to let me know what you think.


Great Sites for Teacher



  • Wikispaces for teachers - This site offers Wikispace to educators and offers options designed just for teachers like member only access. Great site. Every teacher should have one.

  • Teacher Lingo - Teacher Lingo is an educational community of teacher blogs, lesson plans, and other teacher resources.
    You can join discussions and share advice and experiences with other educators.

  • Sites for Teachers - This site has hundreds of educational websites ranked by popularity.

  • 60 Tools in 60 Seconds - Courtesy of Brandon Lutz this presentation takes you through 60 of the most useful sites for the classroom.

  • Lutz CFF - A wikispace created by Brandon Lutz helping to help integrate 21st century technology into Philadelphia high school classrooms; working together with teachers and students.

  • Teachnology - They provide free resources for teachers. They feature: 30,000+ lesson plans, teaching tips and themes, 8,000 FREE printable worksheets, games and math worksheets, ready-to-use rubrics, 257,000 reviewed sites, printable generators, and webquests.

  • Rubistar - A great wesite that is a free resource helping teachers create quality rubrics.

  • 4Teachers - 4Teachers.org works to help you integrate technology into your classroom by offering online tools and resources. The site helps teachers locate and create ready-to-use Web lessons, quizzes, rubrics and classroom calendars. There are also tools for student use. You can find valuable professional development resources addressing issues such as equity, ELL, technology planning, and at-risk or special-needs students.

  • A to Z Teacher Stuff - A to Z Teacher Stuff is a teacher-created site designed to help teachers find online resources more quickly and easily. Find lesson plans, thematic units, teacher tips, discussion forums for teachers, downloadable teaching materials & eBooks, printable worksheets and blacklines, emergent reader books, themes, and more.

  • The Teacher's Corner - Teachers Corner offered 5 Online Collaboration Projects this school year. The collaboration projects are learning activities that provided collaboration between two or more classrooms. The participating classrooms are from various locations around the world, use the Internet to interact with one another and are working on a similar topic for a specific length of time. Using the Internet students and teachers will share their activities, findings and reflections. This site has great FREE resources.

  • Delicious Social Bookmarking - A social bookmarking sites that allows you to access your bookmarks from any computer, anytime, anywhere. You can also make notes about your bookmarks so you can remember why that bookmark was important to you.

  • Engrade - Engrade is a free set of web-based tools for educators allowing them to manage their classes online while providing parents and students with 24/7 real-time online class information.

  • Gradebook Portal - Basic package free and premium free for 1 year. Free Online GradeBook for teachers to easily customize. Build customized weighted grading from anywhere at anytime 24/7. You can grade anytime & anywhere with auto calculation term and final grades, generate instant progress reports, track attendance and alert parents on absentees, class calendar keeps students, parents and teachers current on upcoming exams, meetings, events, attach assignments, post homework and attach document, communicate with all of your students and parents and build custom contact lists, and its 100% secure and safe environment with several layers of encryption.

  • Plagiarism Detect - A free and upgrade account available. This piece of software is very useful for people, who need to check papers for plagiarism all the time. It is also useful to have students check their own papers before they turn them in.

  • Plagiarism Checker for Students - This site allows students to copy and paste text to find plagiarized text in homework and other essays/reports.

  • Plagiarism Stoppers: A Teacher's Guide - Although this site is no longer updated, this is a great resource for teachers helping students write papers or do their senior project.

  • Dropbox - The days of flash drives and emailing documents are over. You can create a test at home and put it in your dropbox. When you get to work you can go in your drop box and get it. Students can put work in your dropbox and you can access from any computer. You can create folders for personal use and share them with other people.If you have an Ipone there is a Dropbox App.
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Promethean Resources

I know many of the teachers in my school are new to using the Promethean Board and ActiveInspire. I've put together put some resources. I hope you enjoy.

Promethean Resources Websites

  • Promethean Planet - Promethean’s free online community designed to provide Activclassroom teachers around the world the ability to share new and innovative lessons, access a wide variety of professional development materials, and connect with fellow Activclassroom teachers from around the Planet. It's a great place to find pre-made flipcharts

  • Promethean Learning - Free course on Promethean Basics. As well as face to face training, Promethean now offers online courses and certification.

  • Promethean World - Promethean World's aim is to unlock the potential of human achievement in education and training at all ages around the world. It does so by creating, developing, supplying and supporting leading edge, interactive learning technology and by
    encouraging the growth of the world's largest online teacher community in this field. In these ways, Promethean is helping bring to
    life the promise of 21st century learning, improving engagement and results for learners and teachers alike.

  • Frederick County Public School ActiveInspire Resources - This is a great site. It has links to tutorials, pdf guides, and links to pages with tips. Don't miss this one.

  • Promethean Wiki This is a wiki that have a full ActiveInspire course made from flipcharts. You can teach yourself or your students. They have teacher tested flipcharts and help creating flipcharts that work.

  • Itunes Podcasts Promethean Planet Activtips - Promethean Planet Activtips feature best practices for Activclassroom users looking to integrate Promethean technology into everyday classroom activities. The podcasts are specifically designed to demonstrate effective teaching strategies in various curriculum areas through the use of Promethean's software and teaching tools.

  • Montesano Wikispaces - Another great Wiki with ActiveInspire resources.

  • Atomic Learning - Atomic Learning’s online training resources teach you “how do I do that” through a library of thousands of short, easy-to-understand tutorial movies and “how do I apply that” training that can be used as an integral part of a professional development program and a valuable curriculum supplement.

  • Promethean-ActivInspire on Facebook - The official Facebook page for Promethean-ActivInspire.

    • Philly Tech Connections wikipages - This site has good resources and a nice collection of resources.

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