Finds of the Week: March 8-12, 2010

NOTE: I currently am running a blog for school at Annville-Cleona Tech in an effort to better communicate with the staff I work with. I figure, why not share the same things here, as well? The posts on A-C Tech are for my staff and students only. This one is more for my views and reflections.

March didn't quite arrive like a lion, as we have seen the nicest weather in a long time for most of this week. Of course, this Nor'easter that's hitting us today and tomorrow is reminding us that Winter is not quite over. But cheer up! Spring will be here before you know it!

Oh, and don't forget to spring forward an hour this weekend. On to the finds of the week!

1. Preceden - Many times in class, you might want a quick and easy way to create a timeline. With Preceden, you can create a timeline with a few clicks and a little typing.

Before creating your first timeline, you do need to create a free account. As with anything that requires you to sign in, make sure you are keeping track of your usernames and passwords, and don't leave them out for anyone to access! Once you have your account, you can create your timeline. Timelines are set as private by default. For classroom purposes, you will most likely change viewing permissions to "Everyone," which can be done by choosing "change" in the upper left of your screen, just above your timeline. Doing this will also allow you to embed the timeline into a webpage, as shown below.

Some great features of Preceden for timelines include layers for including differing content on the same timeline, the ability to add details to events, and the overlapping and varying colors of events within layers.

One possible use for layers would be to have students have layers to compare/contrast historical events that were going on at the same time. If using with the Civil War, have one layer for the Union and one for the Confederacy. Events can then be entered into different layers so a comparison of events could be shown as the war progressed. Adding details to the events would lead to a deeper understanding of what the significance of each event was. Overlapping events within a layer could be very important, especailly since the entire armies were not all at the same places at the same times.

2. TypingWeb - A common misconception that many teachers and adults arrive at is that all students are very proficient in all aspects of technology. Many of us know that is not true. One place where that can be evident is in typing. But with many schools not offering typing as a class anymore, how are students (and even other adults) supposed to improve? TypingWeb is one site that can help out.

TypingWeb is a free service for their online typing lessons and can be accessed through any computer with internet access. There are ads on the page that can be removed by upgrading to a pay account, but if you live with the ads, then you can keep the free account.

Once signed in, you can either begin with a typing test to gauge a starting spot and focus on for improvement, or just dive right into the lessons. If you want to see the cumulative stats of your typing tests, it requires you to take the test five times. There are four levels of courses on the site (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Specialty Courses), as well as a level to earn certifications (pay) and an area called the News Headline Exercises, where information from websites such as FOX Sports, Google News, and ABC News is used to help you multitask by typing in headlines from the day, so you also get caught up on world events. There are even typing games on the site to help give a little extra motivation for students to work on improving their skills.

This is a great site that can be used to help improve your own typing or to direct a student to if they have a need to improve their typing skills. In study halls, if you have students that never seem to have anything to do, why not help them use the time productively by improving their typing skills?

3. Slideshare - There have been many times where we have used slide presentations in class to help present our content. However, what do you do for the student who is absent? If you upload your presentation to slidshare, it can be available to anyone at anytime. Not only will an absent student be able to access notes when absent, but all of your students can use your presentations to help study. You might even create slide presentations just to post online for review and not show them in class.

Slideshare is more than just a place to store slide presentations. When you upload a presentation, you are able to enter a description and tags for it, and it goes into your slide space. You can search out content from other users, and even connect to share. When viewing slide presentations, you can view them in full screen. Many are also available for download so you don't have to start from scratch when you find a presentation you like (this option is up to the person who uploaded to presentation). You can even upload audio to go along with your slides so you don't have to include all of your content on the slides.

Slideshare works with Keynote and Powerpoint and allows for uploading supporting documents, such as notes, and is a snap to embed in a webpage.

Integrated Math 2 Section 5-6

View more presentations from Jimbo Lamb.

Finds of the Week: February 8-12

It has been a snowy week here in Central PA, but that doesn't stop the web! This week, how to convert files online, text-to-speech, and collecting and sharing bookmarks.


1. Online Video Conversion - Many schools (including A-C) do not allow access to Youtube. Bummer. But don't let that stop you from using these sites educationally, as there is a wealth of great videos that can be used in your classroom. Vixy and Zamzar both will allow you to enter the URL of any Youtube video so you can download them for use in your classroom. Be aware of fair use rules if you do this, as these videos could be copyrighted! Make sure to provide proper citations.


When working with Vixy, all you need to do is enter the URL of the video you want to convert in the field, choose your format, and convert! For your work computer, you will want to convert to a MOV file, which will open in QuickTime. You can choose other options, based on what you will be using the video for. Vixy will automatically give you a download link, and you'll have the file on your machine for use in class. Make sure to save the file with a new name and location. I have found that Vixy does not always work well while at school due to the firewall.


Zamzar works a little differently. When you go to Zamzar, you will begin on a regular file conversion page. This allows for you to convert any number of files, which is helpful for when students create a document or other file at home on one piece of software and want to work with it at school with a different piece of software. To convert a Youtube file, you will have to click on "URL" under Step 1, or go directly to the URL conversion page. In Step 2, choose what you would have the file converted to. Again, Zamzar supports image, document, audio, video, and a few other conversions. Zamzar does not provide an instant link, as the file is sent to their server to be converted. Once converted, an email will be sent to the address you provide in Step 3. This could take some time, depending on the amount of files that are being uploaded to their servers at the time. This can be done at school or at home, as long as you have the URL to the video you want.

Another easy way to convert Youtube videos is with Kickyoutube. This cannot be done at school, as it is blocked by the filter. But if you have viewed a Youtube video at home that you want to use in school, just add the work "kick" in front of the "youtube" in the URL. For example, if you are viewing a video at www.youtube.com, just edit the URL to look like kickyoutube.com instead. It will give you options as to how you would like to download it. Choose your option and download!


Areas of use: Across all curricular areas

2. Carryout Text - This is a site that is in beta, and while they are, the services will be offered free. The beta could end at any time, at which point the entire service could become a pay service, or there could be a tiered service, where parts could remain free and others would become pay services. Until then, this is a great site you can use to convert any text into audio. It is as simple as pasting text into the converter, pressing "Submit to Process," and waiting for Carryout to do its thing! This is a great site that can be used for those that have trouble reading, or for students who are taking a long bus trip to a sporting event and need to stay caught up on class content. The flow is still a bit choppy, but it works quite well.


Areas of use: Across curricular areas; especially helpful for struggling readers and audible learners


3. Social Bookmarking - Don't be scared off by the word "social" here. These two services offer many perks for educators (and individual users) by allowing for bookmarking of websites online as opposed to inside a browser.

First, we will explore delicious. delicious allows for you to create a site that you can bookmark websites you like for use later on. Once you create an account, you download the delicious toolbar and button and you're all set. From a site you want to bookmark, just press the "Tag" button in your delicious toolbar, enter the data for the site, including a description and tags. Tags are used to help group things together that for similar interests. For example, if you go to my delicious page, you can click on "web2.0" in the right hand column, you will get a series of sites that fit into the Web2.0 window. When tagging, you can even tag a site that a fellow user might find useful. If you find a site that you think I would like, tag it with "for:misterlamb" and a message will be sent to me with the info. This could be helpful in a class where you gather current events. Just have students tag their current event to you.

diigo is very similar to delicious in the fact that it is also social, but it is organized in a different way. With diigo, you will download a toolbar and tag sites like you do in delicious, but in diigo, you can also set up groups, so when sites are saved, they are made accessible to all in the group. Having a class group set up could be very helpful to share resources. If you use it for current events, you could have students check to see what others have tagged to make sure to eliminate any duplicates. Or if a student finds a great resource for a class, it can be made available to all immediately.


Areas of use: Across all curricular areas; great for sharing resources with colleagues, students, etc.


All of these are great tools and have even more applications in your personal life and classroom that discussed here. As always, any A-C teacher is more than welcome to contact me and set up a time where we can explore and discuss these tools together.

Finds of the Week: February 1-5, 2010

This post is a mobile devices special edition. As we all know, students will always have their mobile devices (cell phones, iPods, etc.) with them, even if they are banned. This can be a good thing when used properly. This post will focus on some tools that will allow you and your students to become more productive with mobile devices.

1. TextMarks - TextMarks is a group text messaging service. There are many possible uses for this service, from sending text messages that inform about homework assignments and upcoming assessments to helping to keep in touch with participants and parents of sports teams and other extracurriculars. There is a free portion that is ad supported that will allow you one free keyword to set up and 120 characters per message. If you want more keywords or no ads, you can upgrade to a larger plan. When you have your keyword set up, your students can subscribe by sending your keyword to 41411, wait for your message to be sent to them, then reply to that message with a "Y." Once subscribed, they could even set up the time that they receive the message every day, as long as you enable that feature in the setup. There are other services that do similar things, but TextMarks is one of the easier ones to work with.

Areas of use: Across all curricular areas, sports, extracurricular activities

2. PollEverywhere - PollEverywhere is an online polling service that allows for anyone to collect information from a group through polling using text messaging and web voting. PollEverywhere allows for an educator to sign up for a free account that allows for unlimited questions with 32 responses per question. Each question receives a code that matches up to only that question, and you can display the responses for multiple choice questions as a live aggregate of the answers or as a table to hide the results so you can get a true read for what your class knows or needs extra help on. If you wanted a more open-ended response, you can create a text poll, where students would respond with their own answer. For students without unlimited texting plans, you can set up your polls to allow for multiple responses for students to share their phones, or allow webvoting to allow students to vote through a widget you embed, a webpage with your question on it, or by using poll4.com to enter their quick response (also great with smartphones). If you want more plan options, the year-long teacher plan runs at $129 per year, or there are school building-wide and district-wide plans as cheap at $2.50 per student per year (minimum 200 students). 

Areas of use: Across all curricular areas

3. iPhone/iPod Touch (and other smartphones) - Of course, I would be remiss if I did not venture into the field of the smartphone. The iPhone really changed the idea of what a cell phone could be, and that idea was extended into the iPod, as well, with the iPod Touch. Of course, the iPhone is not the only smartphone out there, and the other ones also have apps available, but I am most familiar with the iPhone. If anyone would like to add to the discussion about other smartphones, it would be a great addition from a guest blogger.

Imagine a student has the entire works of William Shakespeare available to them. At first, one might think that said student would have a really large book. Instead, an iPhone is pulled out and this student begins to read Act II of Hamlet. This student could do so anytime, anywhere, and the collection was a free download. Another student works with an interactive of the trigonometric function, while yet another is working with SAT test prep software. Between all of the free and paid apps, there are so many ways that a smartphone can help enhance your instruction.

Areas of use: Across all curricular areas

4. Yodio - Podcasting has become a prevalent practice in education. It is a great way to include digital storytelling in the classroom. More students are able to share the information they learn and create, and teachers are able to get information out to their students in a more readily accessible way. However, many people believe that certain software needs to be available to them in order to create a podcast.

With Yodio, you can create a podcast with nothing more than a phone and any computer with an internet access. First, you will want to set up an account at Yodio so you can start recording. Once your account is set up, you can call from your cell phone, record your audio (as one long podcast or as shorter chunks) which are then saved in your account. Once you are done recording, return to Yodio and create regular or enhanced podcast with photos you can also take with your cell phone. Yodio has even been trying to get a foothold in the education field, and if you contact them, they might be able to set up a plan to allow for you to obtain a number for your students to call to dump information into a central teacher account, as opposed to having each student create an account.

Just imagine if you have students out on a field trip and want them to do some mobile reporting. You could give them the number for the central teacher account and have them phone in their responses at various points throughout the trip. When you return to the classroom the next day, you could have a class report ready to go and listen to as a class so all students can provide different amounts of information to a bigger idea (a great application of reciprocal learning, as we saw in the Classroom Instruction That Works book). 

Areas of use: Across all curricular areas

Of course, using mobile devices in the classroom is still a relatively new idea. If you are looking at using the devices in your classroom, start out small and make sure to have a structure for use set up, including consequences for misuse. Make sure students are aware of their own plans.