Free Technology for Teachers

I tried the quiz in the post below as a result of my discovery of a great blog, Free Technology for Teachers: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/ On the blog I found a tutorial on using Google tools, Google For Teachers: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/p/google-tools-tutorials.html One of the tools they talked about was making a quiz to be posted. When the test is taken the answers are sent to a spreadsheet so that the results can easily be viewed on a spreadsheet and even graphed. Feel free to taken this challenging quiz (haha) and your answers will be sent to my spreadsheet.

Practice Using Google Docs to Make a Quiz

Still Learning

I guess I should still post to my blog even though the 23 Things Kansas project is finished. Last night my son was using Movie Maker for a project when a virus took over our computer. Eek! Luckily, he already had gotten his graduation present - a new laptop. So, he had to start over, but he did learn his laptop's newest version of Microsoft's Movie Maker (I watched over his shoulder and learned a few things myself).

Week Sixteen: Wrap-up Webinars & Final Posting

As an assignment for the last week I have listed 23 things I have learned from participating in 23 Things Kansas:
1. Learning new technology is not to be feared. It just requires devoting some time to experimenting and if all else fails, there’s always someone out there willing to help.
2. Blogging can be an easy way to post comments, created media, links, etc. for all others to see.
3. Online communities are an excellent way to stay connected with others and to stay on top of the latest news.
4. Online meetings allow you to meet with anyone anywhere.
5. Archived webinars are an excellent way to learn.
6. Photo sharing sites are an excellent way to organize photos and I wish I had started using them years ago.
7. RSS read feeders are not as scary as they sound. Google Reader is an easy way to stay up on my favorite sites and I can change subscriptions at any time.
8. Social bookmarking allows me to get to my favorite sites from any computer.
9. Delicious, the social bookmarking site that I signed up on, is an exciting way to find new sites of interesting.
10. Twitter is popular these days so it’s good to know how it works.
11. Cloud computing is an exciting concept and an area that’s definitely growing.
12. Google docs are easy to use, free, and ideal for collaboration and sharing.
13. There are several free document tools that can be used “in the clouds”. These would be ideal for our students to use so that they could work from school or home.
14. Meebo is a great way to be connected to people using different instant messaging services.
15. Ustream.tv, Justin.tv, gik.com and 12seconds.tv are sites that allow you to livestream video which means you are broadcasting live.
16. Jing is an easy way to make a screenshop or a screencast video. Videos can be stored and shared at screencast.com.
17. Screencast-o-matic allows you to create 10-15 minute videos that are easy to upload to YouTube.
18. Zoho Show is another tool we should look at for our students to be able to access their presentations anywhere.
19. Animoto is my personal favorite because I can use the pictures I take to make a really slick looking show.
20. Shelfari, Library Thing and Goodreads are great sites to keep up on what people are reading and to keep track and share what I have read.
21. PBWorks and Wetpaint are two free and easy to use sites to create wikis.
22. It takes time and effort to stay informed of new technology. Setting aside a certain amount of time each day to “play” is one way to keep informed. Attending conferences and webinars, using an RSS read feeder, and projects such as 23 Things Kansas are great ways to stay current.
23. Organizing websites and passwords is a must for me.

Week Fifteen: Wikis

For week fifteen's first activity I signed up for a wikipedia account and updated information on a private school on the entry for my city. I felt pretty important being able to correct something for all to see. For the second activity, I collaborated on the 23 Things Kansas wiki on Wetpaint. Wikis are easy to work with. I helped a teacher set up a wiki for her class a couple years ago so the students could work in groups on a project. It's probably something we should do more often.

Hey, I'm caught up! I'm going to miss 23 Things Kansas when it's finished!

Week Fourteen: Library Thing, etc.

For week 14 setting up a Shelfari account was one of the activity options. I had already set up an account and put it on my blog, but I needed to update my collection with the books I had read in the last few months. It was the first update I had done so I had to rethink how to get the update onto my blog.

Week Thirteen: Slide Sharing

This week we were supposed to use a slide showing website. This is one of my favorite activities! I already used my library photos from week 4 to make an Animoto video that I uploaded to my blog. Here's a link to my first Animoto video I made a couple of years ago after a vacation with my family: Family Vacation