Part 2

More Tech Tricks to Try Part 2: Numbers 6-10
Disclaimer: We all have our special tips and tricks. These are submitted in my humble opinion.

#6: Tapping the Windows Key. This is another quick tip that does not rely on the internet but will save your tired fingers a few keystrokes.

The Windows Key may be the appendix of the keyboard, but I have found four useful key combos to help you navigate:

Windows Key + D Shows your desktop instantly, press again
to return to your windows

Windows Key + E Will open Windows Explorer

Windows Key alone Will display the START menu

Windows Key + F1 Brings up the HELP menu.

Leave your best Windows Key feature below or include any of your favorite keystroke savers!

#7: Create Your Own Movies From Your Browser-No Special Software Required! Through the dVolver website, you can create a little Flash movie anywhere and anytime your inner-Speilberg calls.

The website is really easy to use. Just click through various screens selecting backgrounds, characters, soundtrack and credits. Type in your own short dialogues, add scenes, preview and proofread, and with a single click you’ve produced a Flash movie with you credited as the director.

Email or upload the link to your movie either to yourself or to your students, or perhaps, The Sundance Film Institute! NOTE: Use this website as a professional development tool for you and your colleagues only. Some of the characters may be unsuitable for student use and viewing.

Classroom Uses:

Set up a movie and have students write or key a better title the next line of dialogue and/or the next scene.
Use a movie you create to introduce new content.
Use a movie you create to practice dialogue, grammar, andpunctuation.
Use a movie you create to explain a sequence of events in an historical time period, a battle, a timeline sequence (****TEKS), science experiment, the scientific method, the elements of a story, etc…
Use a movie you create for conversational foreign language practice.
Use a movie you createfor a class conclusion, mini-quiz, or summary ofmain points.
Leave underscores in some of the movie dialogue boxes for students to fill-in-the-blanks on paper or interactively when projected onto a whiteboard or Smartboard.

Here is a sample: www.dvolver.com/live/movies-111208
Main Page: http://www.dvolver.com/live/moviemaker.html

In the Comments section, please share any of the great ideas you have for using this moviemaker or share the link to any films you create. Then, we can have our own educational animation festival!

Happy Directing!

#8: Build Multimedia Collaboration with Voice Thread. Voice Thread http://voicethread.com/#home enables users to create online presentations using their own images. It also allows you to add audio or written text to images you upload and it gives access so others can interact by leaving audio or text comments on the presentation.

Here are some classroom applications:

Upload two images and ask students to record a compare/contrast or alike/different between the two images.
Invite students, working alone, in pairs, or small groups to create and produce a digital story using digital cameras or found images on the web (or send a picture to you to upload). NOTE: if using web images, be sure to have students cite their source.
Upload an image, and as a Warm-up, ask students to add a caption, highlighting a particular part of speech, current vocabulary word, predicting what might happen next, or(humorousgasp!)free write.
Upload images of one or two people and ask students to add a dialogue text bubble, either in present-day speech or in the language of medieval times, Shakespearean times, Dr. Seuss’ language, etc… This is a great exercise for a foreign language class or ELL students too.
Using the theme, “I Am An American” students can upload a picture (or send a picturefor you to upload) of a family member and tell about the heritage and history of their family member.
Ask students to survey class members at lunch or recess about a topic of your classes’ choice. Students record the tally results in Excel (or you can record the results in Excel if yours is the only computer in the classroom.) Take a PrtSrn of the spreadsheet, upload the image, and see if students can interpret the result. Alternatively, upload your own data graphs and statistics and see if students can interpret these as well. (***TEKS)
Upload some images with incorrect descriptions and/or grammar/spelling errors and see if students can proofread and correct the errors. (***TEKS)

Here is a sample: http://voicethread.com/share/53266/

Here is a better sample: http://voicethread.com/share/40005/
Here is another great sample: http://mswecker.edublogs.org/ocean-voicethreads/

Here is a tutorial to help from Nic Peachy http://www.technogogy.org.uk/voicethread.html

Be sure to return and let us know how you used Voice Thread in your classroom!

Happy Teaching!

#9: Build Harmony with iTunes and iTunesU!

iTunes, the free download, digital media application is GREAT for music, BUT also: music file management, sound bites, 20-second music hooks, podcasts, audio books, TV series, movies, and custom iMixes. If your school blocks the download at http://www.apple.com/itunes/ then download at home and play from school. Create your own iMixes of the classroom songs you use.

Suggested Uses:

1. Download music from a historic time period such as music from the Civil War, the
Roaring 20’s, or the Jazz Age.

2. Download or subscribe to selected podcasts of educational shows

3. Download product jingles from commercials to signal transitions from one classroom
activity to another, as described by teacher Kim:

                   “As we begin our math lesson time I play a “transition” song that is usually the
                    review/reteaching song. Throughout the lesson, songs are used to teach the
                    current skill/concept of the chapter. Last I play another “transition” song
                   to gather the children for the closure of the lesson. This song is the preteching
                  song for the upcoming skill/concept.”
Read Kim’s full post at http://kimskaleidoscope.blogspot.com/2006/12/itunes-in-kindergarten-classroom.html

4. Convert audio and video files created with other tools to the format needed for iPod playback, to allow students to review materials when away from their computer. Import voice memos created on your iPod for re-use as course materials.

5. iTunes U, a link at the iTunes store, is a portal where more than half of the nation’s top 500 schools distribute their digital content. Any school can open all or part of its site to the public, from alumni, parents or anyone with a love of learning.

Discover additional options here: http://metmagazine.com/tutorials/itunes_teachers/
Here is a newstory run in eSchool news about iTunesU: http://tinyurl.com/2jeqkq

Stay “in tune” with iTunes and iTunesU!

#10: Journey Across Curriculums with Google Earth

Use Google Earth, http://earth.google.com/ across your curriculum to add an IMax-quality effect to your content. The latest version of Google Earth also has the “Sky” feature where you and students can venture into the night’s sky and out into the cosmos!

Here are some ideas for content integration:

Science: View tectonic plate-shift evidence by examining whole continents, mountain ranges and areas of volcanic activity; study impact craters, dry lake beds and other major land forms. Enhance your astronomy content with the “Sky” feature in the toolbar and Google Moon images.

Geography and Math: GEGraph is a free Windows download that enables you to create charts and graphs inside Google Earth

Economics: Comparing infant mortality rates in South and North Korea: http://www.gelessons.com/kmzfiles/0000visitor_uploads/Two_Koreas_Graph.kmz

Math: Complete distance calculations, latitude and longitude

Language Arts: Create Google Lit Trips to chart locations in novels, author’s biographies, literary time periods. Here is a library of lit trips already created: http://www.googlelittrips.org/

Technology: Pack for amazing virtual field trips!

Essential Tips for Creating Google Trips:
1. Always storyboard your trip beforehand. Take a grade on students’ storyboard. (Need a sample storyboard template? Click here: http://www.oops.bizland.com/storyboard.doc
2. Begin your trip with the ending destination. This way, on playback the tour will end at the right place and not play backwards. (This is a great skill-builder for your sequencing TEKS)
3. Use (yellow) pushpins to mark each destination on your trip. (Yellow is the default color. You can change the appearance of the placemarker)
4. Trips save as files with the extension .kmz (reflecting the original authorship of the software from the Keyhole company.) When you save a file, place it in a special Folder called “Google Earth.”
5. When you open a .kmz Google Earth trip file, you must also have the Google Earth software open as well.

Our sample tour of Austin is: http://www.oops.bizland.com/TCEAAustin.kmz
See the Google Lit Trip Site: http://www.googlelittrips.org/ for more.

Happy Travels!

From the perch of our keyboards to the earth and sky and beyond our two page trek has suggested some hopefully helpful tricks for all dedicated techies! Hope you have found at least one suggestion to use and take back to your colleagues!

Happy Teaching! Check back often! And, as always, if your training budget provides, I am just an email away… helen@4oops.com

Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!)