Qwiki Creator - easily create engaging multimedia projects

Last year I wrote about Qwiki, which is a site that takes your internet search and creates a multimedia presentation with resources about your search term. Text, images, audio are all part of it. It's a very cool way to quickly create a presentation about a topic.I just learned from my Edtech colleague David Kapuler on his site, that Qwiki now has Qwiki Creator available. Qwiki Creator lets users work online in their browser to combine text, photos,...

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PDF Mergy - combine PDF files into one - Chrome web app

PDF files are everywhere. Every operating system and every device I know of can read them. They are a great way to share and publish files since they can be locked, watermarked, and viewed on pretty much any device or OS. Most office suites allow you to save files as PDF formats and there are some other great tools for creating them. Sometimes you have multiple PDF files that you want to combine into one. I do this often since I save scanned documents...

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Google makes some big announcements this week!

Google's I/O conference is this week and they have made some big announcements. Here's a summary and some places you can find more information.1. Google Docs offline now available - edit and create Google Docs offline and they will be synced with your Docs account once you have an internet connection.2. Chrome Browser exits beta and is available for all Android 4.0 devices and is available for iOS. Use the worlds most used browser on your Android...

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Tips for Preparing for a Presentation

Giving a presentation or teaching takes preparation. There are lots of tips and help for both, including the two links below in the "related section".Lifehacker has a great article "How to Prep for a Presentation" with some great tips like knowing your audience, knowing their needs, knowing the subject, knowing the room (size, resources and technology, etc),  rehearsing, getting rid of the jitters and nervousness and more. There are some...

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More Great Uses for Binder Clips

Last month I wrote an article entitled "Binder Clips - lots of great uses for these little guys" with some ideas and resources for finding new uses for Binder clips. Here are some more. 1. Binding student work (kind of obvious) but use different colored ones to code your classes and assignments2. Cable organization - clip them to your desk/table and feed the cable through the handle to keep them organized. 3. Use them to wrap and organize...

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Google Docs now works offline!

Google announced today that Google Docs now works offline, so you can create an edit files without a internet connection. All your work will be saved locally and then updated with Docs when you get a connection again.This is great news and makes Docs even more useful, allowing use without an internet connection.Learn more about Google's many apps and resources for Education here.Related:Google Resources for EducationWhy I use Google's apps and products...

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Microsoft Office 365 for Education now available for Free

Microsoft 365 is an online version of Microsoft's well known Office suite. Office 365 for Education is free for schools and is already being used by many public school districts and colleges.Office 365 is cloud based and includes Microsoft Office Web Apps, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Lync Online.This is Microsoft's answer to Google Apps for Education. It can be a good option for schools that are heavily invested in Microsoft apps as there...

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Google launches free online classes to help you learn better internet search skills

Google is having a lot of announcements today at the Google I/O conference with lots of updates and new products. (Go to Android Central to get updates on all the news).But yesterday they announced something that is a great resource for educators and students alike. "Power Searching with Google" is a free, online community based course that helps participants learn how to do better searches and use some of the cool features of Google, such as using...

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Remind101 - safe way for teachers to text message students and stay in touch with parents. Free

Remind101 is a free service that allows teachers to safely send text messages to students and parents.Teachers never see the students' or parents' phone numbers and the students and parents never see the teachers' phone number, helping to maintain privacy. Students and parents sign up by sending a text message or email instead of visiting a website. Teachers can have up to 10 classes and send messages to a class of students, or parents, or both....

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Excellent Online Professional Development Resources for Teachers

Professional Development for educators is something that I believe still needs to be improved. Many educators have turned online for some of their professional development. Social media provides a great resource for educators, especially Twitter, to connect, share and learn with other educators. There are new forms of in-person professional development, like Edcamps, that are also a great way for educators to learn new things.Check out some more...

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The Endangered Languages Project: Supporting language preservation through technology and collaboration

Google has a new project it is a part of: The Endangered Languages Project: Supporting language preservation through technology and collaboration that is pretty cool. The Endangered Languages Project, is a website for people to find and share the most up-to-date and comprehensive information about endangered languages. It is a way to try to preserve over 3000 languages that are on the verge of becoming extinct. Preserving these languages,...

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Learnist - create online learning resource pages

Learnist is a new site that is still in beta but looks promising. The site allows you to create "Learn Boards" on any topic you want to and then add "learnings" by linking to websites, online videos, blogs, images, documents, etc. It is similar to Pinterest in some ways. You can also collaborate with others on the same board.You can search for existing Learn Boards by topic and search term. Here are some from "Education":And here is an example...

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Great Resources for Educators/Admin from Upstate Tech Conference

Last week was the Upstate Technology Conference in South Carolina, which included an Administrator's Day of Discovery. Porter Palmer from Discovery Education just posted the link to all of the great resources from the sessions that day: http://bitly.com/bundles/ktschutt/8There are some great resources there for administrators and educators, so take a look and see what's there.Porter also did a presentation that day on anytime learning. The slides...

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Microsoft Surface - Windows 8 Tablet/PC - announced

Microsoft has just announced the Microsoft Surface, which is a Windows 8 tablet, measuring 10.6 in and 1.5 pounds. So, is it just another tablet? Not quite. It has a few very cool features, like running full Windows software, having a touchscreen that includes pen/stylus input (very cool for drawings, annotations, math and science) and a cover that has a built in, super thin, keyboard and touchpad.It's pretty cool when you think about it, especially...

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Save any type of Streaming Media with Media Sniffer

Media Sniffer is free software that lets you download and save streaming media from the internet. It is available for Windows (you also need WinPcap installed ). Both are free.It is not super simple and you need a little bit of tech knowledge, but it can be useful for saving streaming media to a computer for later/offline viewing. Just remember to follow any pertinent copyright laws and rights of the media owner.You can read more about it here:&...

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Virtual Summer Camp for Teachers - on demand learning for educators

The 4th Annual Virtual Summer Camp for Teachers is now available. It is being hosted through Learni.st.The Virtual Summer Camp for Teachers provides on-demand, anytime learning for educators. The summer camp is organized by topic areas, which include: Common Core Resources, Essential Apps for Educators, Webinar and Online PD opportunities, Virtual Crafts, and even a mess hall with food and recipe ideas.On July 24th there will be a live component...

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Embedit - no longer accepting new embeds, send you to Box instead.

Embedit, a service that allowed you to embed files on your site or blog that I wrote about May 30th, is no longer accepting new embed files. They were purchased by Box and their site now recommends you go to Box for your file sharing needs. Existing embeds you have done through the service will work through September 1, 2012. For more information, please see their FAQ.Box, known for giving away lots of free storage through the purchase...

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Doo.net - organize all of your documents in one place.

Doo.net is a new service that organizes all of your documents from your hard drive and cloud services (including email) into on system. You can search your documents via keyword, date, optical character recognition, tags, and document type. It will keep all of your device and documents in sync also.It is available for OS X, with Windows 8, iOS, Android apps and Google Docs integration all coming soon.The free version will sync and collect 2,000 documents....

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#EdStuff - a new twitter hash tag for Education

Twitter is a great resource for education. Educators can learn, share, collaborate, find help and have some great discussions. It is my go-to source when looking for help, advice, tips, tools, and resources for education.A hash tag is a way of sorting and searching Tweets based on topic. There are tons of great educational hash tags, including #edchat, #edtech, #scichat, and more. Many of these hash tags relate to a scheduled conversation, such as...

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List of some Free Online Scientific/Graphing Calculators

Calculators are a necessary tool in science and math classes. But, they don't have to cost the students anything.First, there are a ton of free calculator apps available for every smartphone (iOS, webOS, Android, BB, Windows) so any student with a smartphone or PDA can get one on there. The paid apps are usually only $0.99 - $1.99 too.Second, there are some free downloadable calculators, such as Microsoft Math and most computers have...

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Get Your PhD in Googling - interactive tool for learning better search tips

Google is a very powerful tool. You can find pretty much anything online these days. The trick is knowing how to find exactly what you are looking for.Here is an interactive infographic with some great tips for better internet searching (specifically with Google).UPDATED 11/14/13It seems the animation is no longer available, so here are some other search resources and a couple of images from it:http://www.missionimblogable.co.uk/2012/06/get-your-phd-in-googling.htmlhttps://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/fa/ICTFalkirkPrimaries/2012/03/13/primary-research-skills-tools/Related:Google...

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Some great resources on Google Chrome for Education

Google Chrome is my browser of choice. It is fast, secure, easy to use, full of features, and works great with all of the Google apps I use. I also use Chrome OS, which is an operating system based on the Chrome Browser. Chrome has great features and extensions that can make your online experience better and more productive.Here are some great resources I just learned about for using Google Chrome:10 Google Chrome Tips for Students - tips for using...

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