Teacher TechBites ep 019 - AirSketch for iPad

In this episode I show AirSketch a cool whiteboard program that allows you to project what you're doing on your iPad through your classroom projector wirelessly. Basically, what AirSketch does is create a web page that another computer can access. All you need to do is point a web browser at your iPad and then the magic happens. As you write or draw on your iPad the writing appears on the projector. You can be anywhere in your room as long as you have a Wifi connection.

In the free version all you get is a whiteboard with a black pen. In the paid version ($6.99) you can change your pen tool and import pictures or pdf files to write-on/mark up.

Cross posted from TeacherTechBites.com

Teacher TechBites ep 016 - Tracking Student Progress with Google Forms

This year I've started teaching differently. I've embraced a teaching methodology called Modeling Physics. The largest component of this style is Socratic Dialog. Basically, we end up having a lot of class discussion where I ask questions without directly giving answers.

I've started using Google Forms to not only track who I've been calling on, but also what they know. So far it's working well, but I'll know more once I get enough data.





Crossposted from TeacherTechBites.com

Teacher TechBites Ep 015 - Twitter and FlipBoard

So, I got a new toy. It's an iPad. It really has helped me to rediscover Twitter. I've used Twitter on an off for a couple of years, but FlipBoard on my iPad has gotten me addicted to it.

For all the haters out there I need to say it's not about stalking or public exhibition. For me, it's about learning and collaboration. I don't follow people who obsessively tell me what they are doing. I follow people who tweet interesting, relevant stuff. And now I follow them in a really easy to read attractive format. FlipBoard formats my feed in a magazine like format. In short, It rocks! Check it out below.



Crossposted from TeacherTechBites.com

Teacher TechBites ep 014 - Camtasia Mac: Rolling Credits

Last year TechSmith finally released a Mac version of their Camtasia software. I'm here to say it rocks. I far prefer it to iMovie for making videos on my MacBook. Anyway, I'll be creating a series of videos to help new users figure out how to use it. It really is feature rich, but it does seem to be missing some of the bells and whistles you might have gotten used to in iMovie.

One of these "missing" features is rolling credits. In this video I show you how to create your own using the built in tools.





Crossposted from: TeacherTechBites

Teacher TechBites Ep 013 - Wii-Uniboard

So, in episode 12 I showed off Uniboard. In this episode I show that it functions with the Wiimote Whiteboard. This really does make it possible to get most of the functionality of a traditional Interactive Whiteboard at a fraction of the cost.



Cross-posted from teachertechbites.com

Teacher TechBites Episode 012 - Uniboard

Uniboard is basically a whiteboard. That's really all there is to it. I discovered it on my quest to get the coolest parts of an Interactive Whiteboard without the corresponding price tag. At one point I used the Wiimote option, but now I go with the wireless tablet device.

Stuff to Know

• Will respond to pressure sensitive writing
• Has a built in web browser, but you can only write on static pictures of the pages
• Will allow you to record whatever ends up on the whiteboard and audio recorded from a microphone
• Can import power point and pdf files, which you can annotate
• Includes a number of built in Apps and you can build your own apps to use as well
• You can download Flash apps and embed them in your presentations
• Free version has a pop-up on every page. It appears every time you change pages, so if you go back to a previous page it returns.

Cross posted from teachertechbites.com

Teacher TechBitesEpisode 011 - Podcast with Gcast

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Podcasting is the hip new thing. OK, it's not really new, but it is fairly new in education. For more on a description of what podcasting is and some other resources you should check out the page from a summer program I ran (it also includes links to information on copyright). One thing to remember is that podcasting is a very specific word that is often used very generally. Don't sweat it. If you want to make audio or video available on the net then just do it and don't worry if it is technically a podcast or not.

Stuff to know about Gcast

• Gcast is free
• Students can subscribe to your content as a podcast
• You can upload audio files from your computer
• You don't need a computer or an internet connection. You can simply call a toll free number on your phone.
• If you do call in to record audio you have the option of simply storing it for later or letting it go live right away.

What people can/are doing with it

• Daily homework. Just set the number on your speed dial. Then with the touch of a button and a few minutes of talking you're done. Much quicker than logging into Edline and typing it in.
• Put your phone on speaker-phone and conduct interviews.
• Have foreign language students call in and speak in the language. This gives you a chance to listen to how each and every student you have sounds, but you can do it when you have time rather than loosing several teaching days.
• Current events news reporting. A different student could be assigned to summarize current events each day/week.

How do I do it?

• In order to record audio on your computer all you need is a microphone (most laptops have one built in) and some software to do the recording/editing. I recommend Audacity, it's free and easy to use (we'll cover it in a future session).
• If you're using your phone then all you need to do is call 1-888-65-GCAST. If you have your actual phone number entered then all you'll need to do is type in the 4 digit pin number. If you're having students call in then I'd make up a phone number. Students will need the 10 digit phone number and the 4 digit pin.

TeacherTechBites Episode 010 - Free DVD Burning

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Need a sub plan? Don't have a projector? No reliable internet connection at school? Why not burn your videos to a DVD?

DVD Flick is a free program for burning DVDs. It is very easy to use, but like any other DVD creation solution the encoding does take time.

I also recommend trying a test DVD to make sure your burned DVD will play in your classroom prior to counting on it for your day's lesson.

TeacherTechBites Episode 009 - Download Web Video

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teachertechbites.com

I try to never rely on watching streaming internet videos in class. Too many times I've tried and the internet has been slow or down. So now I download the videos to my computer if I can.

Stuff to Know

• Not all streaming videos can be downloaded
• You may need to a special player to play the video you download

Two Ways to do it

• DownloadHelper - Firefox extension. WARNING: The DownloadHelper folks try to help out their users and have compiled a list of popular sites for downloading video. You should know that many (not all) of the sites on this list are porn sites. I really like DownloadHelper. It works very well and I've had no problems with it.
• Video Bookmarklet - Should be usable in any browser. Just go to the page and follow the instructions. You will end up with a bookmark that you can click when you're on a page with video.

I've got the video, now what?

• File Format - There are many different file formats that videos can be saved as. Most of these can be opened with Windows Media Player which will already be on your computer (unless you have a Mac of course). However, the most common format for web video is not playable in Media player so you'll need another program. I recommend VLC. VLC will play the flash video format that most web videos are save in.
• Burn to a DVD - If you want a pretty bomb proof lesson you'll burn the web video to a DVD. That way it will be usable in virtually any classroom and you can even give it to a Sub. You will of course need software to do this and a DVD burner. There are some free programs out there for creating DVD's. I've used DVD Flick and it seems to work pretty well. Some people might be concerned that web video won't look very good on a DVD. Well, you're right, but it looks at least as good as those aging VHS tapes many of us rely on year to year.

TeacherTechBites Episode 008 - Mp3tag

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Sorry I've been out for awhile. School's been very busy. Enough about that, on with the tech bite.

So, I've already shared Super for video conversion. You may have noticed that Super writes metadata to your files. Metadata is the stuff that shows up in your media player that includes things like artist, genre, album, year and such. If you're making audio or video files for your class you may want to change this information.

Mp3tag is a free program that lets you do just that. It's very easy to use and lets you add a little polish to your files. I use it because my files need all the polish they can get.

http://www.mp3tag.de/en/

Episode 007 - Video Conversion with Super

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I often get the question of, "I downloaded this video from YouTube, how do I play it on my iPod?" Or, "I created this video, but it's huge. How can I make it smaller?"

The program I use for both of these is Super. Super is a great tool for converting videos. It will convert just about any form of video into any other format. One of the cool bits is the list of presets. Just select the one for your device (like iPod, PSP, Sony Ericsson) and all of the settings will be just right.

Or, if you know more than me, you can tweak your video codec choice and internal encoders (I have no idea what this means).

Anyway, You can get it from the official download site, but I don't recommend this. You have to search and search for the link (it's on the third page you have to click through). Or you can Google it and download it from somewhere else.

It works great in Windows XP, I haven't tried it in Vista yet.

Episode 006 - Tabbed Browsing

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What is tabbed browsing? All modern web browsers allow for something called tabbed browsing. This allows you to open links as "tabs" within the same window. It is more efficient than opening links in new windows, plus you can bookmark groups of tabs and open them all at the same time.

Anyway, I'm having trouble describing it, it is much easier to understand when you see it

Episode 005 - Olympic Coverage

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I've been hearing about it for days so I decided I should check it out. I wish I had earlier. NBC is putting up loads of high quality Olympic videos on their website (www.nbcolympics.com).

• The videos are very high quality
• There are no annoying announcers
• You can get events that would never be broadcast, due to lack of interest or no strong American participants
• You can watch many events live while they happen
• You can also watch some events as they were broadcast on TV if you happen to like the annoying announcers

You will have to install Silverlight (a plugin by Microsoft for streaming web video) if you haven't previously. It is painless and installs quickly. Once this is done you're ready to go! If you're interested in the Olympics you should definitely give this a look. Hopefully they'll keep the videos up after the games are over!

TeacherTechBites Episode 004 - Hulu.com

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Well, we can't work all the time. Last spring I discovered Hulu. Hulu is a a site owned by NBC. It hosts streaming versions of some of the most popular TV shows. Additionally, it has many older shows as well. For new shows Hulu typically has the last five episodes, for older shows it often has the complete run! It also has a number of full length movies. Nothing brand new of course, but there's plenty of good stuff.

How much does it cost? Nothing, it's totally free. There are commercials, however. But, there is only one (rarely two) commercial per commercial break and they last 30 seconds at most (many are only 15 sec.)

Of course, if you must find educational value in everything you'll find some here as well. Hulu has added several science documentaries as well.

I love Hulu. It offers high quality video and the shot commercial breaks mean I don't spend as much time watching TV.

For more go to TeacherTechBites.com

TeacherTechBites Episode 003 - TipCam for Screencasting

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Many people are put off by the idea of creating screencasts. Most think it takes expensive software that is hard to use. Today I'm showing the program I use in Windows called TipCam. It's totally free, you can download it from http://www.utipu.com/

By default it recods in flv format. What's this mean? Most video sharing sites convert uploaded videos into a flash video (flv) format for streaming on the internet.

Cool functions include:

• The ability to zoom in on your video to higlight some point (although it doesn't look zoomed while recording)
• A pen tool for drawing on the screen while recording
• You can upload to YouTube directly from TipCam
• TipCam includes a flv player, so if you download any videos from YouTube (future episode) you can play them with TipCam

Now that said, there are not a lot of user configurable settings. If you like easy to use software then this is a good thing. If you're a serious power user then you might not like this program.

I've only really had one problem with TipCam so far and that was it would not record the screen in one program (Phun) I was playing with. So I had to use Snag-It instead.

TeacherTech Bites Ep 2 - Online-Stopwatch

Today's tool is very simple and very useful. It was first pointed out to me by Ben Rimes over at The Tech Savvy Educator. It is Online-Stopwatch.com. Basically it's a stopwatch or a count down timer. I find online stopwatch very useful when trying to keep either myself or my students on task.

When we break up into groups to do a lab or a problems solving activity many students lack a sense or urgency. All I need to do to get them really moving is start up the countdown timer and turn my laptop so it is viewable by the class. Anyway, you should give it a look.

Teacher Tech Bites

I have to be crazy. I've started another new online presence for myself. Why do I keep adding new projects when I have a hard time keeping up with the ones I do already? Anyway, I've decided to try to create a video podcast that will be updated regularly (hopefully twice a week).

My focus is simple tools or tips related to technology. These can be for improving our craft as teachers or for making our lives easier or more enjoyable. The videos will be short. I'm trying to keep them under 5 minutes and focused to a single tool/topic. I'm also planning on doing them in one take with little to no post editing. This means they may end up being a little rough.

I have a dedicated blog for them at TeacherTechBites.com, but I'm planning on cross posting them here as well. You will find my first episode below.

In my first Teacher Tech Bite I'm sharing a cool tool that I've been looking for for a while. I use both Mac and Windows computers. I love presenting with my Mac because it has a great zoom function. I just place my cursor and then hit a quick key and everything near my cursor is magnified and totally readable by my audience. I get asked all the time if there's a way to do this on Windows. Until recently I always said no.

Enter ZoomIt. ZoomIt allows me to quickly zoom in on any spot on my computer. It is particularly useful for urls. In addition to the zoom function it also has a pen tool. So, I can mark up anything I'm looking at as well. It does all this as a svelt 145 kb application. This has become my new favorite must have windows application.