"New Toy" Heaven in 2007
As teachers, we often cannot purchase the super gadgets, HDTV's and other "toys" that our business counterparts can afford. I'd like to give you a present of some Free (or almost free) gadgets and toys that you should investigate for your classroom in 2007. Enjoy!
1)PhotoStory
This PC-based Microsoft program is FREE to all users of licensed Microsoft Windows Operating Systems. After a short authentication process, you can download this program. You can import up to 300 photos and then add music, narration, or text in a very easy wizard based interface. It will do the Ken Burns effect which is a cool way that documentaries pan and zoom. Wonderful for simple movie book reports!
When you're done PhotoStory will make a movie (or even write custom music) and produce a movie file.
For my mother, I used this to create photo stories and pulled it onto a DVD burner and made a DVD that played with all of our photos from the vacations from this past summer!
2) Firefox 2
If you are blogging and want to get rid of the IMspeak, you must upgrade to Firefox 2. It has built in spell checker and underlines in red any words that are typed in incorrectly. When you right click on the misspelled word, it suggest a corrected one (if available.) I believe that every class that is blogging or using wikis should use this browser.Note, it only checks boxes where you can type text, not web pages, so it doesn't help with the grading unless you open the student's blog entry in an editable window!
3) Meebo Me Widget
The cool Meebo Me gadget allows you to have virtual office hours on any website. Just sign into meebo and then your Meebo me gadget that you've put on your website will say that you are in. If anyone types something in your box (even when you're offline) it will send you the message when you log into meebo. If you want to keep online office hours, this is a great way to go! Just create it, create an account, and paste the HTML code into your website!4) Google Notebook
This great new tool is a little more intuitive than del.icio.us and I am teaching it to students for Term papers. I think it is a must use. You can collect and share your notebook with others and access it from any computer. It is really a great way to go, particularly for students doing research from multiple computers.5) Google Earth
If you haven't downloaded it, you must do it this year. All history teachers, libraries, literature teachers, and geography teachers MUST have this loaded on their computers!6) Gmail Skype
To join in the professional communities, these tools are heavily used. Skype allows you to listen in on skypecasts (which you can create "on the fly") for up to 100 people at a time. You can also instant message and send files. These are the two tools that Julie Lindsey and I used heavily to coordinate our flat classroom project that just won the 2006 Edublog Award for Best Wiki.One little known fact about gmail is that they do free domain hosting for your e-mail, so if you want to give all of your students (and teachers) free e-mail with great spam filters at your school domain name, you can switch it to Gmail. I will be doing this at our school.
If you go with domain hosting, there are some settings you have to change on your existing computers with e-mail, however.
7) ITunes
My new year's resolution in my class is to record and podcast all of my classes so that students may download all class discussions from iTunes. The students are very excited as am I. It may take a little bit of time but I think the spring sports season will be much better because of it.Of course, the prospect makes me nervous because during 200 minutes or so of conversation a day, someone could find SOMETHING that I did wrong, however, I do not mind being held accountable. I believe that I am doing my best and if something I do is called into question that is fine by me. This is done by the inspirational Mabry Middle School (Look on the right to see and listen to their class podcasts) and when I saw their principal, Dr. Tim Tyson, talking about how they do this, (listen to interview) I really was impressed that it is something I should do.
I am recording with the iRiver Model T30MX 512 MB which costs $40. It will record around 115 hours of time and I hang it around my neck. It has a built in microphone and does a good job of recording (and it follows me around the classroom.) I am in the process of uploading this into iTunes as we speak. (Just look for Westwood Schools under podcasts in the itunes store.)
8) Newsmap
I've talked about this one before but I have as a new years resolution to go to this handy website at least once a day!
What are your favorite New Toys of 2007?
This is a great day for us gadget junkies on a budget. We have a wealth of new, cutting edge tools available to us for free or at a reasonable price.
What are the New Toys of 2007 that you think other teachers need to know about?
Part of being a professional is sharing your experience, so please post a comment including your information and hyperlinks!
Comments
Great info... I always appreciate getting these useful insights.
A tool that I see a lot of merit with is www.yugma.com/.. It is free and very cool!
I also blog about the uses of technology in education in which I focus on new web 2.0 tools. www.smeech.net
I just talked about a few new tools today: joesgoals.com, Fitday.com, and a program called writeroom.
Keep up the great work... thanks!
Posted by: Scott Meech | January 5, 2007 7:42 PM
Vicki,
This is a great blog!I'd like to add a URL for the program that allows you to create a virtual office complete with weather updates, sticky notes, a to do list and available on any computer, www.protopage.com
Also, for a completely different set please go to www.bobsprankle.com/bitbybit for our lastest podcast complete with shownotes http://bobsprankle.com/bitbybit_wordpress/?p=125#more-125
This great podcast is from Bob Sprankle, Alice Barr and Cheryl Oakes reviewing a meeting we had with our Southern Maine Technology Learning Leaders from a project called SEED, Spreading Educators to Educators Development. You will hear about a dozen free programs and a few not so free. Excellent blog, Vicki.
Posted by: Cheryl Oakes | January 6, 2007 1:09 PM
Vicki, This is not about toys because I'm still fascinated with blogs and podcasts. I'd love to learn how to use vodcasts. But here's the question about your post: Is there anything wrong with spelling in IM Speak? If the purpose of spelling is to communicate does it really matter if words are misspelled, or spelled differently as long as communication is clear? By the way I do believe that ideas should be clear and thoughtful. I just don't know if there is a correlation between the quality of ideas and spelling.
Andrew Pass
http://www.Pass-Ed.com/blogger.html
Posted by: Andrew Pass | January 6, 2007 8:08 PM
I so enjoy reading your blogs! I am forever saying thank you to you for sharing your thoughts and fantastic ideas and links to some great stuff out there! I'd still be swimming around my four classroom walls instead of the wide web2.0 ocean if it wasn't for you!
Posted by: nzchrissy | January 7, 2007 9:39 PM
Andrew-
This is the old argument that often stems from the artistic side of things - it is the ideas that count sort of idea. In a collaborative online world many people speak English as a second language. As educators in America, it is our job to teach students to be responsible users of the English language. In a professional or educational context, I do not think IM speak is appropriate just as it is not appropriate for me to use jargon that my readers would not understand in my blog posts. Otherwise, a student invents a word today and uses it because they know what it means. Communicating is about sharing with others and without knowing their level of understanding, we cannot know if IM speak is appropriate. Therefore, in blog posts, etc. in my classroom IM speak is never appropriate unless they were doing a blog post on, well, IM speak itself! Each teacher may have a different take, but I feel strongly about this one. Americans are not the sole possessors of the English language and we must be effective communicators to a global society. That means, learn to use correct english. What students do in their social time is their business, however, and they should be free to write as they wish.
Posted by: Vicki Davis | January 13, 2007 2:11 PM
Can you tell me if this:
"I am recording with the iRiver Model T30MX 512 MB which costs $40. It will record around 115 hours of time and I hang it around my neck. It has a built in microphone and does a good job of recording (and it follows me around the classroom.)"
records as MP3 files and just plugs into the computer without software?????
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